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When Michael Gleason Jr., 50, appeared before Bail Magistrate Stephanie Johnson in April on felony charges of sexual assault, kidnapping, domestic violence, and theft against his ex-wife, she let him out on $5,000 cash bail.

On Sunday, Gleason tracked down his ex, 25-year-old Marisol Fuentes, working at La Casita Mexican restaurant in Berlin, and gunned her down before turning the shotgun on himself.

Now, a state representative wants Johnson out.

Rep. Lori Korzen (R-Berlin) is calling on Johnson to resign from her post. On Thursday, she released a letter she sent to the magistrate urging her to step down.

“The bail system exists to balance the rights of the accused with the imperative of public safety. In this instance, I believe that balance was not achieved, and the result was a preventable tragedy,” Korzen wrote.

“Our community places its trust in the judiciary to exercise prudent judgment, especially in cases where there is a clear risk to individuals and public safety. When that trust is broken, the repercussions are felt far beyond the courtroom; they are measured in lives lost and families forever changed.”

The gruesome murder-suicide has hit the Berlin community hard. During Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting, which was held in Coos County, Councilor Joe Kenney spoke about the crime.

“People ask me how could this happen to a vivacious, young 25-year-old who had everything to live for and had in front of her, and it was all taken away because of a court system that basically give a limited bail amount to this estranged husband.”

Gov. Kelly Ayotte told the Council the incident was more proof the bail reform fix she championed was needed. Asked by NHJournal if she believes Johnson should resign, Ayotte pointed out, “The stronger bail law I championed eliminates the magistrates—and rightly so.”

Ayotte was more explicit in February when she criticized Johnson’s decision to release a stabbing suspect on personal recognizance. At the time, Ayotte used her budget speech to comment on the story and pitch for the new bail law.

“What happened in Manchester last Friday night is completely unbelievable, when an individual accused of repeatedly stabbing a complete stranger, and who has a prior conviction for domestic violence, is allowed to walk free by a magistrate. I cannot emphasize this enough,” Ayotte told the state legislators listening to her speech in the House chamber. “Send me legislation to fix this once and for all.”

Today, Korzen says Johnson needs to resign.

“Our community deserves leaders who act with the utmost vigilance and responsibility, particularly in matters where lives are at stake,” Korzen said. “My deepest sympathies remain with the family of Marisol Fuentes and all those affected by this senseless act. I urge you to consider the impact of this decision and to take the necessary steps to help our community heal and move forward.”

When radical leftist Elias Rodriguez murdered Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim on May 22 in Washington, D.C., the group Unity of Fields went to work.

On the day of the shocking murder, the group made its position clear with a post on Twitter/X, “We ain’t condemning sh*t.” They also posted a link to a petition celebrating Rodriguez and calling for the accused murderer’s release.

“Elias Rodriguez’s act was fully justified, at that place where legal and moral duties meet,” the group declared.

Who are these antisemitic extremists celebrating violence? They are the same Marxists behind the attack on Elbit Systems in Merrimack, N.H., just weeks after the Hamas terror rampage in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Elbit Systems is based in Israel.)

When Democratic Party activist Calla Walsh and her allies attacked Elbit, they were part of Palestine Action U.S. Today, they call themselves Unity of Fields (UoF), a reference to efforts by Palestinian terror organizations to coordinate their attacks on Israel and Jews across multiple fronts during the 2021 Israel-Hamas war.

Whatever its current name, the organization comprises the same collection of radical Marxists who surround notorious multimillionaire — and one-time New Hampshire resident — James “Fergie” Chambers. That includes Walsh, who wrote in a May 2023 essay for Unity of Fields that Rodriguez simply “brought the war home” when he murdered Lischinsky and Milgrim.

“[W]e must uphold armed struggle against imperialism, abroad and here, such as the alleged actions of political prisoner Elias Rodriguez, who brought the war home,” Walsh wrote.

Unity of Fields’ website hosts printable versions of Rodriguez’s terrorist manifesto as well as guides and manuals for conducting “anti-imperialist action.” It also posts reports from radical protests across the country, and printable posters celebrating people like Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attack. Israeli soldiers killed Sinwar in October. 

On the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, Unity of Fields issued a statement calling for more terror.

“If victory over the US Empire and its zionist [sic] proxy is possible, it will be because struggles against them have erupted all over the world — Bring the war home! Two, three, many Al-Aqsa Floods!”

Al-Aqsa Flood is the Hamas name for the Oct. 7 attack. 

Walsh, Bridget Shergalis, Sophie Ross, and Paige Belanger were all convicted of misdemeanor charges for their attack on Elbit, which was done under the Palestinian Action US banner. They were sentenced to 60 days in jail.

James “Fergie” Chambers interviewed from his new home in Tunisia.

Walsh and the other women have long been linked to Chambers and his Marxist Commune in the Berkshires. Chambers moved from the commune to the Upper Valley in New Hampshire to take advantage of the Granite State’s friendly tax laws and easy access to legal firearms.

Chambers is an heir of the wealthy Cox family, who has made his radical and anti-Israel sentiments well known. He called Oct. 7 “a moment of hope and inspiration,” and told Mother Jones magazine, “the most important thing for the prosperity of humanity is the destruction of the US.”

Aside from hating America and Israel, Chambers is a big fan of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling Vladimir Putin a “great man.”

It appears that law enforcement has been very interested in Walsh, Chambers, and their friends. Walsh’s cell phone was seized by FBI agents after her arrest in Merrimack, opening up her contact list to federal investigators. Carrying a personal cell phone to an “action” is the type of security breach considered a no-no in the manuals published on Unity of Fields’ website. 

“Enabling my personal phone to get seized is one of the greatest tactical errors I have ever made; it exposed and endangered not only me but every single contact I had on that phone,” Walsh wrote.

After Walsh’s cell phone seizure, Chambers left his home in New Hampshire and moved to Tunisia in North Africa. Along with the stunning desert views, Tunisia offers no extradition treaty with the United States. 

New Hampshire’s sole death row inmate, Michael “Stix” Addison, is asking the state Supreme Court to lift his sentence for murdering Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs. 

Attorneys for Addison, 45, have been trying for years to avoid the pending execution. Last week, they filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking a review of Addison’s sentence in the wake of the 2019 law banning the death penalty. 

“With its legislative repeal of the death penalty on May 23, 2019, New Hampshire concluded that the death penalty is an excessive and disproportionate punishment for any crime or defendant,” the petition states. “This profound shift in community values against the death penalty provides ‘special and important reasons for’ this Court’s exercise of original jurisdiction to conduct renewed comparative proportionality review.”

The Supreme Court has twice weighed in on Addison’s fate since his 2008 conviction. In a 2013 ruling, the state’s highest court affirmed his capital murder conviction. In 2015, justices performed a sentence proportionality review and found his death penalty was “neither excessive nor disproportionate.”

However, both of those rulings came before the state passed a 2019 law eliminating the death penalty. That law included a carve-out to keep the death penalty in place for anyone already awaiting execution. Then, as now, Addison was the only person in the state on death row.

His legal team said the death penalty repeal law and exemption make his sentence unjust.

“New Hampshire’s super-majoritarian repeal of the death penalty has ensured that no one who is convicted of the same crime as Mr. Addison with a background like his will be sentenced to death. Even a defendant of far greater moral culpability than Mr. Addison will not be subject to execution. Accordingly, Mr. Addison’s sentence is now arbitrary, aberrational, and thus disproportionate, and it should be invalidated based on renewed comparative proportionality review,” the petition states. 

Addison’s lawyers argue that he is the victim of undue political influence. Gov. Kelly Ayotte pushed for Addison’s death penalty when she was attorney general, and she testified against the repeal of the bill in 2019 before the exception was added.

“If we repeal the death penalty, make no mistake, Michael Addison will not get the penalty for having murdered Officer Briggs,” Ayotte testified at the time. 

Addison’s lawyers argue politics should stay out of the question when it comes to Addison’s life.

“Such political accommodations or concerns cannot and should not impact this Court’s solemn duty to revisit proportionality review in light of the unquestionable expression of community standards that no person should ever again be subject to execution in New Hampshire,” the petition states.

Fallen Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs.

Addison and his partner in crime, Antoine Bell-Rodgers, had pulled off three violent armed robberies in the days before Briggs was murdered. On Oct. 16, 2006, Briggs and fellow Manchester Police Officer John Breckenridge responded to a report of a fight at the home of Bell-Rodgers and Addison. 

The two men allegedly tried to leave when they saw the officers, but Briggs ordered the pair to stop. Bell-Rodgers did stop, but Addison kept walking away. Briggs again ordered him to stop. Addison turned around and shot Briggs in the head. Briggs hadn’t even unholstered his pistol.

Addison fled the state and was later caught in Dorchester, Mass.

Bell-Rodgers is currently serving 60 years to life for his role in the crime.

Three years before the murder, Briggs responded to a shooting scene in Manchester where Addison was the victim, providing first aid that may have saved his future killer’s life.

Vegan-transgender-AI cult leader Jack “Ziz” Lasota and two of his followers are facing new charges in Maryland as one cult member denies being part of a Pennsylvania double-murder linked to the group.

“I didn’t murder my parents,” Michele Zajko wrote in a letter made available this week to the Associated Press.

Zajko, 32, Lasota, 33, and Daniel Blank, 26, all currently in jail in Maryland, are considered persons of interest in the 2023 murders of Rita and Richard Zajko. Zajko is now linked to the murder of Border Agent David Maland. Zajko was charged in the United States District Court in Vermont with providing false information to a gun dealer when she bought guns later traced back to Maland’s reported killer, Teresa Youngblut.

Youngblut and Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt shot at Maland during a traffic stop in Vermont near the Canadian border earlier this year. Bauckholt died in the shootout. Youngblut is being held on federal charges related to the shooting. Both Youngblut and Bauckholt are reputed members of the Ziz cult.

But Zajko denies the group is a cult, and blames the media for giving them that label.

“The little news I’ve gotten is enough to determine that my friends & I are being described as Satan’s lapdogs, the Devil, & the Manson family all rolled into one,” Zajko wrote. “My friends and I certainly don’t call ourselves ‘Zizians.’”

Lasota, Zajko, and Blank were arrested in Maryland in February and held on misdemeanor gun and trespassing charges. Before they could go to trial on those charges, their cases were transferred to Superior Court, and they were indicted on more serious counts. The new charges include carrying concealed and loaded handguns. The possible maximum penalties for each charge range from three months of incarceration for trespassing and up to five years for some of the gun charges. 

Lasota began collecting young followers in California from the tech industry using “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” as a holy book. The fan-fiction book is popular in the AI tech community and central to the quasi-scientific faith of Lasota and his followers. Lasota reportedly believes in a coming AI apocalypse in which a super-AI being will destroy those who are not working to create it. Lasota also believes that not being vegan will mark people out for future torture by the AI being. 

Lasota subjected his followers to sleep deprivation as part of attempts to unlock a separate personality in their brains. Typically, that other person is a different gender under Lasota’s regime. There is at least one reported suicide linked to Lasota’s sleep deprivation techniques. 

Zizian cultists are also charged in the killing of Vallejo, Calif., man Curtis Lind, 82. Lind was set to testify against cult members after they allegedly tried to kill him a year ago when Ziz cultist Maximillian Snyder stabbed him. Snyder went to high school with Youngblut, and the two had a marriage license, though it is unclear if they ever married.

The man behind the Zizians — a violent AI-vegan-rationalist-transgender cult linked to six deaths — has been arrested in Maryland. 

Among the deaths involving members of the Zizian group is the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Vermont-Canada border.

Ziz, also known as Jack Amadeus LaSota, 33, was arrested last weekend in rural Allegany County, Md. after spending months on the run. Along with LaSota, police also arrested Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, both linked to the bizarre group.

Zajko, along with LaSota, is a person of interest in the double murder of her parents, Rita and Richard Zajko, in Pennsylvania. Zajko is also believed to have bought the guns Ziz cultists Teresa Youngblut and Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt used during last month’s shooting in Vermont.

Maland and Bauckholt both died as a result of the shooting. Youngblut is currently being held on federal charges connected to Maland’s death.

Daniel Blank

It isn’t clear what led to LaSota’s capture in Maryland. He’s charged with suspicion of trespassing on private property, obstruction, and gun possession. Both Blank and Zajko are charged with trespassing and obstruction, and Zajko is charged with having a gun on her person, according to reports. VTDigger reports police in Maryland were unaware of the cult and its connection to the other murders when they arrested LaSota, Blank, and Zajko.

All three are due in court Tuesday for their first appearance on the Maryland charges, though it’s likely other law enforcement agencies will be intervening now that LaSota has been captured. 

LaSota started the cult in the California Bay Area after years of struggling to break into the AI tech field. He attracted followers initially through his blog in which he wrote about artificial intelligence, rationalist philosophy, veganism, and transgenderism.

At one point, LaSota lived on a dilapidated tug boat where he brought his followers together and forced some into sleep deprivation techniques. A reported aim of the sleep deprivation was to unlock a subject’s transgender persona, according to multiple reports. 

The group started living in specially outfitted box trucks that contained hidden living areas, food, water, and power generators. The trucks enabled them to move undetected through urban environments, and were entered through hidden openings in the bottom of the truck, according to reports.

In August, 2022, while facing criminal charges in California, LaSota faked his own death. The ruse did not work long, as he was reported as having been seen alive by law enforcement in November 2022, according to court records. 

Michelle Zajko

LaSota spent months in a Pennsylvania jail in 2023 on charges of obstruction and disorderly conduct in connection to the investigation into the murders of Rita and Richard Zajko. LaSota, Zajko, and Blank were all questioned about the murders. LaSota was eventually released on bail after five months and soon disappeared along with Zajko and Blank. 

Zajko reportedly owned property in Vermont close to the Canadian border, and is believed to have supplied Youngblut and  Bauckholt with guns and ammunition. 

The area where the shootout occurred is part of the Border Patrol’s “Swanton Sector,” which also includes the New Hampshire-Canada border. Officials reported a massive surge in illegal crossings in the sector during the Biden presidency.

When the Biden administration cut federal funding for border security in the region, then-Gov. Chris Sununu created the Northern Border Alliance Task Force to provide resources to backstop federal efforts. Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s budget includes continued funding for the effort.

Zizian cultists are also charged in the killing of Vallejo, Calif., man Curtis Lind, 82. Lind was set to testify against cult members after they allegedly tried to kill him a year ago when Ziz cultist Maximillian Snyder stabbed him. Snyder went to high school with Youngblut and the two had a marriage license. 

The woman accused in the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David C. Maland near the Canadian border in Vermont appears to be part of a techno-rationalist cult founded by a biological male who identifies as a woman and goes by the name of Ziz. The group has been linked to at least three other murders.

Teresa “Milo” Consuelo Youngblut, 21, from Washington state, is being held without bail on federal charges connected to Maland’s Jan. 20 killing. Youngblut’s associate, German national Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt, was killed during the traffic stop that ended in gunfire.

United States Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle said Thursday the evidence against Youngblut appears strong enough to keep her in custody without bail, according to VTDigger.

Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Lasher relied on his previous court filing to make the case Youngblut is too dangerous to be released pending trial. According to Lasher, the connection to Ziz helps make her a danger.

“The defendant’s possession and use of a firearm, combined with her itineracy and associations, suggests she poses a current and substantial danger to the community that could not be addressed by a condition or a combination of conditions of pretrial release,” Lasher wrote.

Both Youngblut and Bauckholt have ties to Jack LaSota, AKA Ziz, a California man who espouses a violent philosophy based on veganism, techno-rationality, artificial intelligence, and transgenderism, according to court filings and media reports. LaSota’s small group of followers, known in the San Francisco area as Zizians, are connected to the murder of an elderly rancher and the murders of a Pennsylvania couple, parents of another Zizian.

“Reject morality. Never do the right thing because it’s the right thing. Never even think that concept or ask that question unless it’s to model what others will think,” LaSota reportedly wrote on a now-defunct blog.

LaSota reportedly faked his own death at least once, and is currently being held on charges connected to the Pennsylvania murders. Like most Zizians, LaSota identifies as a transgender woman. The teachings Ziz espouses encouraged followers to unlock different personas and genders within their minds, using sleep deprivation techniques. The followers are also pressured into cutting off family ties.

LaSota’s teaching reportedly became violent and militant over time, with anger directed at fellow members of the Bay Area tech community who did not adhere to veganism. In a blog since taken offline, Ziz wrote of bringing hell to non-vegan rationalists, and wrote that people should always escalate every conflict. 

Ziz first gained notoriety in 2019 when Zizians protested an event put on by CFAR, the Center For Applied Rational Thinking, a popular self-help non-profit for people in the tech industry. The Zizians alarmed attendees, who called the police.

On Jan. 17, Zizian Maximilian Snyder stabbed 82-year-old Curtis Lind to death in Vallejo, Calif. Lind had been a landlord for the Zizians before three of them allegedly tried to murder him in 2022. Lind survived the 2022 attack thanks to a firearm, killing one Zizian and wounding the two others. He was set to testify at the upcoming Zizian trial against the surviving attackers, Alexander Leatham and Suri Dao, when Snyder killed him.

Snyder went to high school with Teresa Younblut, and the two applied for a marriage license in November in Washington state, though there is no evidence they were married. 

Another Zizian, Michelle Zajko, who identifies as nonbinary, allegedly bought the guns Youngblut and Bauckholt had on them when Maland stopped their car on Interstate 91 in Coventry, Vt. Zaijko is currently wanted as a person of interest in the 2023 Pennsylvania murder of her parents, Richard and Rita Zajko. 

Youngblut reportedly fired her handgun at Maland during the stop, while Bauckholt fumbled his pistol and was killed during the brief shootout. The couple had been under federal surveillance for a week in Newport, Vt. They reportedly wore black, tactical clothing and openly carried their guns when walking around town.

On Thursday, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made a surprise trip to the Vermont border to speak with Border Patrol agents, though she did not make any public remarks during her visit.

New Hampshire’s only death row inmate wants his sentence for killing a police officer commuted, and his clemency quest may become part of this year’s election.

Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs was murdered 18 years ago, leaving behind a wife and young children. His killer, Michael “Stix” Addison, was quickly caught, tried, and convicted of capital murder. The woman who prosecuted the case and sought the death penalty, Kelly Ayotte, could be the next governor. 

Addison, 44, was in Merrimack Superior Court in Concord on Monday seeking to have the death sentence imposed by the original unanimous jury overturned.

Ayotte told NHJournal on Monday she still believes Addison should face the ultimate punishment for murdering Michael Briggs.

“As attorney general, I sought a death sentence for Michael Addison for his cold-blooded murder of Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs. The jury found Addison guilty of capital murder and imposed the death sentence. I testified against the repeal of the death penalty, and I still believe that he should be executed for killing Officer Briggs,” Ayotte said.

Despite having served as mayor of Manchester, the city Officer Briggs served, Democrat Joyce Craig has said little about Addison’s attempt to avoid the death sentence.

Craig would not respond to a request for comment from NHJournal about the convicted murderer’s request for leniency. When asked by WMUR if she supported clemency for Addison, she gave a one-word reply:

“No.”

Manchester’s crime problem on her watch, along with homelessness and opioid addiction, have emerged as key issues in the campaign for governor. Those issues plagued her time as mayor and helped get Republican Jay Ruais elected last year. 

Addison’s attorney, Jon Cioschi, pointed to New Hampshire’s decision to repeal the death penalty in 2019 (HB 455) in his current arguments for commutation. Cioschi said the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the United States Constitution.

But Assistant Attorney General Audriana Mekula said in court that the New Hampshire Supreme Court has already weighed in on Addison’s case, upholding the death sentence.

“As it stands, the historical and textual analysis is the way to look at this, and the New Hampshire Supreme Court has already held that the sentence, the death penalty, in general and as applied to this particular petitioner, is constitutional,” Mekula said.

The state Supreme Court upheld the conviction and sentence in a 2013 ruling, and in a 2015 sentence review. Both rulings found Addison’s death sentence does not violate the Constitution and that the sentence is appropriate.

“We conclude that the defendant’s sentence is neither excessive nor disproportionate and, accordingly, affirm his sentence of death,” the Supreme Court ruled in 2015.

But Cioschi said the 2019 repeal law is evidence New Hampshire no longer supports the death penalty and imposing death on Addison violates the will of the people.

“HB 455, the repeal, is clear, reliable, objective evidence that the death penalty is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency in New Hampshire.” Cioschi said. 

While the legislature voted to pass HB 455, Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed the law, saying it represented a miscarriage of justice for Briggs and his surviving family.

“This bill is an injustice to not only Officer Briggs and his family, but to law enforcement and victims of violent crime around the state,” Sununu said at the time.

The legislature voted to override the veto, however, and the repeal became law more than 20 years after Addison was sentenced to die by lethal injection.

Addison and his partner in crime, Antoine Bell-Rodgers, had pulled off three violent armed robberies in the days before Briggs was murdered. On Oct. 16, 2006, Briggs and fellow Manchester Police Officer John Breckenridge responded to a report of a fight at the home of Bell-Rodgers and Addison. 

The two men allegedly tried to leave when they saw the officers, but Briggs ordered the pair to stop. Bell-Rodgers did stop, but Addison kept walking away. Briggs again ordered him to stop, and that was when Addison turned around and shot Briggs in the head. Briggs, at that point, had not upholstered his pistol. Addison fled the state, and was later caught in Dorchester, Mass.

Bell-Rodgers is currently serving a 60-years-to-life sentence for his role. 

During his appeal, Addison argued that his difficult childhood, including a drug addicted mother who abused him, were mitigating factors in the crime. Addison was 26 when he killed Briggs. 

Not mentioned in Addison’s litany of mitigating factors is the fact he knew Briggs before the murder. In 2003, Briggs saved his life, giving Addison first aid after Addison was shot by another man in Manchester. 

Judge Daniel St. Hilaire ordered both sides to provide more information for their arguments. The next hearing is set for October.

Free State talk radio host and convicted murderer Mark Edgington, candidate for a House seat representing Hudson and Litchfield, appears to be a recent arrival to the community.

Edgington, 53, is a longtime resident of Westmoreland, a small community outside Keene on the other side of the state. Edgington is a former partner with Free Keene’s Ian Freeman, the jailed Libertarian talk radio host convicted of money laundering and wire fraud.

Years earlier, Edgington spent about eight years in a Florida prison after strangling a man to death.

While he is now registered to vote in Hudson, Edgington’s address on file with the Hudson town clerk’s office is a UPS Store on Lowell Street.

Edgington did not respond to a question about his residency in Hudson. In April on a Hudson Facebook group, Edgington asked the group about a room for rent in either Hudson or Litchfield.

“I am looking for a room to rent in Hudson or Litchfield. I am a 53 yo non drinker and non smoker,” he posted.

Edgington is married with a teen son, a fact he touts as part of his campaign biography. A married father seeking a rented room in a town more than an hour’s drive away is one more curious aspect to Edgington’s candidacy.

Current Rep. Ralph Boehm and former Rep. Kim Rice are also running in the GOP primary in this Republican-leaning district. Campaign professionals say it’s not the type of district where the party would need a candidate to parachute in to fill a vacancy. There are two safe Republican seats and three candidates, including Edgington.

Boehm suspects Edgington’s run is backed by House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn.)

“We do not need a convicted murderer running for office in the Republican Party. And I think it is a disgrace that this person is being encouraged by the House Majority Leader,” Boehm told NHJournal.

Osborne did not respond to a request for comment. The lone Democrat running in the district, Luan Baci, also did not respond to a request for comment.

This isn’t the first time a Free State transplant running as a Republican generated bad headlines. Former House candidate Elliot Axelman was charged this year with assaulting a teen girl at the 2022 PorcFest, the Free State Project’s annual gathering. 

Chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party Chris Ager did not weigh in on Edgington’s suitability as a candidate, saying it is up to voters to decide.

“The people of that district have a choice since it is a contested primary and I’m confident they’re going to make the right choice,” Ager said.

Edgington was 17 when he strangled motel manager Ballapuran Umakanthan, 37, to death, according to his affidavit. Edgington and his accomplice, Carmen Tungate, then 18, planned to beat and rod the motel manager in a Bradenton, Fla. Econo Lodge. When Umakanthan fought back, Tungate held the man down while Edgington strangled him until he saw blood coming out if Umakanthan’s ears, according to the affidavit. 

“35 years ago, at 17, I made some bad choices to hang out with the wrong people. The results were catastrophic. It taught me a lot and I am grateful for the lessons, all of the lessons, that have made me the man I am today,” Edgington told NHJournal via email yesterday.

Edgington pleaded no contest to second degree murder and served less than 10 years of his 30 year sentence. Once released, he attended classes at a Florida community college where he met Freemen. The two would move to New Hampshire to be part of the Free State Project and launch the Free Talk Live show.

Freeman ended up excommunicated from the Free State Project when in 2014 he used his radio show to advocate lowering the age of consent for sexual relations.

Republican candidate Mark Edgington is a successful entrepreneur, a volunteer firefighter, and a philanthropic volunteer who helped build an orphanage in Africa. 

He’s also a convicted murderer who helped beat and strangle a motel manager to death during a 1989 robbery in Florida.

“35 years ago, at 17, I made some bad choices to hang out with the wrong people. The results were catastrophic. It taught me a lot and I am grateful for the lessons, all of the lessons, that have made me the man I am today,” Edgington told NHJournal via email.

Edgington, one of the original Free State Project pioneers, is now running for a seat in the state House of Representatives as a Republican to represent the towns of Hudson and Litchfield.

According to an affidavit given by Edgington that was filed in court and contemporaneous press accounts, Edgington was 17 and his accomplice, Carmen Tungate, was 18 when they killed Ballapuran Umakanthan, 37, in a Bradenton, Fla. Econo Lodge. 

Umakanthan had recently fired Tungate for stealing from the business, according to the reports. Tungate and Edgington rented a room at the Econo Lodge and allegedly lured Umakanthan into the room with a complaint about a broken air conditioner. 

Umakanthan entered the room, and Tungate hit him in the head with a pipe, according to Edgington’s affidavit. Umakanthan fought back but was soon overpowered. Tungate held Umakanthan down while Edgington strangled him until he saw blood coming out of the man’s ears, according to his affidavit.

Once Umakanthan was dead, Edgington allegedly helped wrap him in a sheet. He and Tungate then fled.

Tungate flew to Virginia after Edgington gave him a ride to the airport, according to the reports. Edgington stayed in Florida and was arrested the day after the murder while attending summer school classes. 

Tungate evaded the law for a year and even got featured on “America’s Most Wanted.” He was arrested in Virginia when he tried to get a fraudulent birth certificate using the name of a child who had just died. 

Tungate and Edgington pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and were sentenced to 30 years in prison. Tungate ended up serving 10 years, and Edgington eight, thanks to a controversial early release program that has since been rescinded. 

As a free man, Tungate would go on to accumulate a criminal record for exposing himself to teen boys. He was shot and killed in 2009 in Florida in what is still an unsolved murder. 

Once free, Edgington got interested in the radio business and in the late 1990s he met fellow broadcasting student Ian Bernard at community college. The pair also shared Libertarian political beliefs. The two would move to New Hampshire where Bernard, who changed his name to Ian Freeman, as part of the Free State Project.

Edgington and Freeman started Free Talk Live, Freeman’s successful Libertarian talk radio show. The two were early adopters of BitCoin and saw their investment pay off. According to a New York Magazine article, the pair drifted apart as Freeman became more involved in cryptocurrency activism. Edgington also became somewhat disillusioned with the Free State Project movement.

“Ian and I have completely different goals on what we want to do with our cryptocurrency,” Edgington told New York Magazine. “I want to create a place that’s actually free, rather than a bunch of recalcitrant, autistic people running around arguing with each other. People have been in New Hampshire for 20 years, and not much has occurred.”

Freeman is now serving a nine year federal prison sentence for wire fraud and money laundering related to his many BitCoin exchanges. 

Edgington retired from Free Talk Live and said he’s no longer involved in the operations, though he does guest host from time to time. Edgington says he is ready to contribute to his adopted state as a Republican.

“Now I am ready to deepen my commitment to my state and Republican values by serving in the State House. As a firefighter and party volunteer, I have been passionate about serving my community for a long time. I want to protect parents’ rights to raise their kids how they see best, reduce taxes, and defend the Second Amendment,” Edgington said.

New Hampshire does not bar people convicted of felonies from serving in the legislature, so long as they have served their full sentence, including any probation and paying court-ordered fines. 

A woman with ties to a Massachusetts Marxist commune and who expressed support for Hamas days after its terrorists murdered 1,300 Israelis is facing justice in New Hampshire. 

A grand jury returned felony indictments against Paige Belanger, 32, of Alford, Mass., for allegedly being part of the violent protests at the Merrimack Elbit Systems facility, an Israeli-owned weapons developer.

Belanger is now facing state prison time on charges of riot, criminal mischief, conspiracy to commit criminal mischief, and conspiracy to commit burglary for her role in the Nov. 20 incident during which smoke bombs were ignited from the building rooftop by protesters.

Belanger joins pro-Palestinian progressives Calla Walsh, 19, Bridget Shergalis, 27, and Sophie Ross, 22, on the dock. The women all have one man in common: multimillionaire James “Fergie” Chambers. He uses his family fortune to further his Marxist goals.

According to Canary Mission, a group that documents antisemitic hate, Belanger is a member of Palestinian Action USA, part of the antisemitic BDS movement. Chambers is listed as one of the American founders of Palestinian Action USA, though he told NHJournal he’s not a leader in the group. Belanger also listed herself as the secretary for the Berkshire Communists, a “revolutionary Marxist-Leninist collective” reportedly bankrolled by Chambers.

Chambers put up the bail to get the women out of custody after their initial arrests, something he told NHJournal he does for many activists on the extreme left.

The Marxist left is the prime mover behind many of the anti-Israel protests that have sprung up since the Oct. 7 Hamas murders, and the Israeli military response. The New Hampshire chapter of the Party of Socialism and Liberation coordinates many of the protests.

However, funding for the groups comes from sources closer to the mainstream Democratic Party. A recent report found billionaire Democratic families and major contributors to President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, the Soros family, Rockefeller family, and Pritzker family, are also handing cash to anti-Israel groups that organized recent college campus protests.

Election Commission data by RealClearPolitics found congressional Democrats running for reelection have taken more than $6.5 million from the three major donors who are also bankrolling the anti-Israel protests roiling college campuses.

New Hampshire’s own Rep. Chris Pappas collected nearly $60,000 from the same people funding anti-Israel and anti-U.S. protests.

Belanger is due in the Hillsborough Superior Court — South in Nashua June 13 for her arraignment.