Old Daniel Perez News Today

>> reporter: at sedgwick county district court in wichita, kansas. >> "you must determine whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty." >> reporter: daniel perez, aka lou castro, went on trial. he was charged with the first-degree murder of trish hughes. with sexual crimes including child exploitation, and fraud. eventually 28 counts in all. there were no charges in any of the other mysterious deaths. emily and sara would both testify, at the time not wanting to make public their identities, a...

Ron goodwyn was scarcely able to take in the story of the cult, and the occult, at angels landing. sisters emily and sara recounted that lou castro, whose real name was daniel perez, had brainwashed them into believing that he was a seer, and that he took on the personalities of dark manipulative angels who could predict someones death. they said they believed it really happened. eight months after castros arrest, emily at last took the detective back to 2003, and the tragic death of trish hughe...

Live a life like he wants to live. he will stop at nothing, including, you know, murder and rape. and he didnt stop at anything to get what he wanted. >> reporter: after the investigators presented all their evidence to the da, they waited until castro had completed his 2-year federal prison sentence, then they immediately rearrested him and he ended up being charged with 28 counts: first-degree murder, child exploitation as well as multiple counts of sexual crimes and fraud. kansas v daniel per...

Her daughter lindsey; the death of brian hughes under a collapsed vehicle; that inexplicable head-on tragedy in which saras and emilys mom jennifer died? and trish hughess drowning. as the investigators called everyone with links to castro, the phone trail took goodwyn to south texas. >> it took us to south texas because patricia hughes the victim in the drowning was from beeville, texas. >> reporter: goodwyn questioned trishs family and a sister recalled trish had gone with a guy way back when....

Didnt know and tell them all of these terrible things in terribly, graphic detail that had happened when i was 10. >> reporter: and there were more witnesses, another four young women from three states, alleged victims unaware of one another, agreeing that lou castro claimed malevolent angels were controlling him as he assaulted them sexually. >> reporter: so the m.o. of -- >> yes. >> reporter: attacking his victims was similar. >> they didnt know each other. >> thousands of miles apart. >> and ...

Castro. but now we, of course, knew he was daniel perez. >> reporter: we got our guy here? >> yes. >> reporter: lou castro was daniel perez born in aransas pass, texas in 1959. the records showed daniel perez had pleaded no contest to two sex crimes in the mid 1990s. but the cases had been dismissed because he was believed to be dead. and the person believed in south texas to have been dead for many years wasnt dead because you saw him in wichita. youd seen him driving his corvettes. >> thats ri...

Multiple life insurance policies, and he moves through several states so that he can satisfy his own sexual appetite. >> "we do call daniel perez." >> reporter: daniel perez was about to take the stand and tell the court that it had all been a big misunderstanding. next, youll hear him speak directly to us. coming up. >> mr. perez, i described you as cult leader and child rapist. who are you? >> when "dateline" continues. e"s

And lindsey who died in the plane crash, brian hughes, the mechanic who was killed under a collapsed vehicle, and emilys and saras mother whod died in a car crash, all had two things in common. daniel perez had predicted each of their deaths and each had juicy life insurance policies. payouts totaling $4.2 million were made to commune members perez controlled. >> reporter: and it seemed, whenever the coffers were running low, someone would die, and there would be a big insurance payoff. was it t...