BREAKING: Teen Pleads Guilty to Murdering Mother and Step-Father For Money To Assassinate President Trump

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, folks. It is Thursday, January eighth, and a short time ago a teenager pled guilty to killing his parents in a plot that involved him trying to fund a Trump assassination. Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. This is a obviously tragic, sad, and bizarre case with a lot of the details. Well, we just watched an eighteen year old repeatedly tell a judge, yes, I am responsible for these killings.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: That was really chilling, wasn't it. Nikita Cassip is his name. This is out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This was a kid who seemed like just about any other kid and winds up not just murdering his step father and his own mother, but then lives with their corpses for weeks talking to someone in Russian. This story is very, very, very confusing and deeply disturbing even hearing the judge asked this young man, who by the way, was seventeen at the time of these crimes, if he had ever been diagnosed with a mental illness. He said, no, your honor, But my god, how could he not given what he is admitting to have done.

00:01:21
Speaker 1: All right, let's take you back, folks. The February of last year, so this was February of twenty twenty five. Police respond to a home. They find these two dead bodies, both shot. We talked about Tatiana Cassap thirty five years old and her husband, Donald Mayer, fifty one years old. The sun and the dog are missing at this point, and apparently he had taken his parents' vehicle, taken off with about fourteen thousand dollars worth of cash and jewelry and whatnot, and he had the dog with him. They eventually tracked him down having to do with the traffic stop. Now those details you talk about ropes that came out living with the bodies for two weeks, that was certainly a detail that was disturbing. The other parts of this have to do with federal authorities going through a lot of his text messages and electronic messages. I don't know if they ever found out who he was talking to in Russia in Ukraine, but it seemed as if he had a plan and expected to go to Ukraine and also expected for everybody to find out that he had killed his parents.

00:02:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm just I'm still trying to get into the mindset of a seventeen year old kid. I mean, there, look, Annealis is nineteen about to turn twenty, and she's a kid. And to think that he was still in high school. What did he know? What fantasy world was he living in? But yes, federal authorities say that he was having a text exchange with someone who spoke Russian. They've never said who that person is, if that person was legitimate, but that in planning his parents' murders, he also bought a drone, he bought explosives, and he wrote a manifest and in that manifest a federal authorities say he called for Trump's assassination. And so he was talking to this Russian speaker about his plan to kill Trump, and they even said to overthrow the US government. Did he think he was working as a spy for the Russian government?

00:03:27
Speaker 1: I mean, who knows what was going on through this in this kid's mind. But this is the crime. That's everything we describe, at least about the crime. Now, were expecting this trial was supposed to start in March. That we come to today. A deal has been struck between this young man and prosecutors that's going to see him avoid trial. They dropped. There were several other charges, charges three through nine. I think they said I had to do with theft and improper use of a corpse. They dropped those, but he did plead guilty. It was chilling Rome seventeen when you committed the crime eighteen now A soft voice, nothing intimidating about the appearance of this young man sitting in a chair. I think he might have said the word no once, But other than that, the only thing he said in court was yes, your honor repeatedly. He asked him a bunch of questions, and he was polite, he spoke up. He was almost like almost a respectful teenager sitting in there today who's admitting to the moult heinous of things.

00:04:32
Speaker 2: Wasn't that so disturbing? You make such a good point. It did seem like. In fact, I was around the corner and I heard his voice, and it just wasn't what I would have expected from someone who is capable of doing what he's now admitted to do, which is to kill your own mother and your stepfather because you need cash to go try and assassinate Trump. But here he was this polite kid, you're right, And to hear him say yes, your honor to the question, did you kill your mother or Tatiana? Did you intend for her to die? Yes, your honor, That just the questions that were being asked, and then just yes, this polite yes, your honor. Afterwards, it felt so chilling to listen to.

00:05:21
Speaker 1: You talking about the repetition, and the judge was kind of a rapid firing asking about each murder. But you shot him and caused his death, Yes, your honor. Did you do that intentionally? Yes, your honna. Did you use a handgun to shoot her? Your mother? Yes, your honor? Did you intend to kill her? Yes, your honor, You admit you committed both of these offendances. Yes, your on And I'm only giving five or so there, I think it was ten at least he was, and repeatedly, an eighteen year old is saying, yes, I did all of it, I meant to do it, and I meant to kill. And the judge got all that on the record for legal reasons, but it to see it happen today was stunning.

00:06:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yes, your honor will never sound the same after hearing him say that response to so many of those incredibly just devastating questions that you can't imagine a kid that age would be able to answer and then to think that yes, and who knows what was actually going on behind the scenes, But he thought he was going to be living in Ukraine. He had a plan. He actually got caught in Kansas, I believe in that traffic stop you were referring to. But from what we gather and what federal authorities have said, he was planning on hiding out in the country of Ukraine.

00:06:41
Speaker 1: What do you have that? What was that text? Did you read it?

00:06:44
Speaker 2: I have it? Yes. He was actually asking this question to this unknown person who speaks Russian. He said, so while in Ukraine, I'll be able to live a normal life. Question Mark, even if it's found out I did it, question Mark.

00:07:01
Speaker 1: Okay, well, look that was pretty good evidence. But he admitted it in court today and it's just seventeen years old. But this case took this turn. They were preparing for trial in March. But now because of the plea, it's brought up some other issues, particularly about sentencing. Stay here, we'll explain why some things, he has a chance of getting out and still might have a life ahead. Stay here. We continue now on this Thursday, having just seen eighteen year old Nikita cassip In court in Wisconsin, admitting repeatedly upon questioning from the judge, that he is entering a plea of guilty in the death of his thirty five year old mother and his fifty one year old stepfather. Those deaths happened last week February. But Rob's going to trial. Right if he had gone to trial in these charges you found guilty, it's life without parole. He wasn't sentenced today, but it sounds like there is going to be an argument now over how long this eighteen year old is supposed to spend in jail. In robes, look at into some of the numbers he could have like a significant adult life ahead on the outside.

00:08:30
Speaker 2: Correct, because also being taken into consideration when you look at sentencing, a judge can look at the age at which a crime is committed, and that has often given some of these younger defendants' opportunities later even if they've committed a heinous crime. And when you plead guilty, that also usually is favorable in terms of sentencing as well. So he's got two things working in his favor. His age and the fact that he was compliant, the fact that he agreed to plea and save the district of money. And as the DA pointed out, because some people were upset about this plea deal the fact that they were able to get rid of some of the other charges which would have possibly kept him in prison for sure for the rest of his life. She said that that part of this was about the family itself, avoiding the trauma of a public trial. We're seeing this in the Nick Reiner case as well. When you have the defendants and the victims from the same family, that is so much more complex than an ordinary case, which is already difficult and emotional, but now you add that extra trauma to the story, and avoiding a public trial is even the bar is even higher to try and make that happen.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: So and you know, I can appreciate when prosecutors consider the wishes of families in these cases. This young man, now, as the judge explained, like normally he would be constrained by the sendings and guidelines, but now he could possibly consider twenty years. And did I hear it correctly? Twenty years on each account, right, yes, so we're talking forty years he could possibly end up with. And again we don't know this, but this is something at least on the table and the judge said it, so you take that under consideration. He could be late fifties. Yeah, when he gets out, if that's okay, he could still get life. We don't know, but the judge made a point about talking about that twenty years, so that's he's so young. I think that drives home the point that he could actually serve a sentence for double murder and still get out and be an adult who has decades yet to live.

00:10:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, someone in their fifties. You look at like when you're eighteen, that seems like forever, but when you all of a sudden suddenly turn fifty, you think, wow, I still have a really good chunk of my life left to live. So yes, he could get out and actually have a full life.

00:10:56
Speaker 1: I thought that was interesting, But just what's been an awful case? And again this wasn't what it was supposed to be. So the sentencing is now we still have to wait for it. But I thought this was the defense said, you know what, we were going to go to trial in March. Can we do sentencing in March as well?

00:11:13
Speaker 2: And I think, look, all eyes are going to be on sentencing that's set for March fifth. I believe, but there has been talk if the federal government does not like what the judge sentences him too, for instance, that twenty year and twenty years. So say he say he does the minimum and Cassup only gets forty years, the federal government can then step in and charge him. They've said they're considering that or they're keeping that option open because of the federal or the national implications of him. That plot they uncovered where they say Cassip was planning to assassinate Donald Trump, so he said, they found anti government sentiments, They found some information leading to his worshiping of a Satanic cult. So the Fed say, hey, if we don't like what this judge sentences him to, we may step in and throw more charges at him. So that's entirely possible as well.

00:12:09
Speaker 1: They want to make sure he never gets out of prison. Correct. Correct, We're keeping an eye on it, folks. We always appreciate you spending some time here with us. But this update, yes, it only happened within an hour or so of us hopping on the mics here, so we wanted to hop on and give an update on a story that has had national interests. We always appreciate you spending some time with US. Signed TJ Holmes on behalf of my dear Amy Robock. We'll talk to you also