Jury delivers mixed verdicts for the man accused of killing Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll

By Holly Yan, CNN

(CNN) — Jurors returned mixed verdicts Thursday in the trial of a man accused of killing Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll at her home.

Michael Jackson-Bolanos, 29, faced four charges. Jurors deadlocked on the charges of felony murder and home invasion. They found him not guilty of premeditated murder but found him guilty of lying to a police officer.

A pretrial hearing on the two deadlocked counts has been scheduled for noon on July 25. Prosecutors could decide to not retry the case but did not immediately comment after the jury’s findings Thursday.

The trial, which lasted over a month, was complicated by the replacement of a juror this week. It also included stunning testimony from Woll’s ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Herbstman, who initially told police he “may have murdered my girlfriend” – but later testified he had nothing to do with Woll’s death.

Defense attorney Brian Brown said his client was frustrated with the verdict.

“We feel that the jury should have come back with a not guilty on the felony murder and also the home invasion first degree. They got it right on the premeditated murder,” Brown said. “My guy is innocent. You know, there’s no point of going through this all over again.”

Brown said there “was zero evidence that would have put my client inside the home. He never went inside.” The attorney said he was “still scratching my head” on the deadlocked home invasion count.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, in a statement, thanked the jury for its dedication and said her office had been “hopeful that a decision could be reached today.”

Worthy added, “We will press on for justice for the Wolls and will determine our next course of action at the pre-trial hearing.”

What we know about the attack

Woll was the 40-year-old board president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit.

The night before her body was found, Woll attended a wedding and appeared normal, police said. She returned home shortly after midnight, and there were no signs of forced entry at her home.

A prosecutor told jurors that Woll left her door open, which led to a tragic encounter.

In the early morning hours of October 21, 2023, Woll’s body was found fatally stabbed outside her home. Authorities believe she stumbled outside after she was attacked.

A medical examiner determined Woll died from “multiple sharp force wounds with a straight-edge cutting instrument,” Worthy’s office said in a news release.

Authorities have said they believe Jackson-Bolanos did not know Woll, and the Wayne County prosecutor has said there was no evidence suggesting the killing was a hate crime.

But blood evidence indicated Jackson-Bolanos was the killer, Wayne County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Ryan Elsey said.

“They didn’t catch him until close to six weeks after her death. But when they did, he still had her blood on a jacket that he wore that night and on a backpack that he wore that night,” Elsey told jurors. 

Prosecutors accused Jackson-Bolanos of entering Woll’s home and stabbing her multiple times. He also “lied to the police by making statements he knew were false and misleading relating to the investigation of the case,” prosecutors said in December.

When Jackson-Bolanos was interrogated by Detroit police last year, he insisted he did not know Woll or have any involvement in her death.

“I don’t know this woman. I don’t know anything about this woman except when it popped up on the news, bro. That’s it,” Jackson-Bolanos said, according to CNN affiliate WDIV. “The only thing I know that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

In his opening statement, Brown said clues at the scene indicate his client did not kill Woll during a home invasion.

“Yes, Samantha Woll tragically died on October 21st. However, it was not Michael Jackson-Bolanos who did this. She was stabbed eight times in the neck, in the back of the head, in the back of the neck. To me, that would indicate a crime of passion. This wasn’t just some random person walking into her house, trying to steal anything,” Brown told jurors.

“Nothing of value was taken from her house. She had valuables. Her purse was in plain view. Credit cards, cell phone, laptops – plain view,” Brown said. “If anybody came into this particular house to steal something and to stab her eight times, surely they would have taken something of value.”

Ex-boyfriend explains why he once believed he ‘was responsible for her death’

The case took a bizarre turn when Woll’s ex-boyfriend Herbstman, who previously told police he may have killed Woll but did not remember, took the stand.

Herbstman said he dated Woll from August 2022 to July 2023, when the pair broke up amicably.

The ex-boyfriend, who said he was diagnosed with depression at least a decade ago, became despondent after learning about Woll’s death last October.

“I was devastated … There were days that I couldn’t get out of bed,” Herbstman testified.

Around October, he wasn’t getting relief from one of his usual medications for depression, “so my psychiatrist recommended that I try a new medication” – starting with a small dose and gradually scaling it up, Herbstman testified.

On November 7, Herbstman was on a work trip in Kalamazoo – about 140 miles west of Detroit – when he suffered a panic attack in his car. He said he had recently increased the dosage of his new antidepressant and had also smoked cannabis.

“My thoughts began racing … I couldn’t stop worrying about things,” Herbstman testified.

“I began to believe that I was responsible for her death – that I had somehow killed her and didn’t remember doing it,” Herbstman said. “And I couldn’t shake that feeling. And it was disturbing to the extreme.”

He called 911, and an officer arrived with her body-worn camera on. In the footage, which was played in court, Herbstman told police: “I’m having a panic attack. … I may have murdered my girlfriend, and I don’t remember it.”

During his testimony last month, Herbstman said he had nothing to do with Woll’s death. He said he stopped taking the new medication immediately after the panic attack and had not had a similar episode since.

The ex-boyfriend was eventually cleared as a suspect. Elsey told jurors that “police did not find any evidence placing” Herbstman at the scene or any evidence that he left his home that night.

The prosecution said Herbstman was granted “use immunity” during the trial. “That means that for this time that you’re sitting in this witness chair that anything you say can’t be used against you in a subsequent criminal proceeding,” Elsey told Herbstman.

Why the jury had to restart deliberations

The trial, which began in early June, lasted longer than initially anticipated. Van Houten said jurors had been asked to be available through July 3, but deliberations did not begin until July 9.

Jurors had to restart deliberations Tuesday after one juror had to leave for a pre-scheduled vacation, CNN affiliate WDIV reported.

That juror was replaced with an alternate juror, and the original juror’s comments and opinions about the evidence had to be tossed out as deliberations restarted from scratch.

CNN’s Rob Frehse contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.