Ayahuasca church leader randomly assaults sleeping United passenger in bloody mid-flight beating, feds say

A former leader of an ayahuasca church in Florida is facing criminal charges over accusations he randomly sucker punched a sleeping passenger during a flight from California to Washington, D.C., beating the fellow traveler — for no apparent reason — until the cabin was speckled with blood, according to a federal complaint filed Tuesday.

About two hours into the five-hour journey on Monday aboard United Airlines flight 2247 from San Francisco to Dulles, Everett Chad Nelson, 44, left his seat in the rear of the aircraft and headed to one of the lavatories up front, the complaint states.

There were 82 passengers and six crew aboard the flight, a United spokesperson told The Independent.

When Nelson exited the bathroom, he stopped at seat 12F and “without notice, began physically attacking a sleeping male passenger by punching him repeatedly in the face and head until blood was drawn,” the complaint alleges, adding that the assault continued for a full minute. The man began screaming, after which a Good Samaritan intervened and managed to pull Nelson off of him, according to the complaint.

Aside from giving the unidentified passenger two black eyes, Nelson opened up a gash on the man’s nose, spattering blood on his seat, the wall, the window, and the sleeves of Nelson’s green windbreaker, the complaint goes on. It provides no motive, does not say the two had a preexisting relationship of any kind, and reads as if the pummeling came completely out of nowhere.

“Nelson had no observable injuries and there was no indication that [the alleged victim] struck him in defense,” the complaint states.

Following the shocking beatdown, the complaint says flight attendants moved Nelson to a seat up front, where the person who stepped in was able to keep an eye on him for the remainder of the flight. Numerous other passengers witnessed the beatdown, and the victim was treated for his injuries by a doctor who happened to be onboard, the complaint continues.

The victim was deaf and non-verbal, according to one passenger who saw the vicious beatdown.

The Transportation Security Administration contacted the FBI about the “Level 2 disturbance,” which, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, constitutes “physically abusive behavior” aboard an airplane. (Level 1 is “disruptive behavior,” Level 3 is “life-threatening behavior,” and Level 4 is an “attempted or actual breach of the flight deck.”)

“Thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one passenger was restrained after becoming physically aggressive toward another customer on a flight from San Francisco to Washington Dulles on Monday,” a United official told The Independent. “The flight landed safely and was met by paramedics and local law enforcement.”

Nelson, a Virginia native, grew up in a “strict independent fundamentalist Bible-believing Baptist family,” according to a speaker’s bio from a 2022 conference for investors in the psychedelics industry. On track to become a missionary, Nelson instead earned a degree in computer engineering from George Mason University in Virginia and worked on drone aircraft beginning in 2004. He got married and things were fine for a while – until “[r]ejection of God and everything spiritual eventually led to my life falling apart.”

“Ayahuasca plus open-minded spiritual study saved my life,” Nelson said in his bio. “It showed me that sharing my gifts is my path with heart. I am now forming an Ayahuasca Church in Southern Florida. We have a grand vision to build a sacred temple in the shape of an elven star. We also want to purchase land in natural settings for conservation, sacred ceremony, and growing the medicine.”

The FAA has fielded 1,748 unruly passenger reports so far in 2024, steadily encroaching on 2023’s total of 2,076. In 2022, the agency received 2,455 reports of unruly passengers, a sharp drop from 2021’s all-time high of 5,973. The FBI has jurisdiction over in-flight crimes, and violators can end up with felony records, plus fines of up to $37,000 per violation — and a single incident can result in multiple fines. Inappropriate or violent behavior can also land travelers on an airline’s internal no-fly list, and those with TSA PreCheck can lose their eligibility in the aftermath of such an incident.

Nelson is charged with one count of assault by beating, striking, and wounding in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States. His trial date has been set for December 11. If convicted, Nelson faces a year behind bars.

Cadence Mertz, a public defender assigned to Nelson’s case, did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.