'Don't believe him': Prosecutor urges jury to convict defendant in Samantha Woll's murder

"Don't believe him."

Nearly one year after a beloved synagogue leader was found killed in her Detroit neighborhood, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey implored jurors Wednesday to reject the account of the defendant charged in her death.

During trial, 29-year-old Michael Jackson-Bolanos told jurors that police have the wrong man, that he was out breaking into cars when he stumbled across Samantha Woll's body and checked for a pulse, but that he did not kill her.

Elsey called him a liar, saying he changed his story over and over again, lied to police about seeing her body and touching her body, and fled the scene because he didn't want to get caught for what he allegedly did that night: bludgeoned Woll in her apartment during a home invasion.

"This individual never wanted to be found," Elsey said in his closing arguments, stressing Woll's blood turned up on his jacket.

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

A pocket knife was also found in his jacket, Elsey said, noting the defendant claimed it was a seat-belt cutter.

"That's not a seatbelt cutter, that's a knife," Elsey said.

As the prosecutor showed jurors photos of Woll's stab wounds − she was stabbed eight times in the neck and head − her father sat in the courtroom with his face buried in his hands.

"I can't tell you what exactly happened inside her apartment … But we don't need to know," Elsey said, arguing all that's important to know is that she was murdered.

All the evidence, Elsey argued to jurors, points to the defendant. Woll fell asleep that night, he said, not knowing "we have this creeper of the night" roaming around her neighborhood who would break into her home, kill her, and then flee the scene.

"Imagine the horror of Samantha's last (moments)," Elsey said. "He decided to subdue her and got the heck out of there."

During his closing, Elsey went through the series of events that fall evening of 2023, when Woll was killed after returning from a wedding. This is the prosecution's timeline of events:

11:35 p.m.-11:53 p.m., she's still at wedding

12:14 a.m., on I-94 on her way home

12:30 a.m., arrives home

1:01 a.m., front door still open

At 1:02 a.m., she sends a text: a heart emoji to a friend. Her phone stays on through 1:29 a.m.

1:35 a.m., her phone is unlocked again. Her Netflix app is up and running.

She falls asleep on the couch until 4:20 a.m. when a sensor captures motion in her living room.

More: Defense: Police handled Samantha Woll's ex-boyfriend with 'kid gloves'

Three minutes after the motion detector goes off, prosecutors allege, Jackson-Bolanos flees the scene and later was found with her blood on his jacket.

At 6:30 a.m., a neighbor finds Woll's body. Her blood is still wet.

"This is a case about coincidences, about common sense," he said. "There are simply too many coincidences to suggest that anyone other than the defendant killed her."

The prosecutor also played audio recordings for the jury of the initial police interrogations with the defendant, where he is heard saying, "What lady, what lady?"

Police were talking about Woll. Jackson-Bolanos initially denied seeing her or touching her that night, but told the jury he lied because he was scared about being framed for a murder he maintains he didn't commit.

"Don't believe him," Elsey implored the jury, saying the defendant has "lied, and lied, and lied and lied."

“This is a common sense case for a conviction,” Elsey said. “You all agreed to use your common sense … what you have seen from the defense is the opposite of that.”

He argued the defense has not shown reasonable doubt, but “a series of unreasonable distractions” – including a defense claim that nothing was taken from Woll’s house that night.

Elsey said that doesn’t matter.

“The fact that we can’t prove that nothing was taken is absolutely of no consequence,” Elsey said.

Elsey also attacked defense claims that police did not focus enough on Woll’s ex-boyfriend – who allegedly confessed to police during a panic attack that he killed Woll.

The prosecution has argued that the ex-boyfriend’s confession was false. He was never charged.

During closing arguments, Elsey played for the jury audio recordings of Woll's distraught ex-boyfriend frantically telling an investigator after Woll’s death: “I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything.”

Elsey said it is not known if the man ever told the officer that he actually killed Woll – but that it didn’t matter if he said it or not.

Here’s why:

“A confession has to be detailed,” Elsey told the jury, arguing the ex-boyfriend “did not provide any details. He caused himself to believe that he was somehow responsible for her death.”

According to Elsey, the ex-boyfriend told police the last time he saw Woll was October 7. After her death, he said police scoured the ex-boyfriend’s house, vehicle, phone records, scooter and Uber and Lyft records.

“They found nothing. They found no evidence that he was connected with Samantha Woll’s death,” Elsey said.

The prosecutor also scoffed at this claim by the defendant: “He didn’t want to be a black man caught with a dead white woman.”

That’s what Jackson-Bolanos told the jury twice while testifying.

Again, Elsey implored the jury not to believe him.

“He would have you believe his girlfriend” of one month just happens to do his laundry, and “happened” to wash his blood-stained jacket just days after the murder.

“He got caught in a lie,” Elsey said. “He sat in that witness chair and lied to you. That’s all he did. He lied and lied and lied.”

“His testimony is completely unreasonable.”

The prosecutor also scrutinized a Jan. 23 recorded jail call during which the defendant asked his lawyer: “If this was a poker hand, if this was poker, who looking good?”

The prosecutor asked the jury to consider why the defendant would make that statement, and, why he would refer to his defense as “a theory” that she died earlier, got up, and stumbled outside, where a neighbor found her.

“Why does he call this a theory?” the prosecutor asked.

“We can’t prove that he took anything from her home, but we can prove that he attempted to,” Elsey argued.

“The theory is not that he came into the house (to commit) premediated murder,” Elsey said. “This was a crime of opportunity. Once he got in that house, he made the decision to take that knife out and stab her with it.”

The defense closing arguments are next.

Tresa Baldas:tbaldas@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Prosecutor slams defendant in Samantha Woll's murder in closing