A Maryland federal judge on Thursday ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine competency to stand trial for Ziz LaSota, the alleged leader of a cultlike group linked to several killings.

U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar granted the request from LaSota’s defense attorney, who cited ramblings from his client at a prior court appearance to question whether LaSota was suffering from a “mental disease,” or if she is able to assist in the defense of the case.

As soon as Bredar entered the courtroom and eased into his chair, LaSota began speaking, saying her attorney Gary Proctor had a “conflict of interest” and later said she was seeking to represent herself. She muttered to her attorneys at points throughout the hearing.

Bredar asked Proctor whether there was evidence that LaSota is suffering from psychiatric problems or was simply displaying “defiant misbehavior ... by a completely rational person who’s decided to disrupt the proceedings.”

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“We struggle to focus on the task at hand,” Proctor said in describing a recent three-hour meeting during which LaSota refused to speak to a doctor her attorney had brought to the jail for an evaluation. Proctor noted that at the prior hearing, his client referred to the judge as the leader of an “organized crime ring” and when asked to state her age, replied: “Timeless.”

Her attorney also separately expressed concerns about LaSota’s treatment behind bars as a transgender inmate.

LaSota has been described as the leader of a group known as the Zizians, a group of young and intelligent computer scientists tied to the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent near the Canadian border last year as well as five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California.

The exact role of LaSota, who faked her death in 2022, is unclear, and she has not been charged in those deaths. Proctor cited media reports about her online writings that described them as “grandiose delusions” in making the case for the competency evaluation.

LaSota was being sought by law enforcement authorities in multiple states when she and two others were arrested in Frostburg on gun and trespassing charges in February 2025. Federal prosecutors then obtained a grand jury indictment in June for a charge of possession of firearms and ammunition by a fugitive.

LaSota remains in custody in Allegany County, awaiting trial now scheduled for June on separate state charges. Her federal trial date, once expected for May, has not been rescheduled.