DETROIT (WWJ) — The first witnesses are set to take the stand Wednesday morning as the trial begins in the murder of prominent Detroit Jewish leader Samantha Woll.
A jury was seated and opening statements were delivered Tuesday as 28-year-old Michael Jackson-Bolanos of Detroit faces charges of first-degree murder, home invasion and lying to police.
Jackson-Bolanos was arrested last November, several weeks after Woll was found stabbed to death outside her home in the Lafayette Park neighborhood the morning of Oct. 21, 2023 after returning from a wedding the night before.
His arrest came after weeks of speculation that it could have been a hate crime due to her prominence within the Jewish community. Authorities have reiterated multiple times that there was never any evidence to suggest the murder was fueled by anti-Semitism.
In his opening statement Tuesday, Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey laid out the case against Jackson-Bolanos.
"There is a reason that we lock our doors when we go to sleep. It is because of people who lurk in the night, people who could do us harm. And this case is about one such person, a person who you will see on one particular night prowled through our community looking for opportunities to go into spaces that weren't his to go into and to take things that weren't his to take," Elsey said.
"And the most important thing that he ended up taking that night was the life of a woman, a woman named Samantha Woll," Elsey said.
Elsey walked jurors through the case, detailing that blood likely belonging to Woll was found on his North Face jacket several weeks after she was killed.
Elsey said testimony from forensic scientists will show the probability it was Woll’s blood is “astronomically high” and noted that Jackson-Bolanos “had absolutely no innocent explanation for how Samantha Woll’s blood got on his clothing.”
Elsey laid out the defendant’s movements throughout the night and explained that video and phone records will show he was breaking into cars in the area, as well as place him near Woll’s home around the time of her death.
Elsey explained that Woll’s ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Herbstman, was first arrested in Kalamazoo a week after Woll’s death. Herbstmantold police he had been depressed in the wake of Woll’s murder and had a panic attack after using cannabis. At some point he “had convinced himself” that he somehow killed Woll.
After police released Herbstman due to a lack of evidence, Elsey told jurors that Jackson-Bolanos searched the internet for the phrase “Detroit same day passport” in what was an apparent attempt to flee the city.
Jackson-Bolanos also allegedly searched the phrase “black light sees what” on Oct. 31, a week after Woll’s death. The assistant prosecutor also detailed a phone call from jail between Jackson-Bolanos and his girlfriend in which he said “I don’t wanna hear what you got to say about that s**t” when she told him she had washed the North Face jacket he allegedly wore that night.
Defense attorney Brian Brown, meanwhile, argued Woll’s death was a “crime of passion,” claiming evidence will show there was a struggle inside her apartment. Brown appeared to point towards NAME as a suspect, saying he “tried to outsmart everybody.”
Brown questions evidence surrounding Woll’s in-home security system, including how long it takes to go into idle mode.
The judge struck a statement from Brown when he claimed that Jackson-Bolanos touched Woll’s body when he saw her dead outside the apartment, calling it hearsay. Brown then claimed the blood got on the defendant’s jacket because it was splattered on the wall inside.
Testimony is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The trial is expected to last up to several weeks.