A woman who once lived with three accused cult leaders testified Thursday that they had her involuntarily committed to a mental hospital to keep her quiet about a toddler's starvation death.

Danielle Smith, 26, said she tried to alert neighbors to the boy's food deprivation, which began as punishment for refusing to say "amen" after prayer, but couldn't because she was not allowed to be alone with outsiders.

She said she left a vague hint scrawled across one wall -- the sentence, "We love our children" -- before the group put her out of its New York City apartment, where they had moved after the 16-month-old, emaciated child died in Baltimore. A day later, they escorted her to the psychiatric ward of Kings County Hospital Center.

"The people at the hospital thought I was crazy," Smith said. Yet, she was able to tell her story to police and a New York child protective agency, where a case worker believed her, leading to the group's eventual arrest.

Smith said she lived with the group because they convinced her that her own mother was a "witch" and that her family did not properly follow the Bible. She was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The alleged cult leaders -- Toni Sloan, who's known in court as Queen Antoinette, 41; her daughter, Trevia Williams, 22; and Marcus Cobbs, 23 -- have been charged with murder in the death of baby Javon Thompson, who belonged to another young woman who was also led to believe her mother was evil.

The defendants are representing themselves in Baltimore City Circuit Court, where witnesses have said the small group used Bible scripture to encourage adherence to a bizarre list of rules that allowed children to fast and use marijuana, but prevented anyone from wearing colors other than tan, blue or white.

Queen Antoinette believed she did not have "to abide by certain laws of the land," Smith testified, because the religious leader, who christened herself "Queen," was beholden only to God.