A stepdaughter is being charged with killing her stepfather after she found out that her stepfather had naked pictures of her on his computer.
In January 2021, Thomas Merriman’s body was found in the home he shared with his stepdaughter Jade Janks in Solana Beach, California. The body was found buried under a pile of trash.
The preliminary hearings for the murder trial of 39-year-old Janks were held last week in Vista Superior Court, according to a report.
The prosecution said that Janks, an interior designer, drugged and strangled Merriman after realizing that he had a naked picture of her as a screensaver on his computer. The government also said that Janks and Merriman had been in a relationship in the past. These photos were taken many years ago by Janks and her former partner. We don’t know how Merriman got a hold of them in the first place.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charge that she killed her stepfather, who was 64 years old at the time. The government says that after she found the pictures, Janks gave her stepfather too many sleeping pills, which led to his death.
This was no accident,
a source quotes Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo of San Diego County as saying.
This was murder by design.
Two of Janks’s friends told the jury that they went to her apartment in December 2020 to check on her stepfather after he had an accident. They said that they helped Merriman get into a car so that he could be taken to the hospital.
According to the evidence shown in court, Janks found the photos when she was cleaning her stepfather’s house while he was in the hospital.
The prosecution says that the defendant talked with another man about giving Merriman the sleeping pills through a series of text messages.
Prosecutors allege Jade Sasha Janks, 39, killed 64-year-old Thomas Merriman, co-founder of Butterfly Farms, because she found nude photographs of herself on his computer. https://t.co/mMvUUcVjdv
— Times of San Diego (@TimesofSanDiego) December 17, 2022
I just dosed the hell out of him. Stopping for whiskey then at Dixieland to stall. LMK,
a source says that Janks sent a text message on the day she brought Merriman home from the hospital.
In the messages that came after, it seemed like Janks wasn’t sure if she should go through with her plan to kill Merriman.
He’s waking up,
one alleged text read.
I really don’t want to be the one to do this.
I am about to club him on the head as he is waking up,
another read.
Prosecutors told the court that Janks eventually called another person and asked for help.
Adam Siplyak, who was her friend, said in court that she told him Merriman’s body would be in the trunk of her car on New Year’s Eve 2020. Siplyak says that Janks came up to him and asked for help moving the dead person to Merriman’s room.
She said, ‘I killed him, and he’s in the back of my 4Runner,’
Siplyak told the jury.
I said, ‘I can’t help you … no way, I’m out of here. I have a son to raise.’
The next day, he talked to law enforcement officials.
The police then looked through the apartment and, as they were leaving, found Merriman’s body buried under a pile of trash made up of boxes, blankets, and other things.
The lawyers for Janks say that their client is innocent and that Merriman died because he was sick and took “his own cocktail” of drugs. Janks’ lawyers, on the other hand, say that their client is guilty.
You will not find any evidence that he was strangled to death,
Janks’ attorney, Marc Carlos told the court.
