The murder trial for a naval officer, Nicholas Kassotis, accused of murdering his wife, is scheduled to begin next week in Liberty County, Georgia.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, police found the remains of Mindi Mebane Kassotis, 40 at the Portal Hunting Club in Riceboro on December 2, 2023, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Her body has been dismembered, and police found additional remains within a three-mile radius on the grounds of the club, which lie in both Liberty and McIntosh Counties.
The GBI said it believed the remains were put there around November 27, 2023.
Last week, during a pre-trial motions hearing, both sides agreed that the crime scene photos should stay in the courtroom, given the graphic nature of the case, with the remains having tool marks on them.
“This case, as the court knows, is incredibly gruesome in a way that I believe will create additional trauma,” Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney Laurie Baio said last Thursday, according to ABC 22.
“It is my intention, your honor, not to be gruesome, but rather to be strictly and solely forensically informative to the jury.”
Police arrested Kassotis in Lancaster, Pennsylvania — the day after investigators positively identified the remains — and charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence and removal of body parts from the scene of death or dismemberment.
Kassotis was an officer with the US Navy’s Judge Advocate General corps when he married Mindi, a writer and business owner originally from New Orleans, in 2016, the Daily Beast reported.
Months before her Mindi’s death, an ex-wife won a $1.5 million divorced judgment against the defendant. The pair then fled, with the defense claiming they were running from a man identified as Jim McIntyre, who allegedly had control of their finances.
“They were living, moving every few days, few weeks, few months, under control of this person we’ll keep calling Jim McIntyre,” Kassotis’ attorney, Doug Weinstein, said.
The prosecution, according to Court TV, called the defense’s suggestion a “CIA, conspiracy theory-type argument.”
“While the state says that that’s a fabrication, it’s clearly not a fabrication that he makes up after the fact. Because he and Mindi told people about what was going on, why they were on the run, and everything else,” Weinstein argued.
The prosecution also referenced the defendant’s third wife, Samantha Colsmith, and a store receipt showing he purchased items before meeting up with her.
“There is a Target receipt that the defendant purchases on his way to meet with Samantha Colsmith, his third wife. Where he purchased condoms and Old Spice within days of his wife being deceased,” Baio said.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin August 4. Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Mindi Mebane Kassotis/Georgia Bureau of Investigation]
