CNN
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Jurors returned mixed verdicts Thursday in the trial of a man accused of killing Detroit synagogue president Samantha Wall in her home, CNN affiliate WXYZ reported.
Michael Jackson-Bolanos, 29, faced four charges. According to WXYZ, the jury could not agree on the charges of felony murder and burglary. They acquitted him of premeditated murder but found him guilty of lying to a police officer.
WXYZ reports that a pretrial hearing on the two stalled charges is scheduled for noon July 25. Prosecutors may decide not to retry the case, but did not immediately comment after the jury’s decision on Thursday.
The trial, which has dragged on for more than a month and was complicated this week by a switch in the jury, also included shocking testimony from Wohl’s ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Herbstman, who initially told police he might have killed his girlfriend but later denied having anything to do with Wohl’s death.
His lawyer, Brian Brown, said his client was unhappy with the sentence.
“We believe the jury should have acquitted him on both felony murder and first-degree burglary. They got it right on the premeditated murder count,” Brown said. “My defendant is innocent. There’s no point in going through this again.”
“There was absolutely no evidence to suggest my client had been inside the home. He was never inside,” said Brown, who said the stalled burglary count “is still something I’m scratching my head about.”
Wohl, 40, was chairman of the board of directors of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit.
Police said Woll had attended a wedding the night before her body was discovered and appeared normal. She returned home after midnight, but there were no signs of forced entry.
Prosecutors told jurors that Wohl had left the door open, leading to the tragic encounter.
Woll’s body was discovered stabbed to death outside her home in the early hours of October 21, 2023. Authorities believe Woll stumbled outside after being attacked.
The medical examiner determined Wohl’s cause of death was “multiple sharp force trauma caused by a straight blade weapon,” Wayne County Coroner Kym Worthy’s office said in a news release.
Authorities believe Jackson Bolanos did not know Wohl, and the Wayne County prosecutor said there is no evidence the killing was a hate crime.
But blood evidence indicates Jackson Bolanos is the killer, said Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Ryan Elsey.
“The killer was only caught nearly six weeks after her death, but when he was caught there were stains of her blood on the jacket and rucksack he was wearing that night,” Elsie told the jury.
Prosecutors accused Jackson Bolanos of breaking into Wohl’s home and stabbing her multiple times, and said in December that he “knowingly made false and misleading lies to police regarding the investigation of this incident.”
When interviewed by Detroit police last year, Jackson Bolanos denied knowing Woll and claimed he had no involvement in her death.
Detroit Police Department
Michael Jackson Bolanos
“I don’t know this woman. I don’t know anything about her other than when she was in the news. That’s it,” Jackson Bolanos told CNN affiliate WDIV. “All I know is I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
In his opening statement, Brown said clues at the scene indicated his client did not kill Woll during a home invasion.
“Yes, Samantha Wall tragically died on Oct. 21st. But it was not Michael Jackson Bolanos who did this. She was stabbed eight times in the neck, the back of the head and the back of the neck. To me, this is a crime of passion. This is not just a stranger coming into her home and trying to steal something,” Brown told jurors.
“Nothing was taken from her home. She had valuables on her. Her purse was in full view. Her credit cards, her cell phone, her laptop were in full view,” Brown said. “If someone was going to come into this home and steal something and stab her eight times, they certainly were going to steal something.”
The case took a strange turn when Wall’s ex-girlfriend, Herbstman, took the stand after previously telling police she may have killed Wall but didn’t remember.
Herbstman said he and Woll dated from August 2022 to July 2023 and then separated amicably.
His ex-girlfriend, who had been diagnosed with depression at least 10 years ago, became depressed after learning of Wall’s death in October last year.
“I was devastated…there were days I couldn’t get out of bed,” Herbstman testified.
Around October, after one of his usual medications for depression wasn’t alleviating his symptoms, “my psychiatrist suggested I try a new medication,” starting with a small amount and gradually increasing it, Herbstman testified.
On November 7, Ms. Herbstman had a panic attack in her car during a business trip to Kalamazoo, about 140 miles west of Detroit. She said she had recently increased her dose of a new antidepressant and had also been smoking marijuana.
“My thoughts started racing…I couldn’t stop worrying,” Herbstman testified.
“I began to believe that I was responsible for her death, that somehow I had killed her and I didn’t remember doing it,” Herbstman said, “and I just couldn’t shake that feeling. And it was extremely disturbing.”
He called 911 and officers arrived wearing body cameras. In footage played in court, Herbstman told police, “I’m having a panic attack. … I think I killed my girlfriend, but I don’t remember.”
Herbstman, in his testimony last month, said he had nothing to do with Woll’s death, that he stopped taking the new medication shortly after the panic attack and hasn’t had a similar attack since.
The ex-boyfriend was ultimately ruled out as a suspect. Elsey told the jury, “Police found no evidence to suggest that Mr. Herbstman was at the scene or that he had left his home that night.”
Prosecutors said Herbstman was granted “prejudice immunity” during the trial. “This means that anything you say while you are on the witness stand cannot be used against you in any subsequent criminal proceedings,” Elsey told Herbstman.
The trial, which began in early June, has dragged on longer than initially expected: Jurors were asked to attend until July 3, but deliberations did not begin until July 9, Van Houten said.
The jury had to resume deliberations on Tuesday after one juror was absent for a scheduled vacation, CNN affiliate WDIV reported.
The juror was replaced by a replacement juror and deliberations began again, with the original juror’s comments and opinions about the evidence having to be set aside.
CNN’s Rob Frese contributed to this report.
