Defendant admits lying, but denies attacking Samantha Woll

DETROIT (Scripps News Detroit) — The Samantha Woll murder trial took a dramatic turn on Wednesday afternoon when defendant Michael Jackson-Bolanos took the stand in his own defense.

Michael Jackson-Bolanos took the stand in his own defense. (Scripps News Detroit)

Jackson-Bolanos is charged with murdering Woll , a synagogue leader who was found dead outside of her Detroit home. Jackson-Bolanos said on Oct. 21, he left his girlfriend’s home and was out looking for opportunities to steal from unlocked motor vehicles.

“I had told her I was going for a walk, but I was actually going to look at cars,” he said.

Jackson-Bolanos gave details of his route paired with surveillance video of him walking that night.

Jackson-Bolanos said while he was out, he saw a “dark figure” lying outside. He said he approached and when he could tell it was a person, he touched their neck before realizing the person was dead.

He described the body as being “cold and crusty.”

Jackson-Bolanos also testified that he decided against calling for help.

“I was over there … going into motor vehicles, and I felt like if I had to call the police I’d be incriminating myself,” he said.

READ MORE | Strander charged with murder, home invasion in death of Detroit Synagogue leader

The defendant maintained that he didn’t stab Woll and he didn’t go into her apartment.

“I had no weapons on me the whole night,” he testified.

He also testified that he touched the person he saw on the ground because he wanted to check on them.

“Yeah I’m out going around, but I still wanted to make sure that this person was OK. When I realized she was dead, I wanted nothing to do with the entire situation. 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,” he said.

Before court ended for the day, the defense was playing phone recordings from the defendant, who maintained his innocence during the calls.

The trial will resume on Monday, July 8.

The first witness to take the stand on Wednesday was a forensic pathologist who argued that the autopsy of Samantha Woll was incomplete.

“Let’s face it, there is a diagnosis of a cause of death, multiple stab wounds. That’s fine. I can agree with that. The manner of death is homicide. But what happened to this young lady that underwent this horrible situation? What actually happened? That is a missing interval that I cannot reconstruct from the from what I received as the autopsy report generated,” said Dr. Ljubisa Jovan Dragovic.

Woll’s sister, Monica Rosen, also briefly took the stand to talk about questioning following the murder.

Brett Foreman was the last witness to take the stand before the court recessed for lunch. He said he had an “unrequited romantic crush” on Woll.

Watch Foreman’s testimony below:

He was questioned about a conversation he had with an acquaintance about hypothetical scenarios regarding Woll’s murder.

The prosecutor cross-examined him, asking him if he killed Woll. He said no.

This story was originally published by Scripps News Detroit, an E.W. Scripps Company.