By PATRICK WHITTLE
Associated Press

A woman charged in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont is due in federal court Tuesday in one of multiple criminal cases linked to a cultlike group known as Zizians.

Authorities have said Teresa Youngblut fired the bullet that killed agent David Maland during the January traffic stop. Another agent fired back, wounding Youngblut and killing her companion, Felix Bauckholt, officials have said.

The Zizians are a group of followers of Jack LaSota, a computer scientist who has blogged as “Ziz” on subjects including veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence. The group mostly consists of computer scientists who met online, shared anarchist beliefs and became increasingly violent.

LaSota, who is facing state and federal weapons charges, was taken into custody in February in rural western Maryland with two other followers.

Youngblut and Bauckholt were both affiliated with LaSota's group, which authorities have also linked to killings in Pennsylvania and California. Youngblut has pleaded not guilty to charges of intentionally using a deadly weapon towards law enforcement, and using and discharging a firearm during an assault with a deadly weapon.

The Tuesday federal court appearance is a discovery hearing in Burlington. Discovery is a pre-trial proceeding in which both sides of a case exchange evidence and information.

Both sides declined to comment in advance of the court date. The office of Steven Barth, who has represented Youngblut, said it had no comment on the case. Fabienne Boisvert-DeFazio, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont, said the office “does not comment on ongoing cases beyond the public record.”

In Vermont, authorities had been watching Youngblut for several days after she and Bauckholt checked into a hotel wearing black tactical gear and carrying guns. Local border patrol agents also were told that Bauckholt was a German citizen with unknown immigration status. Authorities said Youngblut shot Maland after being pulled over.

The shootout was one of several violent incidents that has been linked to the Zizians. Members of the group have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on California landlord Curtis Lind in 2022, Lind's subsequent killing, and the deaths of a Pennsylvania couple.

Prosecutors in Baltimore announced last week that a federal grand jury indicted LaSota on charges of being an armed fugitive. LaSota uses feminine pronouns and in her writings says she is a transgender woman.

Authorities said LaSota possessed several firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition when she and two other Zizians were arrested earlier this year after a resident called police to report that a group of people had parked box trucks on his property and asked to camp there. They were charged with trespassing, obstructing law enforcement and illegal gun possession.

An attorney for LaSota is not yet listed in federal court records.

Associated Press writer Lea Skene contributed to this story in Baltimore.

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