SF Gate
April 8, 2025
Five members of the so-called Zizians cult appeared in courtrooms across the country Tuesday morning, with some facing charges connected to a string of violence across America that has left six dead.
In Solano Superior Court in Fairfield, Alexander Leatham and Suri Dao face charges of murder, attempted murder and aggravated mayhem stemming from a 2022 melee that left one member of their group dead and then-80-year-old Vallejo landlord Curtis Lind fighting for his life.
Lind, the sole remaining eyewitness to the 2022 attack, was killed in a separate knife attack in January, just weeks before he could testify in this case. Oxford-educated Maximilian Snyder, also allegedly a cult member, has been charged with Lind’s killing, a case also playing out in Solano County.
The hearing Tuesday morning immediately descended into chaos when armed officers attempted to bring Leatham into the courtroom. Handcuffed and in a wheelchair, Leatham loudly read from a piece of paper, talking over Judge John B. Ellis. At a fast clip, she loudly and repeatedly alleged that an officer told her she “deserved to be shot for being transgender while he had a gun and I was in chains.”
“The court has been hormonally detransitioning me for quarter of a decade as part of a state-sponsored conversion therapy program,” she said. “I am not suicidal. I have never been suicidal.”
Before Leatham could even be brought into the courtroom, the judge ordered her to be taken to an isolation room where she could appear over camera but also be muted, if needed. “If defendant Leatham can’t behave herself, she can be moved to the isolation booth,” Ellis said.
This is not the first time Leatham has caused controversy in court. In a prior appearance in March, Leatham, a 29-year-old transgender woman from Agoura Hills, created a spectacle by wrestling with court officers from her wheelchair and repeatedly yelling, “This is a show trial to coordinate the genocide of transgender people” until she was removed.
The second defendant, Dao, on the other hand, appeared on Zoom in a blue blouse and glasses and spoke politely when asked to confirm her presence and other details. In the gallery, a handful of supporters appeared to be there for the defendants. One attempted to wave at Dao through the camera.
The hearing was adjourned early — not due to Leatham’s outburst but because a defense attorney had broken her foot in an accident over the weekend. The next hearing is set for April 22 in Fairfield at 9 a.m.
In 2022, Lind was the owner of a parcel of land on a dead-end street near the Napa River in Vallejo. Lind rented the property at 633 Third St. to a group of data scientists and fringe rationalists, who lived there in box trucks that had been kitted out for computer programming by the group. The tenants, who numbered over 20 at times, were often referred to as a “cult” by neighbors and were reportedly seen walking around in the nude, talking to themselves and wearing gas masks.
In the fall of 2022, Lind and some of the tenants were reportedly in conflict over their refusal to pay rent. On Nov. 13, Lind was summoned to the property by a group member to look at a water leak and then allegedly was ambushed in the knife attack that left him without an eye. Leatham is accused of impaling Lind with a samurai sword, and Dao was also involved in the attack, prosecutors say. During the attack, Lind pulled his gun and shot Leatham and another Zizian, Emma Borhanian, who died at the scene. Dao and Leatham have been charged with the murder of Borhanian, as prosecutors argue that their actions that day led to her death.
Three thousand miles away on Tuesday morning, Zizians leader Jack “Ziz” LaSota appeared alongside Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank, facing charges related to their February arrest in Maryland. The three were allegedly discovered in a residential neighborhood in Frostburg attempting to live on a property with their box truck. A neighbor called police to report they were trespassing, unaware the three were linked to a nationwide manhunt. They’ve been charged with a variety of misdemeanors, ranging from possession of a gun to trespassing and obstruction.
On Tuesday, LaSota, Blank and Zajko appeared in Allegany County Circuit Court for a hearing. On March 19, LaSota and Zajko were charged with additional gun crimes, including possessing a loaded handgun and attempting to buy or sell an assault weapon, both misdemeanors. They also face previously filed charges of trespassing and resisting arrest, among other misdemeanors.
All three are being held without bond and are due next in court on Aug. 19 for a status hearing.
The fringe group of radical Berkeley pseudo-intellectuals known as the Zizians largely consists of highly educated former tech workers who became disillusioned with the Bay Area and were drawn to Berkeley’s rationalist movement and the threat of artificial intelligence. Unable to pay rent, or hold down jobs, some members attempted to live on boats and in communal homes as they spent their days online, distrustful of the outside world. Around a dozen individuals appear to have in-person links to LaSota. Some worked at NASA and Google before the arrests began.
Many of them advocate for veganism and identify as transgender. Outside of the Vallejo killings, law enforcement has linked the Zizians to the double homicide of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania and a deadly shootout in Vermont that left a Border Patrol agent and another group member dead. The members’ extensive writings online also allege kill orders, torture and sexual abuse within the group.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/zizians-cult-bay-area-court-appearance-20264934.php
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