The Justice Department said Thursday it will seek the death penalty against a member of the cultlike Zizians group accused of killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont in the latest Trump administration push for more federal executions. Teresa Youngblut, 21, of Washington state, is among a group of radical computer scientists focused on veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence who have been linked to six killings in three states. She’s accused of fatally shooting agent David Maland on Jan. 20, the same day President Donald Trump was inaugurated and signed a sweeping executive order lifting the moratorium on federal executions.
Youngblut initially was charged with using a deadly weapon against law enforcement and discharging a firearm during an assault with a deadly weapon. But the Trump administration signaled early on that more serious charges were coming, and a new indictment released Thursday charged her with murder of a federal law enforcement agent and other crimes.
In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi mentioned Maland as an example when saying she expects federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in cases involving the murder of law enforcement officers. And Youngblut’s attorneys recently said they had been given a July 28 deadline to offer preliminary evidence about why she should be spared such a punishment. They asked a judge last month to delay that deadline until January, but the judge declined.
At the time of the shooting, authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several days after a Vermont hotel employee reported seeing them carrying guns and wearing black tactical gear. She’s accused of opening fire on border agents who pulled the car over on Interstate 91. An agent fired back, killing Bauckholt and wounding Youngblut.
The pair were among the followers of Jack LaSota, a transgender woman also known as Ziz whose online writing attracted young, highly intelligent computer scientists who shared anarchist beliefs.
Members of the group have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord in 2022, the landlord’s subsequent killing earlier this year, and the deaths of one of the members’ parents in Pennsylvania.
People have an uncanny knack of dying in the vicinity of this bizarre cult, and now the Zizian kook Teresa Youngblut is facing the federal death penalty because Trump won the election. Don’t know about you, but death penalties for crazy cult members? Yeah, I voted for that.
Snellville, Georgia, used to be the kind of podunk town that was frequently a punch-line in Lewis Grizzard‘s columns, mainly because there’s just something funny-sounding about that name, “Snellville.”
But whereas Snellville had fewer than 2,000 residents in 1970, it is now home to more than 20,000 residents amid the explosive growth of Gwinnett County in the suburbs of Atlanta. The town’s newfound popularity might explain why Snellville was the chosen abode of Atlanta-based rapper Tevin Hood, a/k/a T-Hood, who had recorded such tunes as “Perculator,” “Ready 2 Go” and — how can we forget? — “Big Booty.”
T-Hood made headlines this week (not in a good way) and it prompted my brother Kirby to lament, “Finally, at last, somebody famous moved to Snellville, and now he’s done got shot to death.”
Gwinnett County police are investigating a fatal shooting at a home in unincorporated Snellville that left an Atlanta rapper dead last Friday evening.
Officers from the South Precinct responded around 7 p.m. to a residence in the 3900 block of Lee Road after receiving reports of a dispute and gunfire.
When they arrived, they found 33-year-old Tevin Hood of Snellville suffering from gunshot wounds. Officers provided aid until Gwinnett County Fire Rescue transported him to a hospital, where he later died.
Police said one person was detained at the scene and is being interviewed by detectives. The case is being investigated as a homicide, and the motive has not yet been determined. That person has not been identified.
Hood’s mother confirmed with TMZ that her son was shot at his home, but she denied reports of a party going on at the home at the time of the shooting.
Such was the initial report on Monday, but the drama escalated once it was learned that (a) the man suspected of shooting T-Hood was none other than Ky Frost, the 24-year-old son of Rasheeda and Kirk Frost, stars of the reality program Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, now in its 13th season on MTV. Perhaps some of our readers don’t keep up with the hip-hop community in Atlanta (or anywhere else), but within that community, Rasheeda Frost is royalty, a bona fide superstar, and for her son (also a rapper) to be implicated in T-Hood’s death is Very Big News.
The shooting death of Atlanta rapper T-Hood is being investigated as a “possible self-defense” case, Gwinnett Police said Tuesday. . . .
In an update Tuesday, the Gwinnett County Police Department said it happened when a “domestic disturbance occurred at the residence.” A woman was injured in that incident, and a police statement indicated the shooting was in response to the “physical altercation” that left her injured.
The shooter, police said, “remained on scene at the time of the incident, and both the shooter and witnesses continue to cooperate with investigators.” . . .
“Currently, there is no evidence to suggest the involvement of additional parties beyond those residing in the home. Although the investigation is still ongoing and additional information will be released when it becomes available, this case is being investigated as a possible self-defense shooting,” the GCPD statement Tuesday said.
What? Everybody involved was “residing in the home”? It turns out that T-Hood’s girlfriend was 30-year-old Kelsie Frost, the older half-sister of Ky Frost, and all of them — Ky, Kelsie and T-Hood — were living in this Snellville house that is actually owned by Ky and Kelsie’s parents.
Kirk Frost’s daughter Kelsie Frost denies claims that she set up her boyfriend, local rapper T-Hood, who was fatally shot in his home on Aug. 8. . . .
T-Hood’s mother, Yulanda denied reports that her son hosted a party at his house at the time of the shooting. . . .
Rapper T-Hood’s sister, Jayda, implicated Kelsie in his murder. But Kelsie denied the claim in an emotional post on her Instagram Story.
“First off, I’ve been advised not to speak up by plenty of parties. I can’t sit back and let this narrative being created go on. The love of my life is GONE. . . . I don’t even have time to grieve or say my respects in the right manner because I am defending myself, being attacked by people who are creating weird and sick rumors. . . .
“So please stop listening to people who weren’t there, listening to all of these rumors and conspiracy theories will get nobody anywhere but just following a false narrative.”
At this point, the story is: “There was a domestic altercation and Kelsie suffered ‘physical injuries,’ according to an incident report. Ky arrived at the home after the altercation ended. He reportedly shot T-Hood in self-defense.” Did I mention — because it might be relevant — that at the time of his death, T-Hood was recovering from recently having been shot three times in a separate incident? Dude was a bullet magnet, I reckon.
Yulanda Bandy, Hood’s mother, said her family is demanding answers and justice for his death. On Wednesday, she told the AJC she “just wants the truth.” She said her son was dating Kirk Frost’s daughter, Kelsie, at the time of his death. On Instagram, Kelsie posted a tribute to Hood, saying “I can’t wait to hold you again.”
Hood was the oldest, and the only son, of Bandy’s four children. He has a 6-year-old daughter, Shiloh.
“He loved his little girl, so we gotta make sure she’s taken care of. … He was a wonderful person,” Bandy, of Lithonia, said. “He loved everybody. He loved gatherings. … He was our celebrity.” . . .
His family is making arrangements for a public funeral next weekend. In the meantime, they’ve posted a GoFundMe for support.
“I just wish I had more time with my baby boy,” Bandy said. “We’re gonna keep fighting for justice.”
Justice for Snellville’s most famous (but now deceased) resident!
Back in the day when there were only 2,000 people living there, Snellville didn’t have a lot of shootings, but they didn’t have much of anything, honestly. Now they’re world-famous — progress!
I was going to do this earlier today but I took one look at Instapundit and decided otherwise.
Also, if you can help out my fellow former linguist Juliette Ochieng (a/k/a Baldilocks) please do.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.
Do you want Kerberos Panzer Cops? Because this is how you get Kerberos Panzer Cops.
Saturday night I fell asleep watching a documentary on Prime Video (Closed for Storm, about an abandoned amusement park in New Orleans) and when I woke up about 2 a.m., another documentary was playing. That’s how it is with Prime Video — you watch one documentary, and they’ll queue up another one that plays automatically next. What percentage of their total viewership is from people like me, “sleep-watching” as it were, I don’t know, but it’s larger than zero.
Anyway, when I woke up, the show playing was One Night in Idaho, about the November 2022 murders of University of Idaho students Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Last month, Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to four life sentences without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to those murders.
Because of Kohberger’s guilty plea, we didn’t get to hear prosecutors lay out their case in the courtroom, and a lot of mystery still surrounds the motive for the murders. Kohberger was a graduate student at Washington State University in Pullman, just eight miles west of Moscow, Idaho. Given the proximity of the two university towns, there’s a substantial amount of cross-socialization — WSU kids partying in Moscow, UI kids partying in Pullman. It has been suggested that Kohberger became obsessed with Maddie Mogen after encountering her while she worked a part-time job at a popular restaurant in Moscow. Kaylee Goncalves had told friends in the weeks leading up to the murders that she believed she was being stalked. Mogen and Goncalves were very similar-looking, and it may be that Kohlberger couldn’t tell them apart, if he was watching them from a distance (as evidence indicates).
VICTIMS: Madison Mogen, 21, top left, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, bottom left, Ethan Chapin, 20, center, and Xana Kernodle, 20, right.
All this I knew before I woke up in the wee hours of Sunday morning to find One Night in Idaho on my TV. The part that I caught was an interview with the parents of Ethan Chapin, horrified that such a ghastly crime could have happened in Moscow, Idaho, and could have taken the life of their son and his roommates. There is no crime problem in Moscow, a town of about 25,000 people, and part of what made this atrocity so shocking was that it occurred in such a seemingly safe place.
Based on the evidence, investigators believe that Mogen and/or Goncalves were Kohberger’s intended targets — he crept into the house and went directly to their room, stabbing them to death in their sleep. The noise apparently woke up Kernodle and Chapin, who encountered Kohberger as he was about to exit the house, and he then stabbed both of them to death to make his escape. And what was the motive?
Diabolical obsessions are disturbances or extremely strong hallucinations that the demon imposes, often invincibly, on the mind of the victim. In these cases, the person is no longer a master of his own thoughts. . . . The objects of these hallucinations can be manifested as visions, as voices . . . as monstrous figures, horrifying animals, or devils. In other cases it can be an impulse to commit suicide or to do evil to others and, particularly in the young, it can lead to confusion about one’s gender.
“Diabolical obsessions” — might that category include Kohberger’s ideas about emulating Elliot Rodger, or his apparent stalking of the college girls who were his intended targets in 2022? Wouldn’t rule it out.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8). Good advice.
