Closing arguments in Samantha Woll murder trial begin Tuesday
(CBS DETROIT) - The man accused of killing Detroit synagogue leader Samantha Woll returned to the courtroom Monday to testify in the murder trial.
Michael Jackson-Bolanos first took the stand in his defense on Wednesday. He is accused of stabbing Woll to death on Oct. 21, 2023. Woll, the president of Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, was outside her home in Detroit's Lafayette Park neighborhood.
Jackson-Bolanos testified in his defense that he was checking cars in the downtown area to see if they were unlocked, and if a car was unlocked, he searched through the vehicles.
Last week, when Jackson-Bolanos was asked about whether he went into Woll's home or killed her, he said "absolutely not" in response to each question.
He testified that as he was walking around that night, he saw a dark figure on the ground, and once closer, he realized it was a person. The defendant touched the person's neck to see if they were OK, and that's when he discovered the person was dead.
"Once I realized that I just touched a dead person, I just grabbed the bag, and I left," said Jackson-Bolanos.
He continued and said, "I'm a Black guy in the middle of the night breaking into cars and I found myself standing in front of a dead white woman. That doesn't look good at all."
Jackson-Bolanos acknowledged that he didn't call the police after seeing Woll's body and said, "My first reaction was to reach for my phone, but I had to consider where I was and what I was doing at the time," referring to how he was going into cars.
After cross-examination by the prosecution, the defense called Detroit police officer Chad Ossman and FBI special agent Bryan Toltzis as rebuttal witnesses.
Others who have testified in the trial included Woll's ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Herbstman, who initially confessed to killing her during a call to 911 in the weeks after her death but later recanted, claiming he was suffering from delusions as a result of increasing his antidepressants and smoking cannabis.
Herbstman was released from police custody in November 2023 after investigators could not put him at the scene of Woll's murder.
With both sides now resting, closing arguments begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday.