Human cloning, celebrity couple’s kidnap plot come up in Fresno arson-murder investigation

The man charged with setting fire to his family’s Fresno home and killing his niece and nephew told an arson investigator he did it because he wanted to draw attention to human cloning experiments.

Filimon Robert Hurtado also told the investigator he was abducted by a celebrity couple.

Hurtado was in court Monday for his preliminary hearing before Judge Michael Idiart. The judge ruled there was enough evidence for Hurtado to face a jury trial on two counts of murder, attempted murder and arson.

During the hearing, prosecutor Daniel Walters used recorded interviews with the arson investigator and a homicide detective to show that Hurtado was well aware of what he had done.

Hurtado could face the death penalty, if convicted. That decision, however, hasn’t been made by the Fresno County District Attorney.

His defense attorneys Tomas Kunder and Maribel Romo focused on what could be an issue in his upcoming trial, Hurtado’s mental state at the time of the May 3 fire.

According to testimony, the 29-year-old construction worker spoke to law enforcement about a bizarre abduction plot involving actress Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi, Jon Bon Jovi’s son.

In a recorded conversation with Nathan Dansby, a Fresno Fire Department arson investigator, Hurtado said he was abducted by the celebrity couple at a hookah lounge.

Kunder asked Dansby if he got the sense that Hurtado was talking about alien abduction?

“I had no idea what he was talking about,” Dansby testified.

Hurtado is accused of setting fire to his brother’s home near Dakota and Brawley avenues west of Highway 99.

“My goal was to tell people that human cloning is real and that they may swap me out anytime,” Hurtado said during a recorded interview with investigators. “The task needed to be done.”

Hurtado lived in the home along with his brother, his brother’s wife and their two children, 5-month-old Calyx Hurtado and his 18-month old sister, Cataleya Hurtado.

Also seriously injured was the children’s 32-year-old mother.

Hurtado admitted to using gasoline to light a sofa on fire in the living room and on a rug in the hallway, near the door of the master bedroom.

He also poured gasoline on the mother of the children as she tried to escape. She made it as far as the front lawn where she collapsed.

Hurtado told Dansby he could hear the children screaming and calling for help.

Dansby asked him if he wanted to help them get out or if he got satisfaction knowing they would perish and he said, no.

“I never wanted any of this to happen,” he told Dansby. “I never asked for this, they just took me.”

Hurtado’s next court appearance is Nov. 1.

This story was originally published October 17, 2022 at 5:46 PM.

Robert Rodriguez

The Fresno Bee

(559) 441-6327

A Valley native, Robert has worked at The Fresno Bee since 1994, covering various topics including education, business, courts and agriculture.