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On Friday the Detroit jurors in the murder of downtown synagogue president Samantha Woll said they were deadlocked. The judge instructed them to return Monday and continue deliberating and try to work out differences.
The 12 jurors have to reach a unanimous verdict on each count. If not, a mistrial is declared for those charges that are deadlocked. In a mistrial, the prosecution can retry the case or dismiss the charges.
So, without knowing for sure, here's why the jury may be deadocked.
First, let's start with the jurors who think defendant Michael Jackson-Bolanos didn't do it, or that the prosecution didn't prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Not Guilty
- Some jurors may deem Jackson-Bolanos's testmony credible. He said he stumbled upon the body after the murder and checked to see if Woll was alive. He said he touched her neck, which would explain how investigators found spots of blood on his coat and backpack.
- Prosecutors have no evidence that the defendant entered Woll's apartment where they say she was stabbed eight times before stumbling outside, where her body was found. They also have no fingerprints or footprints pointing to the defendant.
- Defense attorney Brian Brown argued that the eight stab wounds suggested it was a crime of passion, not the sign of an attempted robbery by a stranger, as the prosecution suggests. Brown also argued that if it was a robbery, why didn't it appear anything of value was missing from Woll's townhouse.
- Brown also worked hard during trial to suggest that the murder could have been committed by one of Woll's love interests. He particularly focused in on ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Herbstman, who at one point told investigators that he may have killed Woll, but didn't remember anything. Herbstman was arrested and released without ever being charged. Herbstman suggested he was in an altered state of mind when he mentioned the murder to police.
Here's why jurors might think he's guilty.
Guilty
- Prosecutors worked to undercut Jackson Bolanos's credibility, showing video of him lying dozens of times to police investigators while being questioned. He claimed he never broke into cars in the early morning hours of the murder (he did), and that he never saw a body that night. But in court he testified that he stumbled across the body after the murder and checked to see if she was alive.
- Video and cell phone records show him in the area around the time of the murder.
- Investigators detected Woll's blood on his backpack and North Face jacket, even after his girlfriend said she washed the coat.
- Jackson-Bolanos, who likely knew he was being recorded during a phone conversation from the county jail, acted surprised when his girlfriend told him she had washed the coat. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey noted that the girlfriend testiifed that Jackson-Bolanos had put the coat in the laundry hamper for her to wash. Therefore, it didn't make sense that he would be surprised.
- The prosecutor in closing arguments theorized that Jackson-Bolanos entered the unlocked townhouse to commit robbery, not realizing he'd encounter anyone. When he saw Woll, Elsey said Jackson-Bolanos made a snap decision to "unleash an outburst of violence" and stab her to make certain she couldn't identify him.
- He said Jackson-Bolanos didn't steal a laptop or purse or anything else of value from Woll's home because he didn't want any of Woll's belongings linked to him and the murder.
- Jackson-Bolanos said he wasn't carrying a knife while roaming around the city the night of the murder, looking to break into unlocked cars. But the prosecution reminded the jury that he had a knife in his coat pocket the day police arrested him for the murder.
- The prosecutor suggested there were no fingerprints at the scene of the crime because Jackson-Bolanos was wearing surgical gloves he found inside a backpack he had stolen from a car that night. Video shows him wearing the gloves.
- Elsey said there was absolutely no evidence that the former boyfriend Herbstman or any other love interests committed the crime. Elsey called the suggestions that any of them did it a "complete waste of time and a complete distraction."
- Herbstman, who was arrested but never charged, testified that he was in an altered state of mind when he told police he may have had something to do with the murder. He said he couldn't recollect anything. He testified in trial that he had doubled his meds for depression and smoked marijuana, and was having a panic attack when he talked to police about the possibility of having something to do with the killing.
- Investigators said they probed his life, his home and property, but never found a shred of evidence linking him to the crime.
