Trial date for Bay Area ‘Zizian’ pair charged with murder rescheduled for March

A Solano County Superior Court judge vacated the October trial for two Zizian cult members, each charged with a November 2022 murder and attempted murder in Vallejo, and reset it for March 3.

Judge John B. Ellis’ decision, after hearing defense attorney requests for a continuance, came Thursday afternoon in Department 22 in Fairfield, where Suri Dao and Alexander Jeffrey Leatham were scheduled for a trial confirmation in advance of their Oct. 21 trial.

When it eventually gets underway, the trial is expected to last five or six weeks, according to court documents.

During the afternoon proceeding in Fairfield, Dao’s attorney, Brian Ford of San Francisco, and Leatham’s attorney, Alternate Public Defender Carol Long, both requested a continuance, saying they needed information from experts to help prepare for their clients’ defense and would not be able to evaluate it until the coming months.

Declaring he was somewhat reluctant to grant the attorneys’ requests, Ellis granted them. He then set some pretrial matters: a readiness conference at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 13 in Department 22 in Fairfield; and motions about admissibility of evidence before a jury hears it, called in “limine motions” in legal parlance, on Jan. 6.

Deputy District Attorney Ilana Shapiro, who leads the prosecution, with DA Investigator Ken Jackson at her side, filed a motion in opposition to the continuance.

Dao, 24, was not present for Thursday’s court proceeding, with Ford telling the judge that his client was ill. A transgender 30-year-old woman Leatham, shackled and clad in a striped jail jumpsuit. At one point during the proceeding, Leatham, in a high-pitched voice and reading from a handwritten prepared statement, thanked donors with Leatham’s GoFundMe account.

Thursday’s proceeding came on the heels of another judge’s ruling to deny defense requests to suppress, or set aside, evidence against Dao and Leatham.

They are charged with the November 2022 killing of fellow Zizian cult member Emma Borhanian and the attempted murder of their Vallejo landlord, Curtis Lind, whom Dao and Leatham allegedly attacked. Lind, who suffered stab wounds, shot and killed Borhanian, 31, during the assault, and, under the law, the defendants were charged with her death. The charges are coupled with several enhancements, including great bodily injury on a victim 70 years or older, and inflicting great bodily injury or using a firearm.

Judge Daniel Healy, who presided over the September proceeding, said there was “evidence of motive” to attack Lind, because, Lind had earlier denied them an extension of their rental agreement and was on the verge of requiring them to leave the property.

During the proceeding, Shapiro disputed the defense notion that someone else had committed Lind’s attempted murder and also asserted there was sufficient evidence “there was aggravated mayhem” during the attack on Lind.

The Zizians, investigators have said, were a violent, anti-social group, whose members adhered to a distinctive ideology of radical veganism and anarchism. Led by Jack “Ziz” LaSota, a former tech worker, the group became increasingly extreme over the years. Several Zizian members have been implicated in a series of six murders across the United States between 2022 and 2025.

As previously reported, Shapiro later filed an amended complaint, citing “allegations and aggravating factors,” including references to any crimes previously committed by the defendants, which may affect sentencing if they are convicted. Dao and Leatham remain without bail in Solano County Jail in Fairfield.

The case took a unexpected turn this year, when fellow Zizian Maximilian Bentley Snyder, 23, of Washington state, was accused of stabbing Lind, 82, to death on Jan. 17 at his property in Vallejo. Lind was set to testify in the pending trial for Dao and Leatham.

Snyder has pleaded not guilty to the charge on March 26 and faces a preliminary hearing setting at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 27 in Department 23 in the Justice Building in Vallejo. He is represented by Vallejo attorney Terry A. Ray. Shapiro also leads the prosecution in that case, too. Snyder remains without bail in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield.