Setbacks delay ‘Zizian’ attempted murder trial confirmations

VALLEJO, Calif. (CN) — Two defendants connected to the anti-AI group known as Zizians, who are charged and awaiting trial for the attempted murder of their landlord, made appearances in Solano County Superior Court on Monday, with one needing to be removed for continually shouting and one unresponsive in a wheelchair.

Alexander Jeffrey Leatham and Suri Dao are currently incarcerated at the Solano County jail and charged with aggravated mayhem and the 2022 attempted murder of Curtis Lind, their landlord at a Vallejo trailer park.

Leatham and Dao belong to a group informally titled the Zizians, a loose, cult-like organization of radical vegans and computer savants who claim AI is a danger to humanity. The group is currently implicated in six killings across the country.

Leatham, a transgender woman, is known for outbursts during their courtroom appearances and frequently needs to be removed from hearings. At Monday’s hearing, they started repeatedly shouting, “Curtis Lind murdered Emma Borhanian,” once in the presence of Judge John Ellis, referring to the death of another person present during Lind’s attempted murder.

In an attack, the right side of Lind’s skull was shattered, and his chest was impaled with a samurai sword. Lind shot and killed Borhanian and wounded Leatham. Both Leatham and Dao are charged with Borhanian’s murder.

Though he survived and was set to testify at Dao and Leatham’s trial, Lind was killed in January 2025. Another Zizian, Maximilian Snyder, is accused of the murder and is now awaiting trial.

While Monday’s court date was scheduled to be a trial confirmation hearing, Ellis decided to delay the confirmation and other motions brought by the attorneys until Dec. 8, as Dao was incapacitated, and her attorney Brian Ford was available only via Zoom.

On Nov. 26, Ford requested an emergency hearing with Ellis due to his client’s health.

At the hearing, Jordan Alarcon, a psychiatric registered nurse and the director of nursing at Wellpath, the jail’s medical provider, told the court via Zoom of Dao’s declining condition.

Alarcon said Dao had lost 32 pounds since September, due to “restrictive anorexia,” and had an electrolyte imbalance. He said she developed a pressure ulcer on her hip and buttock area because she was “laying down in feces and urine” and refused to get up. Her condition, Alarcon said, could lead to cardiac arrhythmia, increased likelihood of stroke and possibly death.

“If they stay in jail, their condition will continue to decline,” Alarcon said.

Ellis noted Dao was unresponsive when she was wheeled into the courtroom by a few officers, and Ford asked if his client was still “vegetative.”

“I can’t tell if it is on purpose,” said Ellis. “It looks like it might be.”

Alcaron said Dao refused to take most of her psychiatric medication and antibiotics.

“I’m going to be compelled to get them out of jail after what I’m hearing from the jail staff,” said Ellis.

Prosecutor Ilana Shapiro said she was hesitant to delay the trial any further.

Ellis considered where Dao could be moved to receive more intensive care without leaving the county and said there is an avenue to have Solano County Sheriff Brad DeWall mandate a certain facility. The California Medical Facility in Vacaville was floated as the most likely option.

Dao and Leatham are two of roughly 10 known members of the Zizians — a group dedicated to the ideas of blogger Jack “Ziz” LaSota, a 34-year-old transgender woman who came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016.

A former aspiring tech worker, LaSota came to the tech-saturated region to study the dangers artificial intelligence could pose to humanity and developed a following among AI theorists and tech bloggers for her radical ideas on AI, veganism and gender.

In August 2022, LaSota faked her death and disappeared. She was arrested in Maryland in February on charges of trespassing and possession of a handgun in a vehicle.

Another member of the Zizians accused of killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges. Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty against her.

Dao and Leatham’s trial is tentatively set to start on March 3, 2026, at the Solano County Superior Courthouse in Fairfield.