'Zizian' group members charged with attempted murder must face jury trial, judge rules

FAIRFIELD, Calif. (CN) — Two people reportedly connected to an anti-artificial intelligence group called the Zizians will go on trial for attempted murder charges in October after a judge denied a motion Wednesday to set aside a magistrate’s findings of sufficient evidence to move forward with a jury trial.

Solano Superior Court Judge Daniel Healy said the case will “create a lot of fodder for a jury to decide,” while hearing arguments on the motion. Attorneys for the two defendants, Alexander Leatham and Suri Dao, said the evidence in the official record was lacking, and they challenged the reason as to why they were at the scene when their former Vallejo landlord Curtis Lind was attacked with a sword and knife in 2022.

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, has become notorious for her outbursts in the courtroom. On Wednesday, as soon as she was brought into the presence of Healy, she read from a piece of paper and asserted she was dropped on her back by correctional officers on Sept. 10 and suffered spinal injuries. She urged everyone in the courtroom to find her new legal representation and gave out personal contact information. She continued to chant a sort of mantra: “Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods,” until Healy had her taken from the courtroom.

Attorney Ilana Shapiro of the Solano County District Attorney’s Office used various parts of Lind’s inconsistent testimony with a detective and an investigator during two different interviews to support the assertion that Leatham and Dao had motive to attack Lind. Leatham had asked Lind for an extension to prevent her eviction, but Lind denied her request the same day as the attack. During their brief exchange over the request, Leatham is said to have threatened Lind with a knife.

Shapiro declined to comment on the ruling Wednesday, saying she could not discuss an ongoing criminal case.

Defense attorneys pushed back against Lind’s testimony, arguing he may have been under the influence of morphine at the time, and noting he had mentioned he did not get a good look at his attackers.

Leatham’s attorney Carole Long said she was “expectedly disappointed” by the judge’s ruling.

Dao was also present at the hearing and shackled with their hands behind their back.

At the hearing, Dao’s attorney Brian Ford claimed his client did not attack Lind and that none of the evidence in the record showed Dao to be culpable of murder. Lind was stabbed by two weapons, and according to Ford, Dao did not have a weapon with them at the time of the crime.

Ford declined to comment after the hearing.

Dao and Leatham’s trial is currently set for Oct. 21 in Solano County Superior Court.

Prosecutors claim that in 2022, Dao, Leatham, and fellow Zizian Emma Borhanian faced eviction from a Vallejo lot where they rented space for the retrofitted box trucks they lived in.

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.

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

Along with the attempted murder charge, Dao and Leatham are also charged with murder, due to Borhanian’s death, and aggravated mayhem.

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 from the world. 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.