A Solano County Superior Courtroom decide vacated the October trial for 2 Zizian cult members, every charged with a November 2022 homicide and tried homicide in Vallejo, and reset it for March 3.
Decide John B. Ellis’ resolution, after listening to protection legal professional requests for a continuance, got here Thursday afternoon in Division 22 in Fairfield, the place Suri Dao and Alexander Jeffrey Leatham have been scheduled for a trial affirmation upfront of their Oct. 21 trial.
When it will definitely will get underway, the trial is predicted to final 5 – 6 weeks, based on court docket paperwork.
Throughout the afternoon continuing in Fairfield, Dao’s legal professional, Brian Ford of San Francisco, and Leatham’s legal professional, Alternate Public Defender Carol Lengthy, each requested a continuance, saying they wanted info from consultants to assist put together for his or her purchasers’ protection and wouldn’t be capable to consider it till the approaching months.
Declaring he was considerably reluctant to grant the attorneys’ requests, Ellis granted them. He then set some pretrial issues: a readiness convention at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 13 in Division 22 in Fairfield; and motions about admissibility of proof earlier than a jury hears it, referred to as in “limine motions” in authorized parlance, on Jan. 6.
Deputy District Legal professional Ilana Shapiro, who leads the prosecution, with DA Investigator Ken Jackson at her facet, filed a movement in opposition to the continuance.
Dao, 24, was not current for Thursday’s court docket continuing, with Ford telling the decide that his consumer was unwell. A transgender 30-year-old girl Leatham, shackled and clad in a striped jail jumpsuit. At one level in the course of the continuing, Leatham, in a high-pitched voice and studying from a handwritten ready assertion, thanked donors with Leatham’s GoFundMe account.
Thursday’s continuing got here on the heels of one other decide’s ruling to disclaim protection requests to suppress, or put aside, proof towards Dao and Leatham.
They’re charged with the November 2022 killing of fellow Zizian cult member Emma Borhanian and the tried homicide of their Vallejo landlord, Curtis Lind, whom Dao and Leatham allegedly attacked. Lind, who suffered stab wounds, shot and killed Borhanian, 31, in the course of the assault, and, underneath the legislation, the defendants have been charged along with her loss of life. The fees are coupled with a number of enhancements, together with nice bodily damage on a sufferer 70 years or older, and inflicting nice bodily damage or utilizing a firearm.
Decide Daniel Healy, who presided over the September continuing, mentioned there was “evidence of motive” to assault Lind, as a result of, Lind had earlier denied them an extension of their rental settlement and was on the verge of requiring them to go away the property.
Throughout the continuing, Shapiro disputed the protection notion that another person had dedicated Lind’s tried homicide and likewise asserted there was adequate proof “there was aggravated mayhem” in the course of the assault on Lind.
The Zizians, investigators have mentioned, have been a violent, anti-social group, whose members adhered to a particular ideology of radical veganism and anarchism. Led by Jack “Ziz” LaSota, a former tech employee, the group grew to become more and more excessive over time. A number of Zizian members have been implicated in a collection of six murders throughout the US between 2022 and 2025.
As beforehand reported, Shapiro later filed an amended grievance, citing “allegations and aggravating factors,” together with references to any crimes beforehand dedicated by the defendants, which can have an effect on sentencing if they’re convicted. Dao and Leatham stay with out bail in Solano County Jail in Fairfield.
The case took a sudden flip this yr, when fellow Zizian Maximilian Bentley Snyder, 23, of Washington state, was accused of stabbing Lind, 82, to loss of life on Jan. 17 at his property in Vallejo. Lind was set to testify within the pending trial for Dao and Leatham.
Snyder has pleaded not responsible to the cost on March 26 and faces a preliminary listening to setting at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 27 in Division 23 within the Justice Constructing in Vallejo. He’s represented by Vallejo legal professional Terry A. Ray. Shapiro additionally leads the prosecution in that case, too. Snyder stays with out bail within the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield.
Initially Printed: October 3, 2025 at 6:08 AM PDT
