Alleged Cultists Held in Defacing of Church : Crime: Police say the four suspects vandalized Glendale’s First United Methodist Church on Feb. 26. Authorities confiscate weapons and satanic artifacts.

Standing before an AK-47 carbine, four knives, a skull and two electric guitars seized from an alleged satanic cult, authorities Monday announced the arrest of four men suspected of defacing a local church.

The alleged cult members--two 18-year-olds, a 19-year-old and a 31-year-old--idolized Charles Manson and “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez, and some were members of Ritual, a so-called “black metal” band, Glendale Police Sgt. Jim Lowrey said.

“This is way past a childish prank. This is serious satanic stuff,” Lowrey said. “There’s a ‘Helter Skelter’ mentality here,” he said, referring to a Beatles song that purportedly inspired the Manson family’s crime orgy in the late 1960s.

Police said the four alleged satanists spray-painted the First United Methodist Church of Glendale on Feb. 26. The church was defaced by 29 spray-painted anti-Christian symbols and slogans, many in Latin.

Officer Todd Stokes said the satanists left behind a spray-paint can and other equipment from which police obtained their fingerprints. Tipsters also helped police locate the suspects, he said.

Stokes said the defacing was to be “one of their original outings, to make a statement to the world of who they were.”

“These folks picked the wrong church, in the wrong community, at the wrong time,” said the Rev. Philip Woods, the church’s pastor. “We all felt it was a left-handed compliment. We felt we must be doing something right to get this sort of response.”

Police say they don’t know why the group targeted the church. Woods had been a pastor in San Gabriel, home of two of the suspects, but Woods said he did not know them.

Dennis Clark, 31, of Pasadena; Robert Allen Nusslein, 19, of Silver Lake, and Phillip Michael Dunigan and Damian James Chavez, both 18, of San Gabriel, were arrested late last week at their residences, after a monthlong investigation by the Glendale Police Department’s gang and special investigations units. Authorities said the probe involved heavy surveillance, including following the group on road trips from Ventura County to the Mexican border.

The suspects all had satanic artifacts and altars in their residences, Stokes said. In Chavez’s apartment, where he lives with his parents, police said they found the AK-47, a homemade shotgun and a diagram to construct a machine gun.

Police showed reporters a door covered with swastikas and racist scrawls--”NAACP Sucks” was among the mildest--which they said was the door to Nusslein’s bedroom. Also on the door is a red streak of what police said appears to be blood, and a list of “People to Kill,” which includes “Scott’s Mom,” Pope John Paul II and Woods.

Police said that although the suspects had a sizable weapons collection, which also included a meat cleaver, a baseball bat spiked with nails and a garrote, it was not known whether they were planning to injure people.

“What were those guys planning to do with those weapons?” Sgt. Lowrey asked. “I wish I knew.”

Stokes said the suspects, who were trying to form a type of satanic organization known as a “Black Circle,” had survivalist notions, and believed Christianity to be corrupt. He said that while they may be associated with other satanists, these four are the only ones responsible for the vandalism.

Stokes added that he does not think the same group carried out the defacing of a Glendale Jewish temple last year with orange swastikas.

Also found were pornographic photographs and drawings, police said. They said they are investigating whether the subjects of the photographs posed willingly.

Nusslein and Dunigan were both charged with felony vandalism and committing a hate crime, and are being held on $200,000 bail. Chavez was charged with unlawfully possessing an assault weapon, and is being held on $70,000 bail.

Clark has not yet been charged, prosecutors said, because there is still insufficient evidence to tie him to the crime. He was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism.

Nusslein, the only one of the suspects to be arraigned so far, pleaded not guilty late Monday.

“This affirms that this community will not tolerate these kinds of acts,” Glendale Mayor Eileen Givens said. “We will work together to make sure these kinds of incidents will not happen, or if they do happen, will be followed up vigorously.”