11th 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 #21 – Tracy Sans (Continuation from Day 4)
- Witness #22 – Lauren Satcher – Firearms and Toolmarks examiner
- Witness #23 – Christian Johnson – Special GBI Agent
- Witness #24 – Jay Berni – Special FBI Agent
Witness #21 – Tracy Sands – Lead Investigator
Direct Exam
- He testifies to the interview he conducted on the 26th May 2023 and the video was tendered into evidence.
- He says that he had a phone call to go pick Mindi up from the doctors office, he says that she had surgery. He says that he went to the pet store afterwards and says it was a 15 minutes drive.
- He says he was upset when the doctor told him that Mindi had passed away and it happened suddenly and he wasnt expecting it as he was hoping he would come and pick her up.
- He says that he asked him if he could see her but he said not right now and he said he thought he couldnt see her because of the autopsy or something like that. He says that he signed the document presented in front of him.
- He says that he had his phone on him despite Jim or the agents telling him to not bring his phone
- The police said to him that there is DNA evidence on the totes that belong to him and he said that he is not responsible for his wife’s death.
- He says that Jim and Francis was the only people that were supplying him with money.
- He says that Jim told him via documents that he had 32 million from donors from the projects he had done so he believed him.
- He testifies that he told people that Mindi had died whilst pregnant to some and then told that she wasnt dead. He says that she was pregnant and due in January 2023 but had previously said she had a miscarriage in the first interview.
- He says that the knife was in the back of a truck but law enforcement says it was found in the tote.
- He says he spoke to Jim after home depot in November 2022 and said he stopped at a house. He says he never saw Mindi after she had passed away.
- He says that Jim had told him to pick up Mindi’s ashes.
- He says that he was expecting more money from Jim after the car had blown up. He says he had to lie to keep safe from his dad.
- He says he bought a new rug in the Air BnB because Rusty was sick on the rug when confronted regarding the missing rug.
- Says he never prosecuted a murder case before as a prosecutor.
- He says he got out of the military because he wanted to start a family. Says that he remembers drafting two letters but officers highlighted he has been moving around.
- He says that Cameron his friend had known that he had changed his name.
- Christopher Kassotis his brother no sisters.
- He says he tried leaving a message for Dave Carpell who is part of the FBI and was an attorney for their unit when asked what he did to follow up about seeking help from the FBI.
- He says that Jim told him to move from Pennsylvania and helped him fill the marriage license out and says he would be safer with the move.
- Says that both him and Mindi were in a car accident and Beth knew about this.
- The Investigators pressed regarding the truth he was doing and he says he was instructed to go to the Hunters Club.
- He says he wouldnt have ran away from the judgement because him and his first wife was stipulated what the terms were in their settlement.
- Tracey Sands was deferred for another witness.
Witness #22 – Lauren Satcher – Firearms and Toolmarks examiner
Direct Exam
- She testifies to all the verification methods that goes into an analysis and validating the findings.
- She testifies that the knife was considered as a suspect tool and had to be compared to see if there are class characteristics.
- She testifies that item 23 were cuts made by the medical examiner and explained the difference with false start and terminal starts which false starts are. She explains that deep false starts are cuts that began and penetrated deep but was not a complete cut.
- She testifies that item 24 is the suspect cut side and says that before the cut was finished, it was taken back out. She says that the W shape is that the tool was sawing on the bone. She says that there is no way the knife would have done this cut.
- She testifies to items 25-26 that a bone spur would only happen if there is a complete cut. She says this cut is consistent with a saw.
- She testified that item 27 is indicative of a saw cut. This is the right femur.
- She testified to using a saw from the deer processing kit and says that she couldnt exclude it as a potential weapon. And then gone onto show her comparisons.
- She testifies that deep false starts are more indicative of power tools.
Cross Exam
- The defence highlights that she determined that the suspect knife could not be used on the femur and humorous bones.
- She testifies that there were no class characteristics to determine that it was 100% a saw.
- She testifies that she used lead wire because its a soft metal as they dont want to damage the tool they are trying to analysing to protect the integrity of the equipment not to create or add individual characteristics to the tool [This is a good point because not using the bone for the analysis as it would have shown more characteristics to the tool if it would have been used
Redirect Exam
- She testified that it wasnt necessary to cut a bone than lead as she knew the saw fit
Recross Exam
- Defence highlights the portions that be wider than the saw that would suggest a need for exclusion.
Witness #23 – Christian Johnson – Special GBI Agent
Direct Exam
- He testifies to assisting the investigators in the case with handling the warrants and helping with evidence gathering. He says that they were looking for accounts and records of Nicholas Kassotis and it was served to Air BnB.
- He also served T-Mobile and Verizon for Nicholas Kassotis records. June 30th 2022 to May 10th 2023 was the time period of the search.
- He testifies that the name of the Air BnB was Nicholas Kassotis and the payments were also by him.
- He testifies to receiving records from Nicholas bank records at Renaissant Bank.
- He testifies that there was a phone number provided to Lancaster police when he reported that his vehicle was on fire. They also got hold of Mindi’s record without the need of her phone from her provider.
No Cross Exam
Witness #24 – Jay Berni – Special FBI Agent
Direct Exam
- He is testifying to the cell activity of Nicholas Kassotis cell phone and the Ford Explorer’s cell activity.
- Shows the cell activity of Nicholas Kassotis on the 28th November 2022.
- Shows the cell activity of Nicholas Kassotis on the 29th November 2022 near home depot. A purchase receipt at home depot was the reason why he traced the towers.
- He testifies that the towers can be used to track movement at specific time periods.
- He testifies to the movement from 10:23am – 12:03 pm. He also makes clear that the phone and the car are independently interacting with the cell tower.
- He testifies that the gaps with the time from 10:02am-11:54pm could be down to phone being on wifi mode and being switched. He says they did testing to see the tower strength of the rural area.
- He testifies at 11:54am, he was at a pumping station.
- He testifies that at 12:07pm he was at the residence. He says that there were no data sessions on the phone but there were data sessions from the vehicle.
- He testifies to the location of the vehicle belonging to Nicholas in proximity of the locations where the bodies and weapons were recovered.
- He testifies that there were no cell activity from the period the vehicle was in the vicinity of the bodies and weapon.
Cross Exam
- Defense asks if they can infer phone was turned off and he testifies that they cant tell exactly if the devices had been switched off.
- He testifies that if the phone is in wifi mode, it could still engage in communications despite being on wifi mode.
- Defense highlighted the cell activity from 8:33am – 9am and says that not always do they hit the cell phone tower they desire.
- Defense higlights 10:15 and 12:03 pm that its not connecting to any tower and he testifies that he doesnt know if the device is off.
- Defence highlights the testings that picked up the towers at the times that Nicholas phone didnt connect to the towers and testifies that phone companies do not track GPS which is more direct but only the towers.
No recross exam.
Court adjourned for the day!
Hope you are now caught up with the substance of what happened in court on Day 5.
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
