She seemed shocked as the decision was learn in court docket.
Jade Janks, the San Diego lady who prosecutors argued murdered her stepfather after discovering nude photographs of herself on his laptop, has been discovered responsible.
The decision was learn Wednesday in court docket, with the jury discovering Janks, 39, responsible of the first-degree homicide of Tom Merriman, 64 on New 12 months’s Eve 2020. The decision got here after a couple of day of deliberation.
Large-eyed, she appeared to take a look at her legal professional in shock after the decision was learn (video beneath). She faces a 25 years-to-life sentence, with a listening to set for April 3.
Merriman’s official explanation for demise was deemed an overdose from sleeping capsules.
Prosecutors argued, efficiently, that the inside designer started plotting her stepfather’s homicide after she knocked into his laptop and found nude photographs of herself on it whereas cleansing his condominium when he was within the hospital.
The DA claimed she picked him up from the hospital, plied him with sleeping capsules after which suffocated him in her SUV — pointing to textual content messages she despatched to associates studying, “I simply dosed the hell out of him” and “I’m about to membership him on the top as he’s waking up.” A witness additionally claimed she mentioned of Merriman, “I killed him” — and advised him, “I suffocated him with a bag and I choked him.”
Taking the stand, Janks mentioned the textual content messages have been taken out of context, whereas her legal professional mentioned they have been “all topic to interpretation.” She did, nonetheless, say she deliberate to confront Merriman over the photographs. Her lawyer additionally argued throughout closing statements that there was no proof of strangulation.
“So, they need you to consider that this lady, Jade Janks, stood over her stepfather, grabbed him by the throat and strangled him, evenly, with out leaving marks,” he mentioned, per CBS8.
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Lady Accused of Killing Stepfather Describes Discovering Nude Images of Herself on His Laptop
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On the witness stand in her protection, Janks described how she found the photographs on the pc.
“After I went to wash in his workplace space, I am wiping issues down, I bumped the mouse, and it shook the display awake. There is a image of feminine breasts on the display. I’ve a magnificence mark on my chest, these are my breasts,” she mentioned in court docket final Friday, in keeping with CBS8.
She mentioned there have been greater than 100 photographs of herself, claiming he cropped the photographs and divided them into photographs by physique half. She additionally claimed a few of the photographs have been taken when she was as younger as 16 and have been from her laptop computer and a digital digicam she did not assume he had entry to. She additionally mentioned she poured Jack Daniels over the pc and took out the arduous drive.
All through her testimony whereas questioned by her protection legal professional, Janks claimed Merriman had simply handed out after taking prescription capsules and ingesting whiskey after she picked him up from the hospital. She mentioned that after nobody she contacted helped her transfer him, she left him within the automobile to sleep it off in a single day — and when she went out to her automobile the subsequent morning, she noticed from afar he hadn’t moved in any respect and panicked.
She later admitted underneath oath that she lined up his demise — hiding him underneath a pile of trash within the driveway — and mentioned she “panicked” and “did not actually know what to do” as a result of she knew she was the sufferer’s final identified acquaintance and due to what she had executed to his laptop. “I did not wish to get blamed for killing him,” she mentioned, per the San Diego Tribune.
Janks denied hiring anybody to kill her stepfather, wanting him useless, giving him medicine or strangling him herself. “No, I’d by no means, no! I would not try this to anyone,” she advised the jury.
