CUMBERLAND, Md. — Three members of a violent cultlike group, including its alleged ringleader, will be tried together on charges of trespassing, gun and drug possession after police discovered them camping in box trucks in rural western Maryland.
The group known as Zizians, which attracted a fringe contingent of computer scientists who connected online over their shared anarchist beliefs, has been linked to six killings spanning three states in recent years.
The Maryland cases were originally scheduled for separate trials, but the defendants requested a joint proceeding despite concerns from their attorneys; a judge granted the request following a court hearing Tuesday afternoon.
Jack “Ziz” LaSota and her associates Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank were arrested in February after a man told police that “suspicious” people had parked two box trucks on his property and asked to camp there for a month, according to authorities. The trucks were found in