Maximilian Snyder, 22, pleaded not guilty in a Vallejo courtroom Wednesday in the Jan. 17 killing of 82-year-old local landlord Curtis Lind.
Prosecutors allege that Snyder murdered Lind to stop him from testifying about a 2022 assault in which Lind was grievously wounded before shooting two of his alleged attackers, killing one. Like Snyder, both defendants in that case appear to hold ties to a fringe Bay Area group known as the Zizians, which authorities allege is linked to multiple acts of violence across the country.
Snyder was led into court in shackles and a striped jail jumpsuit, his long black hair pulled into low pigtails. He appeared calm and alert, and hummed a tune under his breath as the hearing started. Accompanied by his attorney, Terry A. Ray, he pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with special circumstances and agreed to delay his preliminary hearing to allow more time to prepare his defense.
Judge John B. Ellis ordered the parties not to disseminate evidence uncovered in the case and set a further hearing date of June 16.
The arraignment occurred several hours after a fire broke out on Lind’s property, steps from the site where he collapsed with multiple stab wounds in January.
Capt. Kevin Brown, a spokesperson for the Vallejo Fire Department, wrote in a statement to Open Vallejo that multiple people called 911 to report a fire near the 600 block of Porter Street shortly after 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. The fire burned through a residential trailer, displacing its occupant and causing damage to a neighboring trailer, according to Brown. Local firefighters extinguished the blaze shortly before 4 a.m., and no injuries were reported.
“The fire has been deemed accidental after the occupant provided statement that the trailer began to fill with smoke immediately after he turned on his onboard water pump,” Brown wrote.
That property — a sprawling, dusty lot packed with trailers, trucks, and mechanical equipment — lies at the center of multiple criminal investigations in Solano County.
Suri Dao, 24, and Alexander Leatham, 29, have been charged with the attempted murder of Lind after allegedly luring him to the lot and attacking him with knives and a sword in November 2022. Prosecutors have identified Dao as one of several tenants whom Lind had been trying to evict from the property.
Dao and Leatham have also been charged with the murder of an alleged associate, Emma Borhanian, who died after Lind shot her in self-defense at the scene of the attack, according to prosecutors.
A post in an online forum associated with Rationalism, a philosophical movement with ties to the tech industry, identified Dao, Leatham, and Borhanian as associates of a group known as the “Zizians,” a radical offshoot of the rationalists.
The group is named after Jack “Ziz” LaSota, who is facing firearm and trespassing charges in Maryland along with two other alleged Zizians.
Leatham, Borhanian, LaSota, and another friend were arrested in November 2019 while protesting an event hosted by a local rationalist group in Sonoma County.
Dao and Leatham both appeared in a joint hearing before Judge Ellis on March 14 in Fairfield, where he granted their attorneys additional time to review information and evidence from other states.
Prosecutors have accused Snyder of “lying in wait” for Lind before stabbing him outside his property on Jan. 17, making him eligible for the death penalty or life in prison if convicted. He has been in custody since his arrest in Redding on Jan. 24.
On Jan. 27, Open Vallejo reported that Snyder had recently applied for a Washington marriage license with 21-year-old Teresa Youngblut, who federal authorities have charged in connection with the Jan. 20 fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont. The pair appears to sympathize with fringe beliefs adopted by the Zizians, including concerns about veganism and artificial intelligence, according to online posts and interviews conducted by Open Vallejo.
Snyder and Youngblut both attended Lakeside School, a private high school in Seattle, according to The Spokesman-Review and a LinkedIn profile matching Snyder’s name.
The LinkedIn profile says Snyder studied computer science and philosophy at the University of Oxford between 2020 and 2024. In 2023, he won $11,000 in an artificial intelligence research competition, according to a post on an online platform for discussions on rationalism and related ideologies.
