A Maryland judge on Friday allowed three members of the Zizians, a cultlike group that authorities have linked to six deaths across the United States, to work together preparing their defense ahead of a Feb. 9 trial on trespassing, weapons, and drug charges.
Allegany County Circuit Court Judge Michael Twigg granted the request from Jack LaSota, Michelle Zajko, and Daniel Blank at a hearing in Cumberland. A prosecutor told the judge he had reason to believe the three had already been communicating among themselves. LaSota did not dispute it. “In the car ride here!” LaSota said.
The ruling marked a key pretrial development for defendants whose group has been tied to violence in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont since 2022. Much of the hearing’s agenda was postponed to Jan. 30 after Zajko indicated a desire to fire her attorney.
Friday’s hearing
Since their February 2025 arrest, LaSota and Blank had been allowed to meet, but Zajko had been kept apart — a situation she described as “absurdly difficult circumstances.” All three addressed the court in support of the collaboration request.
“We should be able to talk to each other without being recorded and without fear of our notes being intercepted,” LaSota said.
“We’re adults. We have work to do, and we want to do our work,” Zajko said.
On her way into the courthouse, LaSota accused prosecutors of pressuring the trio to commit perjury by accepting plea deals and said they were “violating our speedy trial rights.”
The hearing had been scheduled to include arguments on the trio’s motions to dismiss the charges, along with logistics for the trial beginning Feb. 9. That agenda was pushed back after Zajko signaled she may seek new counsel.
The Zizians and their alleged crimes
LaSota, Zajko, and Blank were arrested in February 2025 after a property owner in Frostburg, Maryland, said he found them living in box trucks on his land. They face trespassing, weapons, and drug charges.
Authorities have described LaSota, a transgender woman known as Ziz, as the apparent leader of what they have called an “extremist group.” LaSota, Zajko, and Blank are among a group of young computer scientists who authorities say were drawn together by radical beliefs about veganism, gender identity, and artificial intelligence.
The group’s alleged involvement in violence spans several states. Two members are awaiting trial in connection with a 2022 attack on a California landlord that left another group member dead; a separate member is charged with killing that same landlord three days before a Vermont highway shooting in January 2025. Zajko has been called a person of interest in the deaths of her parents in Pennsylvania later in 2022.
Zajko faces a separate charge in Vermont of lying on her application to purchase the firearm that authorities say was used to kill U.S. Border Patrol agent David Maland in the Vermont shooting. LaSota faces separate federal charges of being an armed fugitive.
Vermont death penalty case
The Vermont shooting resulted in the most serious pending charges against a Zizians member. Teresa Youngblut has pleaded not guilty to murder in connection with the incident. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty — an escalation that came after the Trump administration signaled early in its term that more serious charges were coming as part of its push for more federal executions.
Authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several days before the shooting after a Vermont hotel employee reported seeing Youngblut carrying one gun, with both wearing black tactical gear. Youngblut is accused of opening fire on border agents who stopped the vehicle on Interstate 91. An agent returned fire, killing Bauckholt and wounding Youngblut.