Ex-JAG Officer Is on Trial for Wife’s Death — But Defense Claims a Shadowy Figure Was to Blame By Sean Neumann

The murder trial against an ex-Navy JAG officer accused of killing and dismembering his wife in late 2022 began this week, as his defense attorneys argued his innocence and state prosecutors encouraged the jury to use “common sense” in convicting the husband.

Nicholas Kassotis is facing 12 charges related to the death of his second wife Mindi Mebane Kassotis, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, and dismembering a body, according to the local Coastal Courier, local WSAV, and WTOC.

PEOPLE previously reported that Mindi’s body was discovered in the woods of a hunting club in Riceboro, Ga., on Dec. 2, 2022 — roughly a week after investigators suspect she was killed — when a hunter happened upon her body while tracking a deer.

Police worked for months to identify Mindi’s body, which was found dismembered and in pieces along with a knife and a container of blood. After identifying Mindi, a writer and business owner who earned a master’s degree in public and international affairs at Virginia Tech, PEOPLE reported that local police soon arrested her husband Nicholas in connection with her death in May 2023.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the couple was living in Savannah, Ga., at the time of Mindi’s death. 

As the trial begins this week, Kassotis’ attorneys have presented a defense that state prosecutors have dismissed as a “CIA, conspiracy theory type argument,” according to local WJCL.

The Coastal Courier reported that Kassotis’ defense attorneys claimed he was innocent — and instead, was a man “who lived in fear, relentless, all-consuming fear” of an man purportedly named “Jim McIntyre” whose identity has never been verified. According to his attorney Douglas Weinstein, Kassotis had been acting suspiciously and lying to friends and family out of fear of this alleged figure, who, according to the defense, claimed to work for the FBI and warned the couple that their lives were in danger.

“They were living, moving every few days, few weeks, few months, under control of this person we’ll keep calling Jim McIntyre,” Weinstein claimed ahead of Kassotis’ trial, according to WJCL. “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.”

Two days into the trial, Weinstein has not yet explained how the defense believes Mindi ended up dead as a result of the couple’s alleged interactions with the supposed McIntyre figure. Weinstein did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment Thursday.

The Coastal Courier reported that Assistant District Attorney Laurie Baio delivered the opening arguments during the first day of the trial this week, imploring the jury: “Bring your common sense, follow the law, and give justice to Mindi Kassotis.”

The trial is expected to last two to three weeks, according to reports.