ANDY NGO REPORTS: Member of ‘Zizian’ cult facing murder charges disrupts court with outbursts about transphobia

“The jail has been hormonally detransitioning me for a quarter of a decade,” Alexander “Somni” Leatham yelled behind a mask while reading from a statement held in his shackled hands, which rattled loudly. During the outburst, Leatham, who stands at six feet tall, resisted and tried to break out of the grasp of two sheriff’s deputies. Leatham, 29, is a male who identifies as a transgender woman. His co-defendant “Suri Dao,” 24, is a woman who identifies as trans nonbinary. They are both members of an extremist transgender leftist “rationalist” vegan cult linked to at least eight deaths. The members follow the teachings of a trans anarchist named Jack LaSota, who uses the alias “Ziz.” The group is informally referred to as “Zizians” by outsiders, though they did not use that name to refer to themselves.

Defendant “Suri Dao” is the alias of Colorado woman, Tessa Berns.

Prosecutors charged Leatham and “Dao” over the attempted murder of 80-year-old Curtis Lind in 2022, as well as for causing the death of their former comrade and fellow Zizian Amir “Emma” Borhanian. Lind, who was their landlord, was allegedly lured from his trailer in Vallejo, Calif. before being smashed on the head and impaled and stabbed with a sword. He shot two of the assailants in self-defense, killing Borhanian. Leatham has two additional felony charges for escaping from custody. (Lind was murdered in January 2025, allegedly by a Zizian suspect named Maximilian “Audere” Snyder.)

Curtis Lind in hospital in November 2022 after an attempted assassination on his life. He was ultimately murdered in January 2025.

Leatham was wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair due to his unwillingness to attend proceedings. The hearing was delayed by nearly an hour.

Leatham also screamed accusations against jail officers, saying they told him he “deserve[d] to be shot for being transgender.” The allegations mirror Leatham’s civil lawsuit claims against the county, a jail medical clinic and individual officers of violent transphobia. (Leatham has a history of unsuccessful frivolous civil litigation over accusations of police transphobia.)

Leatham’s statement continued: “I am not suicidal. I have never been suicidal. If I am killed in police custody, it was murder!” He repeated the full statement before being ordered by Judge John Ellis to be moved into an adjacent room, where his yells could still be heard.

The judge referred to him as “Ms. Leatham” and has denied all media from recording or photographing the hearings.

In contrast, Leatham’s co-defendant “Dao” only vocalized, “Yes, yes” on two occasions to answer the judge via remote appearance from a holding facility in southern California due to her past instability while in custody. “Dao” rocked back and forth in her chair during the hearing.

The April 8 court hearing was meant to determine if the trials would be separated for the two defendants and to schedule a new trial date, which has been repeatedly delayed. But Shelly Saini, a public defender for Leatham, informed the judge that one of the defense attorneys, Carol Long, had broken her foot and needed more time. The judge agreed to the motion to continue the hearing on April 22.

None of the defendants’ families were present for this hearing—or prior hearings—but an unidentified trans person wearing all black attended to support them. The person was seen waving to “Dao” when she appeared on the screen.

When approached after the hearing was adjourned, the trans person recognized this journalist and reacted with hostility.

“You’re not Andy Ngo, are you?” the male asked and then responded with an expletive. It is unknown if the person is a Zizian associate. The person was observed leaving and entering the court with “Dao’s” attorney, Brian Ford. Ford declined to comment about his client at the court and has been reached for comment about the person in attendance in the gallery.

Leatham, a former youth math genius, comes from a highly well-to-do Los Angeles family and attended UCLA and UC Berkeley before joining the "Zizians.” His father is an engineer at Raytheon.

Though most of the known “Zizians” have been arrested, some remain at large. Leader Jack “Ziz” LaSota and two fellow comrades were arrested in February in rural Maryland following a manhunt. The three remain in custody on misdemeanor firearm and trespassing charges. LaSota has outstanding criminal cases in California and Pennsylvania but has not been charged with murder.

Zizian members Jack LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank were arrested in western Maryland.

In January, two Zizian members were involved in a deadly shootout against law enforcement near the Canadian border in Vermont. The Post Millennial was the first to report the links between those in the shooting and the Zizians. German national Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt and US Border Patrol agent David Maland died in that incident. 21-year-old Seattle woman Teresa “Milo” Youngblut was arrested and federally charged. She remains in custody without bond.

Second-in-command Zizian leader Jasper “Gwen” Danielson remains at-large, though he has not been formally charged with any crimes.

Leatham’s violent outburst in court mirrors his behavior at the last court hearing, where he appeared in person on March 14. At that hearing, Leatham screamed repeatedly, “This is a show trial to coordinate the genocide of transgender people!”