The 25-year-old Pasadena man who allegedly shot and killed his mother over the weekend had been ordered seven years ago not to have any contact with her or his step-father after he was charged with "false imprisonment" and convicted on a second-degree assault offense involving them, court records show.
Despite that criminal history, Zachary Neiman, 25, was living with his parents on the leafy 100 block of Beacrane Road Saturday night when, police say, he fired a shotgun twice at his mother as she sat on their living room couch.
Rae Bajus, the suspect's 53-year old mother, was struck both times in the upper body and pronounced dead at Anne Arundel Medical Center, said Lt. David D. Waltemeyer, a spokesman with the Anne Arundel County police.
The suspect's stepfather, David Bajus, was sitting with his wife when the shooting occurred. He escaped to a neighbor's house and called 911, police said. Bajus could not be reached Monday; he told The Washington Post on Sunday that he was "devastated."
Police have not given a motive for the shooting, but Waltemeyer said Neiman's mother and his stepfather had been concerned about "his mental status" in recent days. Waltemeyer said there was no physical fight before the shooting.
Neiman was calm and polite at a brief bail review hearing yesterday in Anne Arundel County District Court - at one point saying that he didn't want to "offend" his court-appointed attorney when he disagreed with her recommendation on a legal matter. District Court Judge James W. Dryden ordered him held without bond.
Little information was available yesterday about Neiman's earlier assault conviction that involved his mother and stepfather. That offense occurred in 1999 and the Anne Arundel District Court shreds older records. A surviving computerized file shows that Neiman was committed briefly to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and that the court required him to have alcohol and drug testing, submit to psychiatric evaluation recommended and take all prescribed medication, as well as submit to any anger management program recommended. It is not clear if, and to what extent, these recommendations were followed.
Circuit court records on a separate 2001 marijuana distribution conviction included multiple handwritten letters where Neiman showed concern and affection for his family, and pleaded with a judge to let him out of jail so he could be with them.
