Prosecutors outlined a tale of demons, death and attempted resurrection Monday during opening statements of a child-murder trial that promises to be among the strangest the Baltimore City Circuit Court has ever seen, because of both its substance and its style.

The three defendants, all alleged to be cult members, have declined attorneys and are representing themselves against charges they starved a willful baby to death because he wouldn't say "amen" after meals.

The trial is expected to involve testimony from the child's mother, who prayed over his body for days in the hopes he would come back to life.

"This is going to be something of a unique circumstance for all of us," Judge Timothy J. Doory warned the newly seated jury Monday afternoon, shortly before Assistant State's Attorney Julie Drake took the floor.

In a slow and steady voice, Drake listed the characters and their roles as the state sees it.

It all started in 2006, when Javon Thompson was still a happy baby, about seven months old, and his mother moved in with a religious group based in Baltimore to get away from some responsibilities. Ria Ramkissoon was a single mother in school and apparently overwhelmed and unhappy at home, where a contentious relationship with her stepfather was wearing on her.

With the religious group, Drake said, she didn't have to do anything but follow the rules: wear certain colors, give up personal belongings, take orders. Those were set by Toni Sloan, the group's leader, known as Queen Antoinette.

Sloan was "so obsessed with her own power and control over other people that she couldn't tolerate any [disobedience], even from a 16-month-old baby," Drake said, accusing Sloan of giving the order to starve the so-called defiant - and therefore demonic - toddler in early 2007.

She is charged with first-degree murder, while the other two defendants are charged with second-degree murder.

"Princess" Trevia Williams is Sloan's biological daughter. She made sure Javon's mother did not feed him on the sly, Drake said, and that he was handed back to Ramkissoon in time to die in her arms. Williams and defendant "Prince" Marcus Cobbs are said to have wrapped the child's body in a blanket and put it in a suitcase, so the group could transport it out of the state. Javon's mummified remains were eventually discovered in Pennsylvania, stored in a shed.

"These three, Queen Antoinette and her two top aides, orchestrated Javon's death and the bizarre cover-up that followed," Drake said.

While Drake spoke, Sloan furrowed her brow or openly laughed at the prosecutor's claims. Yet she refused to address the jury herself Monday, reserving her opening statement for another time. Her daughter stood, instead.

Minutes passed before Williams spoke, and she had to be repeatedly reminded to speak up. At one point, several jurors beckoned her closer to them. She repeated some of the state's assertions, questioned how they could have secreted a body without discovery and urged the jury to "pay attention to the details."

"You'll have to judge for yourselves," she said. "All I ask is that you pay attention to the details."

Cobbs, who fired his attorney last week, hinted that the boy's death might not have been the result of starvation, even though it was "consistent" with such a circumstance, and said he expected the truth to set them free.

"Truth and nothing but the truth is what shall prevail," he said.