Murder Charge Dismissed In Samantha Woll Killing

DETROIT — A Wayne County judge on Friday dismissed a murder charge against a man accused of killing Detroit Jewish leader Samantha Woll last October.

Judge Margaret Van Houten dismissed felony murder and home invasion charges against 29-year-old Michael Jackson-Bolanos, who prosecutors said brutally stabbed Woll during a burglary in the early morning hours on Oct. 21, 2023.

Van Houten dismissed the charges based on the U.S. Supreme Court Yeager vs. U.S. decision, but said she disagrees with the higher court's ruling. That decision prevents a defendant from being re-tried on a deadlocked charge, if the defendant was found not guilty on a separate, similar charge in the same case.

Since Jackson-Bolanos was found not guilty of first-degree murder in July, Van Houten said prosecutors cannot retry him on the felony murder and home invasion charges.

"I don't believe this jury had any idea that when they thought he was not guilty of premeditated first-degree murder, that they were precluding a retrial on felony murder," Van Houten said. "I am going to have to dismiss as to both murder and home invasion."

Prosecutors are likely to appeal the decision.

Jackson-Bolanos was convicted of lying to the police. He was sentenced to 18 months to 15 years in prison.

Police found Woll's body with eight stab wounds lying a few feet from her apartment in Detroit's Lafayette Park neighborhood at 6:38 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2023. She had just returned from a friend's wedding.

Months later, Jackson-Bolanos was arrested in connection with the killing after prosecutors said video and phone records showed him in Woll's neighborhood around the time of her death. Prosecutors also said Woll's blood was found on a black North Face jacket he was wearing that night.

Jackson-Bolanos testified in his own defense that he had been breaking into vehicles near Woll’s home that night, but denied killing her. He said he never went into her apartment that night, but did stumble upon her body outside her home and touched her neck to see if she was alive. That's what he said the blood on his jacket came from.

Jackson-Bolanos' lawyer, Brian Brown, also suggested that police had overlooked other suspects, including Woll's ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Herbstman, who told police during a self-described full-fledged panic attack in November 2023 that he thought he killed Woll but did not remember it. He later recanted that story.

Herbstman was arrested in connection with the killing, but was never charged and later released by police after a lack of evidence.

Woll, 40, was a prominent Jewish leader in Detroit, serving as president of the board of Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue. Police do not believe antisemitism played a role in the killing.