Defendant in KC prayer-group murder says his confession was tainted by 'exorcism'

Attorneys for a Kansas City man who confessed to killing the wife of his prayer group leader, wants his confession excluded from his trial stating he confessed to police immediately following an exorcism to expel his demons.

According to attorneys for Micah Moore, 25, their client recanted his confession that he had killed Bethany Deaton after getting some sleep, reports the Associated Press.

Moore and Deaton were part of a roughly 20-member prayer group who moved to the Kansas City area from Texas to become a part of the International House of Prayer University, an evangelical Christian organization focused on missions and preparing for the end times.

Deaton's body was discovered in her locked minivan in 2012. According to authorities Deaton was found with a loosely tied bag over her head, a suicide note, and empty 100-count bottle of acetaminophen. Although initially ruled a suicide, the case was reopened when Moore, accompanied by several prayer group members, went to police and confessed to killing the woman.

Moore made his confession after attending an evening prayer session where members of the IHOP-affiliated group called Prisoners of Hope put "their hands on the cult members, shouting at demons to leave and scream-praying in tongues, soon had many in the group crying and yelling and falling to the floor," said his attorneys.

As part of his confession Moore told investigators that the woman's husband, Tyler Deaton, had ordered him to kill Bethany to keep her from revealing group secrets, including the fact that Tyler Deaton was having sexual relations with male members of the group.

However, according to Moore's attorneys, Bethany Deaton was a troubled woman whose husband of two months had rejected her physical advances and that she was shunned by the rest of the group, driving her to suicide.

In the motion to strike the confession, Moore's attorneys wrote, "At a time when she had been physically rejected in the most humiliating way a woman can be rejected, she was also being socially rejected."