A woman accused of the death of a border patrol agent of the United States in Vermont will be presented in a federal court on Tuesday in one of the multiple criminal cases linked to a cult group known as Zizians.
The authorities have said that Teresa Youngblut fired the bullet that killed agent David Maland during the January traffic stop. Another agent shot, hurting Youngblut and killing his partner, Felix Bauckholt, officials said.
The Zizians are a group of followers of Jack Lasota, a computer scientist who has blocked as “ziz” on issues that include veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence. The group consists mainly of computer scientists who gathered online, shared anarchist beliefs and became increasingly violent.
Youngblut and Bauckholt were affiliated with the group, which the authorities have also been linked to the murders in Pennsylvania and California. Youngblut declared innocent of the positions of intentionally wearing a deadly weapon towards the application of the law, and using and downloading a firearm during an assault with a deadly weapon.
The appearance of the Federal Court on Tuesday is a discovery hearing in Burlington. The discovery is a procedure prior to the trial in which both sides of evidence and information exchange information.
Both parties declined to comment before the court date. Steven Barth’s office, which has represented Youngblut, said he had no comments on the case. Fabienne Boisvert-Defazio, spokesman for the United States Prosecutor’s Office for the Vermont district, said the office “does not comment on cases beyond the public registry.”
In Vermont, the authorities had been looking at Youngblut for several days after she and Bauckholt were recorded in a hotel with black tactical equipment and loading weapons. Local border patrol agents were also told that Bauckholt was a German citizen with an unknown immigration status. The authorities said Youngblut shot Maland after being arrested.
The shooting was one of several violent incidents that has been related to the Zizians. The group members have been linked to the death of one of theirs during an attack on the owner of California Curtis Lind in 2022, the subsequent murder of Lind and the death of a Pennsylvania couple.
