Evidence, timeline in Samantha Woll killing unveiled in court hearing

In a Tuesday court hearing, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is expected to lay out evidence against a man charged in the killing of Detroit synagogue leader Samantha Woll.

The suspect, Michael Jackson-Bolanos, 28, of Detroit, is accused of fatally stabbing Woll eight times around her face and neck during an Oct. 21 home invasion in Detroit's Lafayette Park neighborhood, just east of downtown. He was charged in the killing Dec. 13 and held without bond after a previous suspect was taken into custody, never charged and later released.

The Tuesday preliminary examination, a district court hearing that determines whether there's enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial court, is set to take place at 11:30 a.m. in front of 36th District Judge Kenneth King. The hearing could provide a glimpse of what trial may look like for Jackson-Bolanos. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey said previously that the prosecution plans on bringing 12 witnesses to the stand during the preliminary exam.

Elsey previously revealed in court evidence of Woll's blood on Jackson-Bolanos' jacket, seized by Detroit police at his girlfriend's home.

Jackson-Bolanos' attorney, Brian Brown, maintains his client's innocence and previously suggested he may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. He believes his client will be absolved of the charges against him, which include felony murder during a first-degree home invasion and lying to police officers.

Woll was president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue and founded the Muslim-Jewish Forum of Detroit.

The Free Press will provide live updates from the hearing below. The hearing can also be viewed live in the video embedded below:

Hearing delayed

King was presiding over another hearing in a separate shooting death case Tuesday morning, delaying the Jackson-Bolanos preliminary exam.

Family members of Samantha Woll and members of the local Jewish community were waiting outside the courtroom.

Witness who discovered body takes stand

The hearing began at 1:30 p.m.

Sam Woll was found blue, barefoot and lying in the fetal position by a neighbor around dawn on Oct. 21, according to testimony from the man who found her.

Neighbor Kevin Mull, who lived near Woll in the Lafayette Park townhome community, said he discovered the 40-year-old synagogue board president on the sidewalk about 6:20 a.m. as he walked another neighbor’s dog.

Woll’s mother, Margo Woll, who is in the courtroom with Woll’s father, dabbed her eyes with a tissue as Mull recounted discovering her daughter.

Mull testified to touching Woll’s skin to see if she would react and finding her “very cold.” He then returned home and told his wife to call 911.

Woll's father, Douglas, walked out of the room following the testimony.

'A lot of blood'

Sgt. Daron Zhou, a supervisor with a Detroit homicide unit who was called to the scene that evening, took the stand second.

He saw Woll laying on the ground and a trail of blood that led from her body to the open door of Woll's apartment, he testified.

Inside, "there was a lot of blood," Zhou said repeatedly during questioning by the prosecution.

Blood was found near the entryway and the living room. Blood soiled a couch, pillows and blankets on the couch, he said. There were also potential signs of a struggle, with fruit fallen from a basket on a dining room table, Zhou said. There was also bruising around Woll's eye, forehead, elbows and knees.

Defense attorney Brian Brown cross examined Zhou, focusing on the highest concentration of blood found near Woll's apartment entryway, suggesting her body could have been laying there for some time. He identified outlines in the blood that Zhou admitted looked like footprints, pointing away from the entryway.

"There was a lot of blood leading to the interior of the residence," Zhou said.

Surveillance footage leads to arrest

Authorities fingered Michael Jackson-Bolanos as a suspect in Woll’s killing after reviewing surveillance footage from an elementary school near her home and reviewing cellphone records, a Michigan State Police trooper who worked the case testified Tuesday.

Trooper Alexander Martinez, a homicide detective, testified to following Jackson-Bolanos to Roseville as part of a surveillance operation involving state and Detroit police. The 28-year-old was pulled over and taken into custody on Nov. 30, in a 2007 Dodge Charger registered to him. Police seized his iPhone, Martinez said.

Woll’s father, who left the courtroom following earlier testimony detailing the discovery of his daughter's body, has returned.

Jackson-Bolanos, handcuffed and wearing a mask over his nose and mouth, took notes and appeared to be paying close attention to witness statements and information his lawyer showed him on a laptop.

Cellphone records

Detroit police detective Sarah Markel, a digital forensic examiner, took the stand to discuss findings related to Woll's cellphone, which was discovered on her bloodied couch.

The phone registered an outgoing text message at 1:02 a.m. on Oct. 21, Markel said on the stand.

Woll's device was last unlocked at 1:29 a.m. and then locked at 1:35 a.m. It was not unlocked again after that, Markel said, looking at eight pages of data submitted as an exhibit.

During cross examination, Brown noted that the data from Woll's cellphone also indicated that her phone's display turned on five times between 1:38 a.m. and 4:41 p.m., which Markel said could indicate activity like notifications or tapping on a phone to show the display.

But after 1:29 a.m., when Woll's phone was unlocked for that last time, she said the phone does not appear to have any user interaction.

Security system registers motion in home

Michigan State Police Trooper Elizabeth Stockmeyer, a supervising homicide detective in charge of the Woll case, provided key details during her testimony Tuesday afternoon, including blood found on Bolanos-Jackson's jacket that was linked to Woll, and details from Woll's home security system that help shed light on the timeline of the killing.

Woll had a motion-sensor security system in place at her home, installed at the front door, back door, living room, and the door to her basement. Living room motions register about 17 feet into the home, Stockmeyer said.

At 12:31 a.m. on Oct. 21, when Woll arrived home from a wedding, Woll's front door was opened, Stockmeyer said, based on data retrieved via search warrant from ADT Home Security Systems. At 12:32 a.m, motion was detected in her living room.

Then, at 1:01 a.m., the security system showed the front door was left open, Stockmeyer testified. Another living room motion registered at 4:20 a.m. There were no other motion detection notifications until police came to her home later that morning.

As for blood found on Jackson-Bolanos' jacket, Stockmeyer and her team performed a search warrant at an apartment linked to Jackson-Bolanos' in the 400 block of W. Alexandrine St. in Midtown. Elsey previously said in court that it was his girlfriend's apartment.

There, a black North Face jacket that matched the jacket of a suspect seen in video surveillance footage from the nearby elementary school was retrieved. Woll's blood swab and the jacket were both sent to a state forensic lab in December. A report indicated that the swab from the jacket's right sleeve was likely to be Woll's blood.

Pointed cross-examination

Jackson-Bolanos’ attorney is attempting to poke holes in the police investigation that led to the 28-year-old’s arrest.

There is no DNA, fingerprint or other physical evidence placing Jackson-Bolanos inside Woll’s home, Stockmeyer said when pressed by attorney Brian Brown. Nor does camera footage show Jackson-Bolanos entering or exiting Woll’s home, she said.

A minimal amount of blood was found on Jackson-Bolanos’ coat – so little that Stockmeyer said she was unable to see it.

The investigation also did not include a determination as to whether Woll’s security system could have gone into idle mode, leaving some activity untracked, Stockmeyer said.

Brown also zeroed in on a spare key found at the scene, but the latent prints on the key were not cross checked with Woll’s prints because, Stockmeyer said, “the autopsy was conducted very quickly.” Woll was buried one day after her body was found, in accordance with Jewish tradition.

Timing and the suspect's whereabouts

The prosecution attempted to show in court that Jackson-Bolanos was in the area of the crime scene during the early hours police believe Woll she was killed.

FBI Special Agent Bryan Toltzis, who was tasked with analyzing Jackson-Bolanos' cellphone records, testified that the location data for a cellphone number associated with Jackson-Bolanos placed the suspect in the area of the crime scene between 3:50 a.m. and 4:20 a.m.

Motion was detected in Woll’s living room around 4:20.

By 4:30 a.m., Jackson-Bolanos' cellphone records indicate he began traveling west and into downtown near Broadway and Madison streets.

Earlier, he had been at the apartment in the 400 block of W Alexandrine St. He made his way back to the apartment by 4:54 a.m.

Brown questioned the accuracy of the location data during cross examination.

Adjourned

With four or five witnesses left to testify, Judge Kenneth King adjourned the hearing, with plans to continue Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 1:30 p.m.

More: Investigators testify to cellphone, motion sensor data in Samantha Woll homicide hearing

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Samantha Woll killing evidence to be revealed in court: Live updates