DETROIT (WWJ) — Jeffrey Herbstman, the ex-boyfriend of Detroit synagogue leader Samantha Woll, called police in a state of panic weeks after she was murdered and confessed.
A day after his testimony began in the murder trial against Michael Jackson-Bolanos, Herbstman returned to the stand Tuesday, testifying as to why he had convinced himself that he murdered Woll, whom he had dated for about a year until she broke up with him last July.
Woll, the president of Detroit's Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue and a prominent community leader, was found dead with eight stab wounds to her head and neck the morning of Oct. 21, 2023. She had been at a friend’s wedding the night before and got home shortly after midnight.
Herbstman testified that he told police the day after Woll was found dead that he was home the entire night before her death and went to bed around 10 p.m. that night. Prosecutors have said phone records indicate Herbstman was home that night.
On Nov. 7, 2023, Herbstman called police from a Kalamazoo hotel parking lot in what he called a “full-blown panic attack.” Herbstman told authorities that he had recently upped the dose of a new depression medication he was taking and he had smoked marijuana that night.
The 911 call was played for the jury on Monday. While he was in hysterics for much of the call, he told police that he feared he killed Woll, despite having no recollection of doing so.
"I'm having a panic attack. I'm convinced that I may have murdered my girlfriend and I don't remember it," Herbstman told the responding Kalamazoo police officer last November "I have the motive and the opportunity. I may be trying to outsmart people."
“At that time I was very fearful of what I could have possibly had done and that fear carried over to possibly doing the same thing again that I couldn’t remember,” Herbstman said during Tuesday’s testimony. “So I was very concerned that if I had possibly harmed one person I could harm another one and I didn’t desperately want that to happen.”
Herbstman was later released from custody, as authorities found no evidence linking him to the murder. Jackson-Bolanos was eventually arrested after Detroit police found evidence that places him near Woll's home around the time of the murder.
Assistant prosecutor Ryan Elsey said last week during opening statements that he would go through the case chronologically and indicated it could be a week or more before he presents any evidence implicating Jackson-Bolanos.
Tuesday marked the fourth day of testimony in the trial, which is expected to last a total of three to four weeks.
Defense attorney Brian Brown cross-examined Herbstman on Tuesday, accusing the former boyfriend of lying to police about Woll’s murder. Elsey objected, arguing there is a difference between purposefully lying and being mistakenly wrong.
Elsey said during his opening statement evidence tracks Jackson-Bolanos across the city the night of Woll's murder and evidence to be presented later in the trial will show he was breaking into cars. He also said evidence will show Woll's blood was found on Jackson-Bolanos's jacket.
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