Jade Janks is accused of killing her stepfather. Image courtesy: Interiors Jade
California: A California-based interior designer has been facing accusations of drugging and strangling her former stepfather, who reportedly used the woman’s naked pictures as his computer screen saver.
The 39-year-old interior designer named Jade Janks is currently on trial for killing her 64-year-old Thomas Merriman. The duo co-owned Butterfly Farms, a non-profit research institution.
Janks accidentally stumbled upon her nude picture on Merriman’s computer when she was tidying their Solana Beach home in California, according to Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo.
Later, upon digging deeper she found out more naked pictures of her in the computer and was “beyond freaked out”, said Del Portillo to the jury.
It is, however, still unclear how the photographs, that Janks sent to her boyfriend consensually, ended up on her stepfather’s computer.
How did the murder unfold?
The prosecutor alleged that following her shocking discovery, Janks “plotted to kill” Merriman.
According to a report by The Telegraph, Del Portillo said, “This was no accident. This was murder by design.”
He added that the interior designer had killed her stepfather and later staged it as an overdose.
The man died two years ago after Janks had brought him back from his rehabilitation centre. Even though her mother and Merriman had been divorced, Janks took it upon herself to take care of him.
To prove the fact that the 39-year-old had indeed committed the crime, the prosecutor presented a series of incriminating texts to the jury which showed that Janks had told her friends about the murder.
She wrote in one of the text messages, “I just dosed the hell out of him. He’s waking up. I really don’t want to be the one to do this.”
Realising that she wouldn’t be able to carry Merriman’s body alone, Janks sought the help of a friend named Adam Siplyak. “I can’t carry him alone and I can’t keep a kicking body in my trunk,” she said.
Siplyak admitted to the jurors that Janks had asked for help. “She said, ‘I killed him, and he’s in the back of my [Toyota] 4Runner. I said, ‘I can’t help you…no way, I’m out of here. I have a son to raise.'”
It was Siplyak who called the police the following day to report the crime. The cops then found Merriman’s body under a pile of boxes on 2 January 2020.
Marc Carlos, the defending attorney, rejected the claims of murder and told jurors that Janks’s stepfather had indeed died of an overdose and faltering health.
He said, “The medical examiner will not tell you it was strangulation. The science does not support strangulation.”
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