Man accused of killing two babies in fire says in recorded prison conversation: 'I did something stupid'

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A Fresno County jury heard the own words of Filimon Hurtado, a double murder and arson defendant, on Wednesday as prosecutors played a recorded phone call from jail. Action News cannot play the recording but can reproduce portions of the transcript.

“I made a mistake,” Hurtado said from the Fresno County Jail. “I did something stupid.”

“There's no turning back from this,” Hurtado's father replied. “The little babies are gone… I don't know what the hell you were thinking… You crossed the line,” the father said.

Hurtado asked: “Do you hate me?”

“You’re a young guy and you just threw everything away,” his father replied in part.

“Is that a true and accurate call from jail that you made that corresponds to a conversation with the defendant and his father that occurred on or about July 16, 2022?” prosecutor Daniel Walters asked the investigator on the witness stand. “Yes,” said Danielle Isaac, an investigator with the Fresno County District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors allege Hurtado set fire to this single-family home in downtown West Fresno in May 2022. The fire killed Hurtado's one-year-old niece and five-month-old nephew.

“The fire – where the children are, everything looks black,” said Nathan Dansby, a Fresno Fire Department investigator. “Even with the children on it, the mattress is black.”

The fire also injured the children's mother, who was engulfed in flames as she ran across the street to get help from a neighbor.

Hurtado has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder and arson. His public defenders say Hurtado was insane in the spring of 2022, when he set the fatal fire, and had stopped taking his medication for bipolar disorder.

On Wednesday, Hurtado's lawyers questioned investigator Isaac at length about how much the recorded phone call actually reveals about Hurtado.

“Who do you think would do the most talking when reviewing this phone call?” asked public defender Roy Park. “Probably the father,” Isaac said.

“And most of Filimon's answers are something like 'yes'?” Park asked. “Yes,” Isaac replied.

On Wednesday, prosecutors used Hurtado's words in court for the second time.

On Tuesday, jurors heard Hurtado describe being “kidnapped,” “cloned” and “teleported” in a video he posted on YouTube the day before the fire.

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