A California judge has paused criminal proceedings against Suri Dao, one of the suspected members of a transgender death cult called the “Zizians,” after attorneys for the murder suspect claimed that Dao is not competent to stand trial and lacks housing conditions that accommodate her “nonbinary” identity.
Last week, Solano County Superior Court Judge John Ellis suspended all hearings in Dao’s case pending resolution of the medical question and related housing matter.
Dao’s defense lawyer, Brian Ford, alleged that his client has medical issues that constitute an emergency and wants to move her from Solano County Jail to the California Medical Facility, an all-male detention center.
The state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation repeatedly pushed back on sending Dao, a biological female who identifies as “nonbinary,” to CMF, contending that it is unlikely that the men’s prison would provide the psychiatric treatment that she is seeking there.
On Dec. 10, Ellis ordered that Dao be transferred to CMF, but the transfer has yet to happen.
“I’m not necessarily inclined to change my order,” Ellis said, according to Courthouse News Service, suggesting he could hold the CDCR in contempt of court for failing to comply with his court order.
Ellis found that CMF is the appropriate facility for Dao, pointing to the state’s transgender inclusion prison policies. Pursuant to California’s penal code, inmates are housed in accordance with their self-asserted gender identity.
Citing the defense’s competency concerns as well as the ongoing housing dispute, Ellis ruled on Dec. 16 to temporarily stop proceedings until further notice.
During the status conference, which resulted in the case’s suspension, Dao was reportedly seated in a wheelchair, slouched, with her hair tousled, and had remained in the doorway due to the size of the wheelchair.
At the hearing, Ford raised doubts about whether Dao is fit enough to face trial, and Ellis agreed, saying this time was different from her previous claims of a health crisis.
Dao allegedly feigned a seizure in a failed escape attempt from jail. There are also documented doubts about “Suri Dao” being the defendant’s real name. Prosecutors stated that Dao provided fictitious names upon apprehension, including “Joshua of Nazareth.” According to investigative journalist Andy Ngo, Dao is actually named Tessa Berns.
Ellis decided that Dao now appears to need immediate medical attention.
A medical report submitted by the defense said that Dao suffers from catatonia and anorexia, adding that she most likely needs to be force-fed. The affidavit also mentioned schizoaffective disorder, but stopped short of making an official diagnosis.
Jordan Alcaron, the director of nursing at Wellpath, which provides medical services for the jail, said that Dao lost 32 pounds over the course of several months. The nurse said that Dao had developed a pressure ulcer on her hip and buttock area because she was “lying down in feces and urine,” refusing to rise. This, according to Alarcon, could lead to cardiac arrhythmia, an increased likelihood of stroke, and death.
“If they stay in jail,” Alarcon said of Dao, “their condition will continue to decline.”
Solano County District Attorney Ilana Shapiro argued that although catatonia and anorexia are medical conditions, they are not considered psychological impairments and therefore would not affect Dao’s competency at trial.
Shapiro also accused Ford of withholding evidence, such as conversations between himself and the expert who wrote the medical report, from the prosecution.
“I don’t appreciate the insinuation that I haven’t been forthcoming in the case,” Ford countered following debate about confidential “work product.”
A medical doctor was appointed to examine Dao and return with a report by Jan. 5.
Ellis previously questioned whether Dao’s vegetative state was an act. “I can’t tell if it is on purpose,” Ellis said in early December. “It looks like it might be.”
Dao and transgender co-defendant Alexander “Somni” Leatham, another alleged Zizian, were about to head to trial for the attempted murder of their landlord, Curtis Lind, a grandfather of four, in Vallejo, California. Lind had survived the 2022 attack, which left his skull partially shattered and him impaled through the torso with a samurai sword, but was later discovered stabbed to death this year at the age of 82.
Leatham was unwilling to walk or sit in a wheelchair to attend his hearing, which was scheduled at the same time as Dao’s status conference. It is unclear if Dao’s paused proceedings could complicate Leatham’s trial. Ellis considered severing the cases.
Leatham, a biological man who identifies as female, was uncharacteristically subdued, unlike at past hearings, where he was prone to tirades accusing the government attorneys of transphobia.
In one outburst, Leatham claimed that the prosecution is putting on “a show trial to coordinate the genocide of transgender people.” When their charges were read into the record, Leatham reportedly shouted, “I am surrounded by trans misogynists! Someone, please help me! They are torturing me for being transgender!”
During the initial murder attempt, Lind shot and killed one of the attackers, Amir “Emma” Borhanian, in self-defense.
In addition to the attempted murder of Lind, Dao and Leatham are charged with Borhanian’s murder under California law. The state statute, known as the felony murder rule, says defendants are chargeable if a death occurs, regardless of intent to kill, during the commission of a felony-level crime.
Leatham faces additional charges, with regard to Lind, of intentionally causing the permanent disability, disfigurement, and deprivation of a limb, organ, or body. Leatham and Dao both have charging enhancements, including inflicting “great bodily injury” on a victim 70 years or older.
Lind was slain in January while set to testify as the star witness at Dao and Leatham’s murder trial. Maximilian Snyder is separately charged with Lind’s stabbing death.
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Leatham, Dao, and Snyder allegedly belong to a death-obsessed cult dubbed the “Zizians,” a cohort of revolutionary-left activists, who are primarily transgender, led by its suspected ringleader Jack “Ziz” LaSota.
The cult is currently implicated in six slayings across the country, including the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Vermont and the double murder of an elderly couple in Pennsylvania.