Rabbi/Pastor Isaac David Heckman Found Guilty On Two Counts Of Felony Assault
After a week-long trial, a jury found that the Wenatchee-based leader of the Assembly of Called Out Believers strangled and beat his ex-girlfriend, breaking her rib in the process
The trial of Isaac David Heckman in Chelan County Superior Court got off to a rocky start on Tuesday, June 25 after Chelan County Assistant Prosecutor Chad Jenks arrived late with three supplemental reports and a request to enter them into evidence.
Chelan County Superior Court Judge Travis Brandt said the request was “beyond the pale” as he dressed Jenks down. In criminal proceedings like this evidence used in the trial is submitted to the court months and even years in advance, and the defense council is given adequate time to review and prepare to respond to it.
“The court is frustrated,” Brandt said. “Because I don’t understand how this can possibly happen in a professional setting.”
Brandt ruled that the reports would not be entered into evidence and warned Jenks and the Chelan County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office that he didn’t want to see something like this in his court again.
“Hopefully it’s not systemic, but it’s not the first time this has happened,” he said.
After that Brandt told the bailiff to bring in the jury and the trial began.
Heckman, 50, was on trial on three charges of assault in the second degree, which are class B felonies in Washington state. Each count could carry a punishment of up to 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine, and mandatory community service. But a first-time conviction without a weapons enhancement usually results in 3–9 months in jail.
However, according to the prosecution a gun was involved in this case.
In his opening statement, Jenks outlined that case for the jury.
In 2019 a woman named Maria Burnetto, an Italian immigrant residing in San Diego, California, started watching videos of Heckman’s ministry on YouTube.
“She came across his videos in 2019. Putting himself out there as some type of rabbi,” Jenks told the jury.
She reached out to him on social media and the two struck up an online conversation that lasted for months before he decided to visit her in San Diego. What happened next Heckman and Brunetto disagree on. When she took the stand she testified that they had sex while he was there but when he took the stand he said he only went to help her paint her house.
What is irrefutable however is that shortly after Heckman’s visit Brunetto came to live in Washington.
According to Jenks, Brunetto moved in with Heckman in his fifth-wheel travel trailer in Dryden because the two had a romantic relationship. They lived together for about a year and during the relationship, Burnetto said Heckman became controlling and sometimes violent. She accused him of beating and strangling her on more than one occasion. Twice he choked her until she passed out.
On the stand Tuesday, she recalled her last thoughts before she lost consciousness one of those times.
“Well that’s it, I’m going to die,” she said.
Sobbing at times, Burnetto recounted an instance in which Heckman allegedly beat her, put his foot on her face and kneeled on her chest until she said she heard one of her ribs break. She said once after he discovered texts between her and her father in which he thought the man was calling him “stupid” in Italian he beat her and locked in his trailer all night, not allowing her to drink water, use the bathroom, watch TV or have access to her phone.
On another occasion, she said he pointed a shotgun at her and said, “I could kill you with this.”
Heckman is the “Rabbi/Pastor” and leader of the Assembly of Called Out Believers headquartered in the Wenatchee Valley.
On the stand, Heckman described his faith tradition as a “middle road” between Christianity and Judaism. He said he was raised observing the Jewish high holy days and learning Hebrew, but he and other Messianic Jews believe that Jesus Christ, or “Yeshua,” is the son of God.
Most Jewish authority figures, both in the United States and Israel, consider the faith tradition a part of Evangelical Christianity.
Heckman was the last witness to take the stand, and Jenks started by questioning him about his credentials and training as a religious leader.
“What do you consider yourself, a rabbi?” Jenks asked.
“Yes,” Heckman replied.
Jenks asked him to outline his educational experience, which does not include a certification or degree from any rabbinical school or divinity college.
Then Jenks went into a line of questioning about how Heckman found an audience online and how he earns an income.
While Heckman’s local congregation is quite small, between 50-100 before Covid-19, after the pandemic hit his online presence grew to more than 50,000 subscribers on YouTube.
“You said you’ve got like 10 million views?” Jenks asked.
“Over,” Heckman said.
Jenks asked if he receives donations from the folks who follow him online. Heckman said yes.
“You’ve actually made quite a bit of money from donations, have you not?” Jenks asked.
Heckman said no, and that he’s probably given more to the church than he has taken from it over the years.
Jenks then referenced a financial document from 2021 that shows Heckman collected $162,000 in donations that year. Heckman said that was correct, but most of that went to pay for a mobile dental unit to benefit the underserved and he saw very little of it personally.
Heckman’s lawyer, Nick Yedinack, objected to the line of questioning but Jenks defended his reasoning saying that Heckman has a financial interest in keeping his followers in the dark about what they would probably deem immoral behavior from a religious leader.
A big part of Heckman’s defense rested in the attempt to cast Burnetto a woman scorned who was out to get the man who refused to marry her and give her a child. According to Heckman, the two never had a romantic relationship and she never lived with him.
“It wasn’t a romantic relationship,” he said. “It was an act of kindness.”
Then Jenks presented a photo of the two taking a selfie at Peshastin Pinnacles State Park, looking a lot like romantic partners.
“She caught you by surprise with this kiss?” Jenks asked.
“Yes,” Heckman said.
During A Break, Heckman’s Neighbors Weigh In
For most of the trial, the only folks in the courtroom besides the judge, jury, lawyers and county staff were an elderly couple and me. Their names are Dwyane and Donna Roduner and during a break in the proceedings on day two I asked them why they were attending the trial, and if they thought Heckman is guilty.
“Oh yes, we know he is. We’ve known it for a long time,” they said.
You can listen to that interview here:
The Jury Decides
The members of the jury didn’t believe Heckman either, but they took a long time to deliver the verdict.
The 12 jurors went into deliberations around 3:30 on Thursday, but it was almost 24 hours later before they handed down guilty verdicts on two of the three charges against Heckman.
“We felt that he lied about everything. Mostly he lied about them being in an intimate relationship,” one juror said after the proceedings. “We could definitely tell that there was a relationship.”
That juror spoke on the condition of anonymity after the trial had concluded, saying she didn’t want Heckman to retaliate.
When asked if she thinks Heckman is a cult leader, she said yes.
“Or he has two personalities,” she said. “I felt like he’s really good at that and he really does believe that but I also feel like he’s got this dark side and she was his dirty little secret. So I think it could be two things.”
You can listen to my full interview with that juror here:
Heckman In His Own Words
After the guilty verdict, Heckman was placed in handcuffs and escorted to Chelan County Regional Jail. Judge Brandt set his bail at $100,000, a member of the Assembly of Called Out Believers posted it for him, and within a few hours he was standing in my office.
He said he is the victim of a years-long “slanderous smear campaign” orchestrated by Brunetto and a friend of hers who convinced authorities in Chelan County that he was some heavily armed “cult leader.” It’s that belief that led the Chelan County Sheriff’s deputies to use “excessive force” during his arrest back in 2021, according to him.
He said deputies rammed his vehicle from behind and in front and shots were fired during his arrest, even though he was unarmed and did nothing to resist. He believes that he had a case against the CCSO for that, which is why Chelan County was so keen to convict him of these crimes and therefore exonerate the sheriff’s office in their decision to treat him like a major threat.
Heckman said Brunetto has a history of mental health problems as well as a history of accusing former partners of violence and became fixated on him in an unhealthy way. And he said she’s not the only woman to do so. After the pandemic hit and he gained an international following, unstable people came out of the woodwork.
“With my videos coming online these people became obsessed,” he said.
Referencing the famous line: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” Heckman said he never identified with or fully understood the saying until now.
He maintained that Brunetto never lived with him and they never had a romantic relationship, and gave me a four-page document outlining the chronology of events and his side of the story.
“She has claimed to be a domestic partner to add weight to her false accusations but she never lived with me and we were never physically intimate,” he wrote.
You can read his “affidavit of truth and declarations concerning this case” here.
As for what he’s going to do next he said he’s not sure.
Heckman’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 17.
I believe her 1000%. Men think we find some joy in accusing them, he’s a freaking fake rabbi. You think she enjoyed putting her sex life on public record and detailing PTSD events in a public court in front of strangers, allowing anyone to pull script from this case? Allowing her full name out there in the open? No. That woman is BRAVE. AND IM PROUD OF HER. great reporting Dominic
The quote is "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Interesting that he showed up at your office !?! Yikes.