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It was Jan. 1, 2021, when the San Diego Sheriff’s Division obtained a name from a person saying his buddy, Jade Janks, might need killed her stepfather, Tom Merriman.
Assistant district attorneys Jorge Del Portillo and Teresa Pham inform “48 Hours” correspondent Tracy Smith that the caller “instructed sheriff’s deputies she confessed to drugging him, suffocating him and strangling him to loss of life.”
The decision triggered a seek for Merriman. His physique was quickly discovered, and Janks was arrested and charged along with his homicide. However she mentioned she was harmless.
A STRANGE PHONE CALL
San Diego County, California, is an idyllic place — more often than not.
CALLER (to San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept.): Effectively, I’ve obtained a scenario, final night time … A buddy of mine requested me to come back over. She mentioned that she had presumably killed her stepdad …
CALLER:I stewed on this all night time … I barely slept … and I am scared to loss of life … I do not need to be a part of this … I did not have something to do together with her …
That frightened cellphone name got here in New Yr’s Day 2021. The caller mentioned his one-time girlfriend might have dedicated a homicide.
CALLER: I do not know if she actually did this.
Jorge Del Portillo: The sheriff’s division obtained a name from a man that mentioned, my buddy confessed to me final night time that she murdered her stepfather.
San Diego County Deputy D.A. Jorge Del Portillo.
Jorge Del Portillo: He instructed deputies, “Hey … I do not know if what she’s saying is true, I did not see him, I — however that is one thing I needed to inform the police.”
The alleged sufferer was a 64-year-old man named Tom Merriman, who lived in Solana Seashore, California.
Ramona Hamilton: I preferred him. I believed he was very good.
Ramona Hamilton and her husband George had been Tom’s neighbors. Ramona knew him higher, and she or he discovered Tom additionally ran an uncommon enterprise: a butterfly farm.
Ramona Hamilton: I am a gardener and I like butterflies.
Pat Flanagan additionally preferred butterflies. He was Tom Merriman’s enterprise associate out on the farm.
Pat Flanagan: He was my greatest buddy.
Tracy Smith: Did he grow to be form of a butterfly knowledgeable?
Pat Flanagan: Oh, he’s a butterfly knowledgeable.
Tracy Smith: You say, “he’s.”
Pat Flanagan: Yeah.
Tracy Smith: You continue to speak about him within the current tense?
Pat Flanagan: Yeah. I do (emotional).
It was on Dec. 31, 2020, that Tom Merriman was final seen alive. Ramona and George Hamilton noticed him in his stepdaughter’s SUV of their shared driveway.
George Hamilton: And he was sitting on this aspect on the passenger aspect, along with his toes out, and his walker out in entrance of him and he seemed like hell.
Tom had simply spent greater than two weeks within the hospital and a rehab heart after a foul fall. He additionally had coronary heart and liver issues.
Ramona Hamilton: He seemed terrible. I do not even know if he knew me.
Tracy Smith: However on the time, it simply appeared like perhaps he obtained despatched house from the hospital, closely drugged.
Ramona Hamilton: Closely drugged — sure.
George Hamilton: That is all we knew. That is all we knew.
After which George Hamilton noticed Tom’s stepdaughter, 37-year-old Jade Janks. Tom Merriman had come into Jade’s life when she was 15, marrying her mother.
Jade and Tom had been apparently shut; she lived proper subsequent door. On today, Jade had simply pushed him house.
Ramona Hamilton: He known as her his daughter.
Tracy Smith: He known as Jade his daughter?
Ramona Hamilton: Sure.
George Hamilton: Proper.
Tracy Smith: They appeared shut.
Ramona Hamilton: And so they appear very shut.
Ramona Hamilton: She was fixing dinner for him each night time.
Ramona Hamilton: She appeared to maintain him —
Tracy Smith: What’d you consider Jade?
Ramona Hamilton: I believed she was a really fairly lady.
Jade had completed some work in Ramona’s condominium.
Ramona Hamilton: She was an inside … decorator.
Heather Pearce: That is Jade. … she generally is a tomboy and a girlie lady all in the identical day. … she will … get herself soiled for work, carrying rocks and concrete in her pickup truck … And … we’re dressed up … able to go to, like, a pleasant fancy dinner.
Heather Pearce grew up subsequent door to Jade in San Diego County.
Heather Pearce: Jade was very cool … I liked being round her.
Jade was 13 years older.
Heather Pearce: She’s positively just a little greater than an enormous sister and rather less than a mother … her power was simply very robust … loving and caring and real and, so once you’re round her, you’re feeling good.
She additionally knew Jade’s stepdad, Tom Merriman.
Heather Pearce: I believe she all the time simply liked him and cared about him.
Again at Tom’s place in Solana Seashore, it was now Jan. 1 — the day after he’d gotten again from the rehab heart, the day after the Hamiltons had seen him trying so poorly within the driveway.
This time they solely noticed Jade within the driveway. She was standing by a pile of trash and packing containers.
George Hamilton: I noticed her out on the aspect right here with the packing containers and cartons … a short while later … there is a knock on the door … And he or she come to the door to inform me that she’d made a large number down there … however she’d clear it up later.
It was just a few hours later when regulation enforcement pulled into their driveway.
CALLER (to San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept.): I am scared to loss of life … I do not need to be a part of this … I did not have something to do together with her …
They got here to research that unusual cellphone name — the one which claimed Tom Merriman had been murdered.
Jorge Del Portillo: They had been looking for Tom. The place is Tom?
Jorge Del Portillo: They walked by this pile of trash within the driveway.
Jorge Del Portillo: They — they knocked on his door. They went inside.
They did not discover Tom, however they did see his stepdaughter.
Jorge Del Portillo: After they noticed Jade Janks driving out of her driveway, they pulled her over, introduced her in for questioning and requested that very query, “The place is Tom?”
On the police station, Jade mentioned she was chilly, so that they gave her a blanket.
DETECTIVE: Effectively, we’re looking for Tom … are you aware the place Tom is?
JADE JANKS: No.
DETECTIVE: His household hasn’t seen him for over 48 hours, so —
JADE JANKS: He simply obtained launched from the hospital yesterday.
DETECTIVE: OK. Did you see him yesterday?
JADE JANKS: Yeah. I picked him up from the hospital.
DETECTIVE: OK. Are you aware the place he went?
JADE JANKS: No … what are you able to inform me apart from he is simply lacking?
DETECTIVE: We do not know the place he is at, we’re looking for him.
Ultimately they let Jade go, however there was nonetheless no signal of Tom. Officers spent all night time combing by way of his condominium searching for clues.
Then, simply after the primary morning gentle, one of many officers was strolling down the driveway in direction of Tom’s condominium when she noticed that pile of trash.
There is a wheelbarrow, some packing containers and a few baggage.
Jorge Del Portillo: She eliminated a trash bag from that trash and instantly noticed the silhouette of a person.
Tracy Smith: And there he was. Tom Merriman.
Jorge Del Portillo: Tom Merriman … laid lifeless and buried.
HOW DID TOM MERRIMAN DIE?
Jorge Del Portillo: I’ve by no means seen that. … I’ve by no means seen a case the place a physique was buried beneath a pile of trash within the driveway.
The obvious crime scene was smack in the course of the driveway of the luxurious compound only a mile from the seashore.
Jorge Del Portillo: He was sporting the hospital bracelet that he was simply within the hospital. … the identical T-shirt and the identical pajamas that he was discharged.
Jorge Del Portillo: As quickly as they discovered the physique … they knew we’ve got our suspect, and so they made the arrest.
On the morning of Jan. 2, 2021, Jade Janks was arrested and charged with Tom Merriman’s homicide. However issues had been about to get difficult.
Jorge Del Portillo: She lawyered up and did not need to reply any extra questions.
So, authorities continued to work the case — beginning with that cellphone name.
CALLER (to San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept.): It appears like she killed this man.
That decision had come from that buddy of Jade’s — a person named Adam Siplyak. He instructed police she known as him to her condominium, after which she requested him for a favor.
ADAM SIPLYAK: … and requested me to maneuver the physique together with her …
DISPATCHER: OK.
ADAM SIPLYAK: I mentioned, “I am unable to assist you to” … and I by no means noticed the physique.
Adam Siplyak might not have seen the physique that night time, however, finally, he did inform police that Jade confessed to him. That she had knocked Tom out with an overdose of drugs after which strangled him.
It was a fairly dramatic story. And authorities had been assured the post-mortem would verify that story — there could be bodily proof that Tom was strangled to loss of life. However that is not what occurred.
Teresa Pham: I used to be truly there for the post-mortem.
Assistant District Legal professional Theresa Pham, who led the investigation, talked to the health worker.
Theresa Pham: So, what they discovered was, sadly, not a whole lot of bodily proof.
Tracy Smith: Proper. So, you’ve this supposed confession of her saying she — she strangled him, however no proof of strangulation.
Jorge Del Portillo: That is proper.
The ultimate post-mortem report mentioned that the reason for Tom Merriman’s loss of life was “acute Zolpidem intoxication.” Zolpidem is the generic identify for the sleeping tablet Ambien.
Tracy Smith: Is it doable that Tom Merriman died by chance? … he was sick. It is not that many tablets that he took.
Jorge Del Portillo: Definitely, it is doable … however the proof belied that notion. This was no accident.
However even when the post-mortem did not level to strangulation, investigators say different proof clearly pointed to homicide.
Tracy Smith: Jade’s cellphone was a gold mine.
Jorge Del Portillo: It was a gold mine.
Jade’s cellphone was stuffed with texts.
Tracy Smith: How would you categorize these textual content messages?
Teresa Pham: Suspicious.
Jorge Del Portillo: Incriminating.
Teresa Pham: A plan.
In line with prosecutors, that plan was to eliminate Tom Merriman a technique or one other.
Investigators say it began on Dec. 23 — that is a couple of week earlier than Tom’s physique was discovered. Tom was within the hospital after that unhealthy fall. Jade says she was cleansing up his condominium when she discovered one thing.
Teresa Pham: So, she’s at Tom’s condominium. And his laptop computer, I suppose, will need to have been in sleep mode or one thing like that, however she knocked into it, and it wakened. … And on the screensaver is a nude {photograph} of her within the bathe.
And there was extra. Far more.
Teresa Pham: She will need to have had his password. So, as soon as she was in a position to get into his laptop computer … was when she was capable of finding, much more of nude pictures of her.
Tracy Smith: A whole bunch.
Teresa Pham: A whole bunch.
Jorge Del Portillo: These had been pictures that she took willingly together with her associate on the time. Some had been of her within the bathe bare.
Authorities do not know the way Merriman obtained these footage, however Jade says she by no means gave them to him, and prosecutors say she panicked.
Jorge Del Portillo: In her phrases, she was past freaked out. That is what she wrote to a buddy, that she could not bathe alone, that she was vomiting at simply the concept of taking a look at a bathe based mostly on what she had found.
Jorge Del Portillo: She’s sleeping with … a knife on the nightstand simply in case he comes early house from the hospital.
In line with prosecutors, that is when Jade launches her plan. How? One in all her mates connects her with a man. A man the prosecutors known as “The Fixer.”
Jorge Del Portillo: There is a textual content message the place he tells Jade,” you probably have an issue, I might repair it for you.” And that is how we got here up with the label, “The Fixer.”
The so-called “fixer” was a person named Alan Roach.
Tracy Smith: Who’s Alan Roach?
Jorge Del Portillo: Alan Roach is a man — He is a safety guard. … That is what he does. … however I believe he makes himself out to be another person that he is not.
Teresa Pham: We had been considering Jade views him because the character in “Pulp Fiction” — somebody that you simply attain out to once you need one in every of your issues mounted. And that is what he was, he was the fixer.
Tracy Smith: He was the fixer.
Tracy Smith: Is Alan a success man?
Jorge Del Portillo: He isn’t a success man. And — however what’s essential is, what does Jade suppose Alan is.
Prosecutors say Jade wished her fixer to assist her eliminate Tom.
Jorge Del Portillo: She had a plan that she caught to.
Tracy Smith: The plan was homicide.
Jorge Del Portillo: The plan was homicide.
JADE JANKS TAKES THE STAND
It was now December 2022 — two years after Tom Merriman’s physique was discovered beneath that pile of rubbish — and Jade Janks was about to face trial for his homicide.
Tracy Smith: Let me simply ask you flat out, did Jade Janks homicide her stepfather Tom Merriman?
Marc Carlos: Jade has maintained her innocence all through this whole, uh, incident.
Jade’s legal professional, Marc Carlos, insists this was not a homicide, and says Jade had no motive to kill her stepfather.
Marc Carlos: Discovering nude pictures of your self on a stepfather’s pc would make you offended, you understand, may make you break off relationships with him. … However sufficient to kill any individual? I do not suppose so.
He says Tom’s loss of life was an unlucky accident, introduced on by his poor well being and self-administered prescribed drugs.
Marc Carlos: I believe he took the medicine himself. … He had a number of substances in his system. I believe he made a cocktail of the medication that he had with him and had a foul response to it and triggered his — his loss of life.
At trial, Jade was supported by household and mates, together with her organic father, Steve Janks, and her longtime buddy, Heather Pearce.
Heather Pearce: Tom was a large number, an absolute mess for a very long time … there is no means that she had like a plan and first diploma and all of that. I used to be like, there is no means as a result of that is not Jade.
Prosecutors Jorge Del Portillo and Theresa Pham had been fearful the jury may really feel that Jade herself was the sufferer.
Teresa Pham: She’s a sympathetic defendant.
Jorge Del Portillo: She is.
Teresa Pham: I imply she discovered bare pictures of herself on her stepdad’s pc.
Jade takes the stand to inform the jury what occurred in her personal phrases.
Jade says that ever since she met Tom when she was a youngster, they maintained a powerful bond.
JADE JANKS: It is onerous to come back by any individual you simply really feel which you can belief utterly. And I did really feel that means. … I referred to him as my father and he might name me his daughter.
Which is why, Jade tells the jury, it was so devastating to search out these pictures on Dec. 23 whereas Tom was within the hospital, and she or he was cleansing his condominium.
JADE JANKS: I bumped the mouse on his desktop pc and it — it shook the display awake and I seemed and there is a image of feminine breasts on the display. … And I look … and … these — these are my breasts. … I — I simply — I could not imagine it. I — I used to be in full shock.
Jade describes discovering much more on Tom’s pc.
JADE JANKS: There was a rolling display, like a slideshow of images of me that was taken through the years.
MARC CARLOS: OK. What kind of images had been they?
JADE JANKS (crying): They had been bare pictures.
MARC CARLOS: OK, do you, did you ever give bare pictures to, uh, to your stepfather?
JADE JANKS: No.
MARC CARLOS: I imply, did you ever present him bare pictures of your self?
JADE JANKS (crying): No.
Tracy Smith: And the way did he get these pictures?
Marc Carlos: Jade does not know.
Tracy Smith: These had been pictures that Jade had taken of herself?
Marc Carlos: Jade and numerous boyfriends.
MARC CARLOS: Have you ever ever made any, uh, sexual overtures towards your stepfather?
JADE JANKS: No. No.
MARC CARLOS: Did you inform him that you simply had, uh, nude pictures of your self?
JADE JANKS: No.
MARC CARLOS: You by no means confirmed him something just like these, right?
JADE JANKS: No, he was my dad.
Tom was nonetheless within the hospital, however Jade says she did not really feel secure.
MARC CARLOS: You had been afraid that he was going to come back again and discover out that you simply had discovered the pictures, sure?
JADE JANKS: Sure.
MARC CARLOS: And also you had been fearful about how he may react towards you.
JADE JANKS: Sure.
MARC CARLOS: Proper. And he lived subsequent door to you.
JADE JANKS: Sure.
And that is why Jade says she obtained in contact with Alan Roach, who labored in safety, the day she discovered these pictures.
MARC CARLOS: So, why did you suppose that you simply wanted any individual like Alan Roach?
Jade pauses as she considers her reply.
JADE JANKS: I — I used to be — I used to be scared. I imply, once I first noticed the pictures, I — I could not even use the toilet. … I simply felt so disgusting. I could not bathe both. I used to be simply scared. … I used to be afraid of being, you understand, nude and weak. And I simply — I wished any individual to simply look out for me and guarantee that, you understand, I used to be secure.
Over the following few days, Tom was moved from the hospital to a rehab heart, and Jade felt she needed to act.
JADE JANKS: I am unable to proceed simply residing subsequent door to him and never feeling secure or feeling like this. I imply, I’ve to do one thing.
MARC CARLOS: Once you say, “I wanted to do one thing,” did you have to kill him?
JADE JANKS: No! … I wished Tom to simply go away and go away me alone.
In line with Jade, Alan Roach was planning to come back over after she introduced Tom house, to assist her confront him.
JADE JANKS: I wished Alan to principally, you understand, clarify to him this — this isn’t OK. Or I might clarify it, however Alan simply be there simply in case.
Jade says that on Dec. 31, despite her emotions, she was doing the whole lot she might to assist Tom who, she says, appeared preoccupied with discovering medicine.
JADE JANKS: He began calling at about 6:45 within the morning and he is asking me to get him codeine, which I do not actually perceive. … He says that he hasn’t, I believe, slept and he desires to relaxation.
Jade took Tom out of the rehab at just a little after 11 a.m. He had a bag of medicine with him, together with Ambien. Keep in mind, the post-mortem says Ambien is what killed him. Jade says, nearly as quickly as Tom obtained into her automotive, he additionally helped himself to her prescription medicines.
JADE JANKS: He stored saying issues, “did you’ve any painkillers, is thi,s it? Oh, right here” after which he simply form of took it.
Jade says Tom appeared tremendous when she stopped at a purchasing plaza and texted Alan Roach to come back meet her. She went into a few shops whereas she waited to listen to again.
JADE JANKS: I used to be simply getting began on a, um, a home venture, so I simply went to go get provides and form of store round
Jade purchased gloves, towels and a nylon wire—and a few spray paint. She says this stuff had been for a portray venture.
JADE JANKS: I — usually, I lay plastic down … and form of enclose it in order that I am not getting paint on all of the, the foliage.
Jade nonetheless hadn’t heard again from Roach and took Tom house. She says Tom was now too groggy to stroll on his personal, and she or he could not get him out of her automotive. She says she was fearful about him and drove him again to the rehab for assist.
JADE JANKS: I simply defined, you understand, my dad’s simply been launched and one thing’s mistaken. It is advisable to carry him again. They would not — they would not let me inside, although. … they’re fairly adamant with COVID. I could not go inside.
Jade returned house with Tom, however says she was nonetheless not in a position to get him out of her automotive. Roach had lastly texted again to say he could not make it over in any case, however despatched his buddy, a person named Brian Salomon, to assist her get Tom inside.
MARC CARLOS: And had you ever met Brian Salomon earlier than?
JADE JANKS: No.
Jade says Salomon would not assist her with Tom and left straight away. So, Jade reached out to her buddy Adam Siplyak and requested him to come back over. Siplyak arrived later that night.
JADE JANKS: I simply mentioned — I imply, I — I — I used to be — I used to be simply in tears. I had mentioned that, you understand, I need — I need to get him into my home, or, into his home.
Jade says Siplyak shortly obtained upset and left with out serving to her. And that is the place Jade’s story does not line up with Siplyak’s: keep in mind, Adam was the one that known as police on New Yr’s Day.
ADAM SIPLYAK (to San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept.): … she mentioned she had presumably killed her stepdad …
Jade says she did not confess to something. She says Siplyak was distressed by how sick Tom seemed and that is why he would not assist her. After he left, Jade says she did not know what else to do and tried to get Tom located in her automotive for the night time so he might sleep off no matter he had taken.
JADE JANKS: I made certain he is comfy. And he had pillows, and I attempt to keep in mind… Yeah. I imply, he had a blanket.
The subsequent morning, within the chilly gentle of New Yr’s Day, Jade says Tom was nonetheless in her automotive when she realized the worst had occurred.
MARC CARLOS: Did you contact Mr. Merriman?
JADE JANKS: Sure.
MARC CARLOS: What did you’re feeling?
JADE JANKS (crying:) I — I attempted to drag his leg and his pajamas and lifted it. His leg was chilly.
MARC CARLOS: Ms. Janks, did you suppose Tom Merriman was lifeless at that time?
JADE JANKS: I knew he was.
JADE JANKS’ INCRIMINATING TEXTS
After Jade instructed the jury how she discovered Tom’s physique, her personal legal professional challenged her.
MARC CARLOS: Did you concentrate on calling 911?
JADE JANKS (crying): Um, I used to be scared to.
MARC CARLOS: Why had been you scared?
JADE JANKS: I did not need to get blamed. I imply, I simply — I used to be the one which picked him up. … And I did not need to get blamed for — for killing him.
And he or she tried to clarify what she did along with his physique.
JADE JANKS (crying): I continued to — to drag him out. I nonetheless wished to get him into his home. I — I imply, I did not — I did not know what else to do.
JADE JANKS (crying): I panicked. … I put the blanket over him, and I obtained empty packing containers and simply form of stacked it, made it look identical to a pile of particles.
Jade might have left Tom’s physique within the driveway, however she says she had by no means meant him hurt.
MARC CARLOS: I imply, did you need your stepfather lifeless?
JADE JANKS: No.
MARC CARLOS: Ms. Janks, did you seize him with your personal two fingers —
JADE JANKS (crying): No, I’d by no means.
MARC CARLOS: — and did you strangle him?
JADE JANKS (crying): No.
MARC CARLOS: Would you — would you ever have completed that to … Tom Merriman?
JADE JANKS: I would not try this to anyone. No.
After which, the prosecutors instructed their model of the story.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You lied to the police about the place Tom was?
JADE JANKS: I did not … I simply requested for an legal professional, and I stored asking for one.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You did not need the police to know that Tom died in your automotive?
JADE JANKS: I wasn’t attempting to cover it, however I did not need to go alone and inform them that.
Prosecutors mentioned Jade was mendacity to cowl up her plan.
Jorge Del Portillo: The plan was to drug him, suffocate him and stage it to appear to be an overdose.
Del Portillo says, after she picked Tom up from the rehab, Jade used his personal prescription sleeping tablets to knock him out.
And he says he has proof: Jade’s DNA is on these packs of tablets.
Jorge Del Portillo: The bundle of Zolpidem, which is the Ambien sleeping tablets, that had the defendant’s DNA on it, however not Tom’s. And I believe it is essential that the jury heard that, that it was Jade Janks’ DNA on that Zolpidem pack.
And in keeping with prosecutors. There’s far more proof, too.
Jade, they are saying, left a real-time path of clues that day. Keep in mind her cellphone — the one they known as “a gold mine”? It seems it was filled with texts. Messages that they are saying outlined her plan to kill.
Theresa Phan: We’re speaking 11, 12 minutes after being discharged, she sends a textual content message to Alan, the fixer, saying, “I simply dosed the hell out of him.”
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: When somebody says, I dosed the hell out of them, you’d agree with me, that meaning somebody gave one other particular person a complete lot of medicine, proper?
JADE JANKS: I suppose it is a poor phrasing.
Del Portillo thinks Jade’s rationalization is nonsense.
He says, first, she drugged Tom, after which she wanted to stall for a bit and her texts even say that.
JADA JANKS TEXT: Stopping at Dixieland to stall.
Jorge Del Portillo: She was stalling for the medication — to actually kick in and make him asleep and unaware of what she was about to do.
Jorge Del Portillo: She’s stalling to see if this man, Alan Roach, can come by and assist her commit the homicide.
And keep in mind these provides Jade mentioned she picked up for a portray venture? In line with the prosecutors, they had been truly Jade’s “homicide package.”
Jorge Del Portillo: She goes to the shop and buys this homicide package. … zip ties, gloves, rope, and towels.
Prosecutors say, as much as that time, Jade’s plan was on monitor. However by just a little after midday, issues began to go mistaken.
Jorge Del Portillo: You can see from the textual content messages that she was in a panic.
Jade’s texting her so-called “fixer” Alan Roach. She writes, “He is waking up.” And he or she provides, “Are you able to come over?”
However the “fixer” will not be responding.
Jorge Del Portillo: This plot was a complete mess, and it fell aside straight away.
Lastly, “the fixer” texts her again. He says he cannot come, however he is sending somebody he is aware of — that man named Brian Salomon.
Tracy Smith: OK. So, the plan … is Brian will carry Tom into the home.
Teresa Pham: Yep.
Jorge Del Portillo: Brian Salomon later instructed us that when he went over to assist Jade … that she instructed him one thing that he’ll always remember … “I need you to carry him inside, strangle him, and I am going to maintain the remaining.”
Brian Salomon shortly left the home with out doing something. And shortly, Jade is again texting the lacking “fixer” once more.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: At 3 p.m., you texted Alan, “he is waking up and I am undecided how for much longer I can management my mood …” is that proper?
JADE JANKS: Sure, however that was to Alan.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You texted Alan, “he is waking up and getting far more aggressive. So, it is far more actual.” True?
JADE JANKS: True.
JADE JANKS: I believe, once more, I used to be simply panicking and attempting to induce Alan to come back over.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You’d agree with me that this seems to be very suspicious, this textual content message?
JADE JANKS: Oh, yeah.
Jade texts Alan once more: “I am unable to maintain a kicking physique in my truck.”
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: Now that we all know Tom was discovered lifeless in his driveway beneath a pile of trash that you simply put collectively, that this textual content message seems to be very suspicious. You’d agree with me, proper?
JADE JANKS: I imply, I — sure.
It is now round 4 p.m. Roach has disappeared.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You texted Alan, “F*** he is up. I suppose I am by myself.” True?
JADE JANKS: True.
Tracy Smith: How do you suppose she killed Tom?
Jorge Del Portillo: We imagine that the proof reveals that she put a bag over his head … When the bag will not be working quick sufficient, she has to strangle him, and she or he has no different alternative. … It is too late to again out now.
Investigators even discovered a plastic bag in Jade’s automotive. It had her DNA on the surface and Tom’s on the within. However there’s an enormous downside with the prosecution’s case, and that is the post-mortem.
The post-mortem by no means mentioned Tom was strangled; there weren’t any marks on his neck. So, what occurred? How might Jade presumably have strangled him to loss of life?
Jorge Del Portillo: That offered — an enormous issue for us strategically of going ahead in trial.
Tracy Smith: Proper. So, you’ve this supposed confession of her saying she — she strangled him, however no proof of strangulation.
Teresa Pham and Jorge Del Portillo: Proper.
Seems the prosecutors had a solution for that.
They are saying it’s very doable to strangle somebody to loss of life with out leaving marks if the sufferer is already knocked out.
Teresa Pham: I believe that’s a part of the plan, is to dose him simply sufficient to the place he is incapacitated. … So, in case you’re unconscious, your respiratory is already depressed.
Teresa Pham: As soon as somebody is already unconscious … it doesn’t require that a lot stress and wouldn’t go away bruising. It could not go away breakage of the cartilage that is contained in the throat, it could not go away bodily proof.
Jorge Del Portillo: It solely takes 4 kilos of stress to kill, to chop off the blood provide to your head. And once you and I shook fingers earlier at the moment, that was about 11 kilos of stress. So, it is lower than a handshake to kill.
After she murdered Tom, prosecutors say she left his physique in her automotive in a single day, and the following morning, Jade needed to do one thing about it.
In a narrative stuffed with unusual twists, this can be the oddest: prosecutors say Tom’s physique was nonetheless in Jade’s automotive and she or he wished to make his loss of life appear to be an accident — like he’d overdosed on his personal medication. However she could not get his 180-pound physique out of the automotive, and into his condominium, and nobody would assist her. So, they are saying she drove to a hospital with Tom lifeless at the back of her automotive, picked up a wheelchair, put it in her automotive and drove again to Tom’s place.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: How did you get the wheelchair in your automotive if Tom was nonetheless in there?
JADE JANKS: Oh, it is — it is large. … The trunk was up, Tom was form of, you understand, his legs had been akimbo, and he was laying down and I form of hoisted it up into the again window of the 4Runner then rolled down.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: Once you had been doing this, at this level do you know Tom was lifeless?
JADE JANKS (sighs): I did however I did not need to comprehend it but.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: So, you suspected Tom was lifeless and also you’re at Scripps Hospital and you do not inform anybody on the hospital that Tom may want some assist.
JADE JANKS: Appropriate.
And there was only one other thing.
On the day the cops got here by searching for Tom they did not know something but — simply that Tom is perhaps lacking. Jade jumped into her automotive.
Teresa Pham: When she was pulling out of her driveway after they had been on the brink of do … the welfare examine, she was pulling out of her driveway, and she or he was getting detained after being pulled over. The final textual content message on her cellphone was to Alan Roach saying, “lose my quantity.”
Tracy Smith: What does that say to you?
Jorge Del Portillo: Eliminate the proof.
THE VERDICT COMES IN
Jorge Del Portillo: That was the largest hurdle in our case, we really feel, was the jury may dislike Tom Merriman a lot that they might vote to both acquit or cut back the homicide to one thing else.
As Jade’s trial is drawing to a detailed, prosecutor Jorge Del Portillo desires to verify the jury’s consideration is on what Jade Janks has completed, and never on Tom.
Jorge Del Portillo: Tom was not on trial. This wasn’t his trial. He did not get a trial. … She was his choose, jury and executioner. And so, all of it comes again to Jade.
In his closing argument to the jury, Marc Carlos emphasizes what he says are the weaknesses of the prosecution’s case.
MARC CARLOS: What kind of proof do we’ve got? We have now a whole lot of hypothesis. … It is hypothesis upon hypothesis upon hypothesis.
He argues Adam Siplyak’s story that Jade confessed is a lie.
MARC CARLOS: Mr. Siplyak — no credibility. He desires to get out of one thing that he thinks might need occurred.
And he says Brian Salomon, who additionally claimed Jade confessed to him that day, cannot be telling the reality.
MARC CARLOS: He claims that instantly — and this was his testimony — instantly upon coming into, she says, “he is within the automotive, go strangle him.” That is any individual that Jade Janks has by no means met earlier than.
Neither Adam Siplyak, Brian Salomon nor Alan Roach was charged with any crime on this case, and Marc Carlos urges the jury to stay to what he calls the reality.
MARC CARLOS: And the reality is that they have zero — zero proof to help a homicide.
However Jorge del Portillo will get to make the final argument the jury will hear.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: It begins with “I simply dosed the hell out of him.” The plan is beginning. And with Alan, it ends with “Lose my quantity. I am getting pulled over.” And buried in between all of these textual content messages is a homicide plot.
Jorge Del Portillo: Discover her responsible of homicide as a result of the proof proves it, the regulation requires it, and justice calls for it.
The jury went out that afternoon and was again the following morning to proceed their deliberations.
Jorge Del Portillo: Jury is available in at 9 a.m. We get the decision at 9:30 a.m. “We have now a verdict.” … We had been shocked.
Teresa Pham: We had been just a little bit nervous.
Jorge Del Portillo: The quickest verdict that I’ve ever had was quarter-hour, and it was a not responsible. So, I do not put a whole lot of inventory in fast verdicts.
Tom’s enterprise associate Pat Flanagan obtained a textual content about it.
Pat Flanagan: I used to be very anxious. My fingers had been — my fingers had been sweating. I used to be nervous.
JUDGE ROBERT KEARNEY: Has the jury reached its verdict?
JUROR #9: We have now, Your Honor.
CLERK: We, the jury, within the above-entitled trigger discover the defendant, Jade Sasha Janks, responsible of the crime of homicide…
Responsible of first-degree homicide. Jade seems shocked.
Jorge Del Portillo: It was an enormous reduction.
Teresa Pham: Reduction.
Jorge Del Portillo: It was an absolute reduction.
Tracy Smith: And once you heard that phrase, responsible.
Pat Flanagan: It — it felt proper.
Pat Flannagan says he noticed Jade’s response to the decision later – on-line.
Pat Flanagan: I nonetheless return and watch that generally.
Tracy Smith: Why?
Pat Flanagan: As a result of I really feel unhealthy for Tom. … He died buried in trash. … now she will get to really feel just a little of that ache that we have all been feeling for years.
However there may be nonetheless the matter of these pictures.
Tracy Smith: Jade mentioned that she discovered nude pictures of herself on Tom’s pc.
Pat Flanagan: Yeah.
Tracy Smith: Do you imagine that?
Pat Flanagan: I — I am unable to disprove it. I discover it — I — I do not need to imagine it.
Tracy Smith: It is fascinating you say you do not need to imagine it.
Pat Flanagan: Yeah.
Tom’s onerous drive was not recovered after his physique was discovered, however prosecutors, who spent two years investigating this case, imagine Jade is telling the reality — not less than about this.
Tracy Smith: Did you’ve any doubt that these pictures truly existed?
Jorge Del Portillo: We talked about that. … However we had little question. We discovered that picture on Tom’s laptop computer exhibiting that it had been used as a wallpaper, exhibiting that it had been on his laptop computer since August of 2019, so we had little question that these pictures existed.
In March 2023, three months after she was convicted of Tom’s homicide, Jade was in courtroom for her sentencing, and cried as she listened as an area pastor shared his recollections of Tom and the butterfly farm.
FRANK MODIC: I nonetheless keep in mind Tom and want I might drop by for a smile, to ask a query about crops or butterflies or simply to recharge these batteries that maintain seeming to — to put on down as I become older. I imagine my life is richer as a result of I knew Tom.
Jade’s organic father, who had not spoken publicly since she was charged, put the main focus again on Tom’s betrayal.
STEVEN JANKS: Firstly, I can solely think about what she went by way of when she discovered that Tom, her stepfather, an individual she trusted, that she known as dad, was a sick, perverted particular person. … All I can say is that this struggle will not be over. I actually imagine that an injustice has taken place.
Jade Janks spoke that day, too.
JADE JANKS: Tom got here into my life once I was just a bit lady and exerted affect throughout that early stage of improvement once I was nonetheless figuring issues out. Sadly, that affect manifested itself into inappropriate contact, coercion, reckless habits, and full violation of what I now notice was years of psychological manipulation. All of this got here crashing down on me when I discovered lots of of bare pictures of myself on his pc, I felt shattered.
Jade didn’t inform this story throughout trial, and “48 Hours” cannot confirm it. Jade nonetheless insists she did not kill Tom, and solely admits to overlaying up his lifeless physique.
JADE JANKS: I am nonetheless selecting up the items and it is my sincerest hope that over the following few years I can put the items again and heal from this trauma. I am sorry I did not act the best way I used to be alleged to that day. I give it some thought on daily basis since.
The choose sentenced Jade to serve 25 years to life. Because the prosecution seems to be again on a tough and emotional case, they are saying it might have simply turned out very in a different way.
Jorge Del Portillo: She might have gotten away with homicide had she carried out her plan … and the police did a welfare examine and located Tom laying in his — in his mattress, she would have gotten away with homicide.
Jade Janks shall be eligible for parole in 2038. She is interesting her conviction.
Produced by Chuck Stevenson and Sarah Prior. Cindy Cesare is the event producer. Lauren Turner Dunn is the sphere producer. Gregory Kaplan and Ken Blum are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.
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