The apparent leader of a bizarre vegan transgender cult, the Zizians, which has been linked to six murders across the country including for a border patrol agent, was held without bail at a Tuesday hearing.
Jack “Ziz” LaSota, 34, was arrested with followers Michelle Zajko, 33, and Daniel Blank, 26, in rural Frostburg, Maryland Sunday. The trio appeared in Allegany County Courthouse Tuesday morning and were all held without bail.
“I shouldn’t be here, I haven’t done anything wrong,” LaSota — appearing by video — told the judge at the hearing, according to post on X by reporter Andy Ngo.
Judge Erich Bean ordered LaSota — who goes by she/her pronouns — thrown behind bars, saying that she poses a danger to the community and is a flight risk.
Prosecutors at the hearing said LaSota “appears to be the leader of an extremist group known as Zizians” that has been connected to multiple murders.
LaSota — who identifies as a woman — has been accused of influencing members of the San Francisco Bay-area group to kill. The group is composed of extremely bright computer scientists in their 20s and 30s who came together online over their shared anarchist beliefs and evolved to become violent.
LaSota, Zajko, and Blank are charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun in the vehicle.
The eccentric group is tied to six murders in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California, authorities say.
Teresa “Milo” Youngblut, 21, is accused of shooting and killing border agent David Maland, 44, during a traffic stop near the Canadian border on Jan. 20.
Youngblut and German national Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt allegedly opened fire on border agents in Coventry, Vermont last month during a traffic stop. Bauckholt — an award winning youth math genius — and agent Maland were both killed in the melee.
Youngblut — a computer science student at the University of Washington — pleaded not guilty to federal gun charges. She was wounded in the gunfight.
Youngblut previously applied for a marriage license with Maximilian Snyder, 22, who is accused of killing an 82-year-old landlord, Curtis Lind, on Jan. 17 in California.
Lind was previously attacked by other cult members when he tried to boot them from his property in Vallejo. Lind was found dead the day before the eviction was set to go through.
In a prior run-in, Lind shot Emma Borhanian, 31, in self-defense according to prosecutors. But he was stabbed with a sword and partially blinded only to be murdered months later by Snyder, prosecutors say.
Alexander Leatham, 29, and Suri Dao were charged in Borhanian’s death and for the attempted murder of Lind.
Zajko — a bioinformatics researchers — is a suspect in the January 2023 killings of her parents inside a Pennsylvania home.
Group of intellectual computer scientists in their 20s and 30s who have penned writings on radical veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence
LaSota — a computer programmer who graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks — runs a blog under the name “Ziz” with writings that purport the two hemispheres of the brain are warring with each other and they often have “a desire to kill each other.”
LaSota’s lawyer didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday morning.
With Post wires
