Wisconsin man who killed his parents to fund Trump assassination attempt
gets life in prison
[March 06, 2026]
By TODD RICHMOND
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin teenager who killed his parents and
stole their money to fund his plan to kill President Donald Trump with a
bomb dropped from a drone was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday.
Nikita Casap, 18, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of
first-degree intentional homicide in Waukesha County Circuit Court in
connection with the shooting deaths of his mother, Tatiana Casap, and
stepfather, Donald Mayer, in 2025. Prosecutors dropped seven other
charges in a plea deal, including two counts of hiding a corpse and
theft.
Judge: Casap may never change after ‘horrific’ crimes
First-degree intentional homicide carries a mandatory life sentence. The
only question as Judge Ralph Ramirez began the sentencing hearing
Thursday afternoon was whether he would make Casap eligible for parole
at some point.
Calling Casap's offenses “horrific" and “inexplicable,” Ramirez
ultimately handed down two life sentences with no chance at extended
supervision, the term the Wisconsin criminal justice system uses for
parole. The judge said he didn't have a “crystal ball” that would tell
him when Casap would change, if ever.
“I choose to find he’s not eligible for extended release because I do
not know ... when and if and whether a profound and significant change
can occur,” Ramirez said.
Mother, stepfather killed in their home
According to a criminal complaint, investigators believe Casap shot his
stepfather and mother at their home in the village of Waukesha on or
around Feb. 11, 2025.
He lived with the decomposing bodies for two weeks before fleeing across
the country in his stepfather’s SUV with $14,000 in cash, jewelry,
passports, his stepfather’s gun and the family dog, according to the
complaint. He was eventually arrested during a traffic stop in Kansas on
Feb. 28 after four days on the run.
Federal authorities have accused Casap of planning his parents’ murders,
buying a drone and explosives and sharing his plans with others,
including a Russian speaker. They said in a federal search warrant that
he wrote a manifesto calling for Trump’s assassination and was in touch
with others about his plot to overthrow the U.S. government
“The killing of his parents appeared to be an effort to obtain the
financial means and autonomy necessary to carrying out his plan,” that
warrant said.
Detectives found several messages on Casap’s cellphone from January 2025
in which Casap asks how long he will have to hide before he is relocated
to Ukraine. An unknown individual responded in Russian, the complaint
said, but the document doesn’t say what that person told Casap. In
another message Casap asks: “So while in Ukraine, I’ll be able to live a
normal life? Even if it’s found out I did it?”
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Nikita Casap appears at his arraignment on May 7, 2025, in Waukesha
County Circuit Court, in Waukesha, Wis. (Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel via AP, Pool, File)
Prosecutors insist Casap too dangerous to ever be released
District Attorney Lesli Boese told the judge Thursday that Casap was
too dangerous to ever be released from prison.
Pulling from an interview Casap gave to the FBI, Boese said that
Casap and his mother moved to the United States from the Republic of
Moldova when Casap was a grade-schooler but he became increasingly
addicted to what she called “disturbing websites” as he grew older.
She didn't elaborate, but at one point said he had been researching
serial killers and school shootings.
Boese said Casap developed a plan in late 2024 to target Trump with
an AK-47 rifle attached to a drone. The teen later decided he wanted
to drop explosives on Trump from a drone and then flee by ship to
Ukraine, where he planned to hide for a decade, according to the
district attorney. Casap told agents he wouldn't have cared how many
people around Trump got hurt during the assassination attempt.
He started talking with two people online who offered to sell him
the drone and the explosives. He sent one of them $8,700 in bitcoin
from his stepfather Mayer's account without realizing they were
scamming him and there was never a drone or any explosives, Boese
said.
“He walked right into it,” she said.
Defense attorney asks for mercy
Casap's attorney, Paul Rifelj, asked Ramirez to make Casap eligible
for parole after 20 years. He said that news of a doctor who drove
his car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, in December
2024 sent Casap into a rage. The teen decided then that he wanted to
change the world by killing a politician, Rifelj said.
The two contacts who promised to help him kill Trump convinced him
that he was part of a larger military strategy, offering him
direction and purpose at a time when he was becoming isolated at
school, according to Rifelj.
“Children are more than their worst deeds,” he said.
Casap: 'I thought I was part of a revolution'
Casap appeared to tremble as he listened to both sides make their
cases. He gave a tearful speech, saying that he loved his mother and
he was worried about her all the time, even when she was reaching
for something on a high shelf. He said he wasn't as close with
Mayer, but Mayer still treated him like a son.
But he became obsessed with hateful thoughts.
“I thought I was part of a revolution,” he said. “I thought I was
part of a war. I told myself bad things had to happen.”
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