Not Guilty Of First-Degree Murder In Samantha Woll Murder Trial

DETROIT — A Detroit man was found not guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of Detroit Jewish leader Samantha Woll in a partial verdict that ended the trial Thursday after five days of deliberations, according to news reports.

Jurors did find 29-year-old Michael Jackson-Bolanos guilty of lying to police, but were deadlocked and unable to reach a verdict on a felony murder charge and a home invasion charge, according to news reports.

Prosecutors said Jackson-Bolanos brutally stabbed Woll to death during a burglary after she left her apartment unlocked in October 2023 when she returned home from a friend's wedding.

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

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 where 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 his 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.

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