MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin teenager charged in the deaths of his parents faces wider allegations that he killed them to “obtain the financial means” to assassinate President Donald Trump and overthrow the government, according to a recently unsealed federal warrant.
Nikita Casap, 17, was charged last month by Waukesha County authorities with first-degree murder, theft and other crimes in the deaths of his mother, Tatiana Casap, and his stepfather, Donald Mayer. Authorities allege the teenager fatally shot them at their home outside Milwaukee in February and lived with the decomposing bodies for weeks before fleeing with $14,000 cash, passports and the family dog. He was arrested last month in Kansas.
Mr. Casap, in custody at the Waukesha County jail on a $1 million bond, is due in court next month to enter a plea. County prosecutors have offered a glimpse of the federal allegations, which were outlined in an FBI warrant unsealed Friday.
Federal authorities accuse Mr. Casap of planning his parents’ murders, buying a drone and explosives, and sharing his plans with others, including a Russian speaker. His intentions are detailed in a three-page antisemitic manifesto praising Adolf Hitler. The warrant filed at the federal court in Milwaukee also contains excerpts of communications on TikTok and the Telegram messenger app.
“Casap appears to have written a manifest calling for the assassination of the President of the United States. He was in touch with other parties about his plan to kill the President and overthrow the government of the United States,” the search warrant says. “The killing of his parents appeared to be an effort to obtain the financial means and autonomy necessary to carrying out his plan.”
In court, prosecutors alleged Mr. Casap was in touch with a person who speaks Russian and shared a plan to flee to Ukraine. Authorities found him in Kansas with money, passports, a car and the family’s dog.
Federal prosecutors alleged Mr. Casap's manifesto outlined his reasons for wanting to kill Trump and included ideas about how he would live in Ukraine.
Citing Mr. Casap's writings, the federal warrant said the teenager wanted to spur governmental collapse by “by getting rid of the president and perhaps the vice president.”
Phone and online messages seeking comment were left Sunday for Mr. Casap’s public defender, Nicole Ostrowski. In court last month, she moved to dismiss some of the charges against her client, including theft, arguing that prosecutors had not laid out their case. She's also noted her client's age during court proceedings.
“He is young, he is still in high school,” she said on March 12.
County authorities also charged Mr. Casap with hiding a corpse, theft and misappropriating identification to obtain money.
Officers found the bodies of Tatiana Casap, 35; and Mr. Mayer, 51, on Feb. 28. Family members requested a well-being check after Mr. Mayer didn’t report for work and Nikita Casap skipped school for about two weeks.
Authorities believe the parents were killed weeks earlier. Prosecutors said in court that the couple’s bodies were so badly decomposed that they had to be identified through dental records.
First Published: April 13, 2025, 5:07 p.m.
Updated: April 14, 2025, 2:01 a.m.
