No decision made to retry Michael Jackson-Bolanos in murder of Samantha Woll
(CBS DETROIT) - The man on trial for the murder of Samantha Woll was back in court on Thursday for a pretrial hearing.
Michael Jackson-Bolanos was found not guilty of first-degree murder last week, but the jury was deadlocked on felony murder and home invasion. He was found guilty of lying to the police.
Woll's family spoke to the media Thursday after the court proceeding was pushed to a later date.
"The defense has been working really hard to make this case about race... when it should be about evidence, and the evidence clearly points to one man, Michael Jackson-Bolanos," said Monica Woll, Samantha Woll's sister.
Monica Woll criticized the defense for making the trial about race and stated they believed the evidence was clear.
"There is absolutely no doubt in my family's mind that Michael Jackson-Bolanos did this to my sister, and all we ask is that justice is served," Monica Woll said.
The jury, however, did not agree and found Jackson-Bolanos not guilty on the first-degree murder charge as well as second-degree murder, which was another charge the jury could consider.
Defense attorney Purna Krishnamoorthy said that based on legal precedent, she did not believe the state had the legal authority to retry her client on the deadlocked charges of felony murder.
"According to the caselaw, it shouldn't be refiled," Krishnamoorthy said.
The defense filed a motion to dismiss to prevent the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office from refiling charges.
"Essentially, the elements they found him not guilty of second-degree murder and not guilty of first-degree murder, so they were able to consider second-degree murder, right? So how are you retrying on a felony murder if he was acquitted of a second-degree murder along with a first-degree murder?" Krishnamoorthy said.
Krishnamoorthy said the elements of the charges Jackson-Boloanos was found guilty of are in line with deadlocked charges, so that should prevent the legal ability to retry him.
Jackson-Bolanos will be back in court on Aug. 9. The prosecutor's office has until then to issue a response to the motion to dismiss the case.
Woll's sister, Monica Woll Rosen, issued the following statement:
After sitting through the most difficult five weeks my family has experienced since the shock and aftermath of Samantha's murder, what I have seen in the media this week has infuriated me. The defense has been working hard to make this case about race, when it should be about evidence. And in this case, the evidence indisputably points to only one man, Michael Jackson-Bolanos.
My sister spent her entire life fighting to break down unjust racial and ethnic stereotypes and boundaries. She proudly displayed a Black Lives Matter sign on her front door. She would be the last person in the world to want someone wrongfully accused of murder. But what links Michael Jackson-Bolanos to the murder of my sister is not race, but incontrovertible evidence.
From the outset of the investigation, there were dozens of initial suspects and not one of them was black. Through a long and exhaustive process, these suspects were excluded, one-by-one, because no evidence connected them to the crime. Eventually, the murderer was identified, not because of racial profiling -but because of the use of modern science and technology.
It's only because of surveillance video from multiple cameras that the police found Michael Jackson-Bolanos. It's only because of my sister's DNA that remained on Michael Jackson-Bolanos' jacket - even after the use of a washing machine washed away almost all of it - that the police had forensic evidence indisputably linking Michael Jackson-Bolanos to this heinous crime, despite his repeated denials of ever touching or even seeing my sister in his video-recorded interviews with police. It's because the alarm system in my sister's apartment last detected motion on that fateful night at 4:20am - and even by his own admission at trial, he was there at that time - that Michael Jackson-Bolanos was inextricably tied to this crime scene.
Because of these key pieces of indisputable forensic evidence - and not at all because of the color of his skin - there is absolutely zero doubt my family's mind that MJB did this to my sister. All we ask is that justice is served.