7th August 2025
Case Background:
A Pennsylvania man named Nicholas Kassotis was arrested and charged for the killing of his wife Mindi Kassotis, he was extradited from Lancaster County to Georgia to stand trial. The prosecution and the defense presented their theory of the case in the trial and a few witnesses took the stand and we shall be going through key parts of their testimony.
Case Info
Courthouse: Liberty County, Georgia
Charges:
- Malice Murder – Guilty
- Felony Murder – Guilty
- Aggrevated Assault – Guilty
- Concealing The Death Of Another – Guilty
- Possession Of A Knife During Felony – Guilty
- Possession Of A Tool during a Crime – Guilty
- Removal Of Body Parts – Guilty
- Tampering With Evidence – Guilty
- Verdict Rendered: 14th August 2025
Judge: Charles Rose Jr.
Prosecutor: ADA Laurie Baio, ADA Billy Joe Nelson
Defense Attorneys: Douglas Weinstein
The Deceased: Mindi Kassotis
Today’s Witnesses:
- Witness #12 – Michelle Shepherd – Forensic DNA analyst
- Witness #13 – James Frost – Detective Lead investigator.
- Witness #14 – Vaishnavi Khare (previously Hansen) – Air BnB Operator
- Witness #15 – Tera Ransom – Forensic Biologist GBI Crime Lab
- Witness #16 – Betsy Mebane – Mindi’s mother
- Witness #17 – Frank Mebane III – Mindi’s Father
Witness #12 Michelle Shepherd – Forensic DNA analyst
Direct Exam
- She testifies to analysing tissues, organs for DNA and was tendered as an expert.
- This means that she can speculate in relevant questions regarding anatomy. [My Thoughts]
- She testifies that there was no known sample to compare it to around the time of September 2023. She also says the DNA profile found was 26septillion having 26 zeros
- This means that she would have to test this many samples to find another match. [My thoughts]
- She testifies to the genealogy testing that was made to identify Mindi Kassotis.
- She testifies that cleaning fluids would diminish greatly the DNA and says wiping and friction would impact the analysis.
Cross Exam
- The state highlights that DNA could be found on a soda can and DNA could still be on the material even after being exposed to sunlight.
Redirect Exam
- The state highlights that DNA could also be destroyed once its out there and its up to the results
Witness #13 James Frost – Detective Lead investigator.
Direct Exam
- He testified to finding the Torso in Lakewood County at Berrington Ferry Road, says that he did touch the Torso and there was no odour from the Torso. He says a tote and a knife was found near the Torso
- This likely shows that the Torso was dropped there that day as the body would smell from decomposing. [My thoughts]
- He testifies to Mr. McCallar the hunter finding the leg in another location.
- He testifies to returning to conduct a follow up search with Kadaver dogs and finding a disturbed area, this was the finding of a human head.
- He testifies to arresting Nicholas and the warrant being sought on May 12th 2023 and Agent Sanz informed him of his rights. He says that Nicholas waived his rights.
- He testifies that he conducted a follow-up interview on May 26th 2023 with Agent Sanz and advised rights again.
- He testifies to purchases made for the date range of August 6th to December 29th 2022.
- These purchases were of the knife, latex gloves, wipes 16th August 2022 at Savannah Georgia Home Depot.
- 4th November 2022 he bought a shovel and a fibreglass hammer.
- He says that there was a receipt of for November 29th 2022 of a Milwaukee smooth blade insulation knife
- He testifies to the purchase of a knife set, carry on bag november 28th 2022 from Bass Pro this knife set included a saw.
- He testifies that he did a search the night previously and found no evidence of a recall of vehicles.
- This was to rebut the the testimony of James Hershey regarding the recalls that could have been issued. [My Thoughts]
- He read out the recall notice that was read out and the recall was for the vehicles with police interceptor and hybrids.
- This was exceptional ruled out what the defence presented on Day 2 with Peter Hershey the care salesman. [My Thoughts]
Cross Exam
- The defense highlights the stores they could have gone to outside of home depot, he testified that he only went to Home depot as there was branding on it.
- This was done to aid with theory of a 3rd party culprit and how they zeroed in on Nicholas. I felt that they could have asserted that his client has gone to these stores if true. [My Thoughts]
- The defence highlights if he owned a shovel/ Mindi Torso was discovered on 2nd December 2022 Shovel bought on 4th November 2022.
No redirect exam
Witness #14 Vaishnavi Khare (previously Hansen) – Air BnB Operator
Direct Exam
- Testifies that Nicholas rented a property in June 2022 for 3 months and moved out in December 2022.
- She testifies that Nicholas had indicated to her that they were expecting a child.
- She testifies that Nicholas had moved out suddenly and when she inspected the house, she said it was clean and the rug she had was replaced.
Cross exam
- The defence highlights she told the agents that there was no overpowering smell of cleaning products [2:23:20-2:23:50 This rules out the air bnb as the location to commit the murder before the dismemberment]
No redirect exam
Witness #15 Tera Ransom – Forensic Biologist GBI Crime Lab
Direct Exam
- She testified to testing a clothing from a bag. She explained the processes if they received a defective sample. She testified to the areas of swabbing she did to the tote like the handles. These were submitted to the lab on 17th May 2023
- She testifies to finding a DNA profile from a futon mattress cover. She says the longer a DNA profile remains and exposed to external factors, then the harder it will be to detect and build a profile.
Cross Exam
- Nothing of note
No redirect exam
Witness #16 – Betsy Mebane – Mindi’s Kassotis mother
Direct Exam
- She testifies when she knew Nicholas Kassotis, he went by the name Stark, she also knew of Nicholas from his marriage to Mindi. She testifies to not knowing the 1st wife’s name as Mindi said she shall not be known.
- She testifies that Mindi had a miscarriage several years before she died. He says that Mindi was due to give birth on January 8th 2023 and said that they were expecting a girl.
- She testifies that Mindi and Nick were fearful for their lives because they had been hacked and Nick was supposed to be working for Microsoft and had solved an algorithm issue.
- She testifies that Nick and Mindi were starting to move in 2019 from Virginia. She testified that Nick had told them to start communicating via the signal app.
- She testifies to speaking with the supposed security team via email but she never saw them.
- She testifies that the security did not pay for the hotel she was staying at. She also said that they had put their house up for sale. She said that Nicholas had said they went Savannah to stay at a rented property.
- She testifies that Mindi never left the house but Nicholas left the house a number of times. He says Nick got a car around this time.
- She also says that she never met or seen anyone that Nick had been working for or meeting.
- She testifies that Nick had said that Mindi was receiving help from a military base for her health problems and she figured that
- She testified she told him that she had told her that Mindy had died after he had said she is not coming home. He never told him doctors name or the hospital she died. She said there was no funeral or was she given.
- She testifies that she had no knowledge of Nick suing the hospital for negligibly leaving the wife to die at the hospital.
- She testifies to receiving email from his security that he had died from a serious car accident.
- She testified to communicating with an agent Sands.
- She testified to being in communications via email about the death of Nicholas in 19th April 2023.
Cross exam
- The defense highlights that Mindi had also told her that she was pregnant as well as Nick.
Redirect Exam
- She said that they spoke through Signal one but most was by text
Witness #17 – Frank Mebane III – Mindi Kassotis’s Father
Direct Exam
- He testifies that the they had moved to a hotel that the wife Betsy got for them. He also says that they had big tubs
- This raises the question of whether these are the same tubs that was found at the scene that we heard testimony from Brett Dickerson on Day 2 about. [My Thoughts]
- He testifies that health wise that Mindi couldnt work. He says he heard that their safety was at risk and he was told this all the time. He says that Mindi was afraid.
- He testifies that there was a security team that was looking after them and they had to get permission from the security team before they could do anything.
- He testifies that he was told that Nicholas was working for Microsoft on something secret so they needed a security team.
- He testifies that his name shall be changed to Nicholas Stark for security reasons and even had branded clothes and bags as that name.
- He testifies to camera’s being installed in the house (the air bnb).
- He testifies to getting hip surgery in November 30th to 1st December. He says that he saw Mindi around the time of November around thanksgiving (24th) and she had apparently looked sickly. Says that Nick told him Mindi was at the hospital.
- He testifies that Mindy had died at the hospital and he was upset but he didnt know what had happened this would be from the span of 25th-30th November 2022.
- He testifies that the security team would send him an email and he would respond, he never initiated or solicited for their email
Cross Exam
- The defense highlights that everyday from noon to 3, they would be out of the house and not know about the incomings and outgoings.
- The defense highlights that Mindy had told him about the Signal app and also said that Mindy told them that Nicholas was changing his name to Stark for security reasons.
- The defense highlights the issue of Litigation. He testifies that Nick was not a litigious person and he never asked Nick why he didnt sue. He known Nick for 6 years.
- Frank Mebane III was one of the police officers on the Murdaugh case.
No redirect exam
Court adjourned for the day!
Hope you are now caught up with the substance of what happened in court on Day 3.
Thanks for reading xo
Sources:
Trial Footage, Available on Youtube via @TheTrialChannel_ , Youtube playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLq-6my_qlf9vhXw9gMoqIo3Fv4xMbs1W&si=MzCUlpWmKdK6mrjn
All court filings pertaining to the trial courtesy of @Happily_Angry_Lawyer aka Jim Robichaud, Available online, PDFs: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15yaqe8kwjoNnIq2dfFCD0Bi1vqP_4hb7
