Who is Michael Jackson-Bolanos? Suspect charged in Samantha Woll murder

A major breakthrough in the murder investigation of Detroit synagogue leader Samantha Woll has come after police announced charges against a new suspect.

Woll, 40, a respected and popular synagogue leader, was found brutally stabbed to death in late October. Authorities believe she was attacked inside her home and then stumbled out before collapsing on the sidewalk.

Here’s what we know so far about the suspect, Michael Manuel Jackson-Bolanos.

Who is Michael Manuel Jackson-Bolanos?

On Wednesday police named the latest suspect of Woll’s murder as 28-year-old Michael Miguel Jackson-Bolanos, from Detroit.

The charges – which mark a major breakthrough in the case – were announced three days after Detroit Police announced that a person of interest was in custody on Sunday.

Little information about Jackson-Bolanos was made available.

He faces charges of felony murder, home invasion and one count of lying to law enforcement.

According to the Department of Corrections, Jackson-Bolanos was convicted of receiving and concealing a stolen motor vehicle in 2019, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. He spent two years on probation and went on to serve four years in prison over a similar offence, the Free Press reports.

Jackson-Bolanos was arrested on 10 December after he came on law enforcement’s radar due to several car thefts in Woll’s neighbourhood.

Charges stemming from the Woll case were announced on the evening of 13 December, shortly before that deadline expired. Investigators had a 72-hour time limit to either charge him or let him go.

Jackson-Bolanos entered a not-guilty plea on the same day that he was publicly identified as the sole suspect in the investigation. His attorney told reporters that his client was innocent and the victim of circumstantial evidence, also noting the previous arrest made in the case.

“It’s pretty significant that they originally arrested an individual prior to arresting my client, I’m going to be looking at the circumstances around that,” Jackson-Bolanos’ attorney Brian Brown said, The Detroit Free Press. “Truthfully, I think it was a lot of publicity this case was receiving, a lot of pressure on the Detroit Police Department to hopefully come up with somebody and my client maintains his innocence — and I think he was just a victim of circumstance and not an individual who perpetrated this crime.”

Mr Brown said his client had a full-time job at the time of his arrest.

Prosecutors alleged during Jackson-Bolanos’ initial court hearing that the suspect used a “straight edge cutting instrument” to stab Woll more than eight times in the head and neck, The Detroit News reports.

A coat found in the apartment of Jackson-Bolanos’ girlfriend had Woll’s blood on it, said Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey.

“[It appeared to] be consistent with the very same jacket he was wearing that night when she was killed,” Ms Elsey told the court.

“I don’t necessarily agree with the charges,” Mr Brown also told The Associated Press. “We’ll wait for the evidence.”

Jackson-Bolanos is not believed to have had any prior connection to Woll, prosecutors said. According to police, he “is not an acquaintance of Woll’s and appears to be a random stranger”.

A police statement read: “In an effort to ensure the integrity of this ongoing investigation, no further details will be released at this time. Additional information will be released in the near future.”

Jackson-Bolanos is expected to appear in court for a probable cause hearing in 27 December, according to WDIV.

What was the motive?

Police have yet to establish a motive in the case, though Jackson-Bolanos was suspected of carrying out vehicular thefts near Woll’s residence on the day she was killed.

The attack on Woll had instantly sparked fears of a hate crime due to its timing, coming just days after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on 7 October and given her status as a synagogue leader.

However, prosecutors said there was nothing to indicate that the incident was a hate crime. “The evidence is just not there,” said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.

Investigators pointed out that an Israeli flag hanging on the wall of her home was left untouched in the attack.

Detroit Police Chief James White said that the suspect first came on his department’s radar three weeks before he was apprehended while detectives investigated car larcenies in Woll’s neighbourhood.

He was arrested and released before the police department submitted a warrant to the prosecution’s office requesting murder charges against Jackson-Bolanos. Chief White said that investigators had reviewed countless hours of video and other evidence before the arrest was made.

“We were able to link him to a number of larcenies,” Chief White said. “And then when we brought him for questioning, some concerns came up. We released him but we knew his whereabouts, we knew his movements. At no time was anyone in our community in danger.”

The chief said that once his department obtained the information needed to make an arrest in Woll’s murder, Jackson-Bolanos was taken into custody within an hour.

Is Jackson-Bolanos the only suspect?

In early November, police arrested a first – unidentified – person of interest for questioning, before releasing him without charge three days later.

That first person of interest was taken into custody in Kalamazoo, Michigan on 8 November. He was released three days later without charge, as the 72-hour charging window closed.

On 13 December, Ms Worthy noted that the initial suspect had been cleared from the investigation.

“Investigations don’t usually happen in the 44-minute [timeframe of a] TV show,” Ms Worthy said. “They take time, they take effort, they take passion, they take experience. We look at everything. police look at every angle. There was an incredible amount of work that was done.”

The first man was reportedly an acquaintance of Woll’s. Per The Detroit News, quoting four police sources, the man told an officer that he felt responsible for Woll’s death, although he did not actually confess to killing her.

What happened to Samantha Woll?

Samantha Woll was brutally murdered at her home in Lafayette Park on 21 October.

Woll was last seen attending a wedding on the evening of 20 October, which she left at around 12.30am. “By all accounts, she was not in any discomfort, she was her normal pleasant self,” Mr White told reporters.

Police believe she was stabbed multiple times inside her home, before stumbling outside the house and eventually collapsing on the sidewalk.

A source had initially told CNN that the murder was thought to have arisen from a domestic dispute, but the source did not elaborate on what led them to that belief.

However, during the press conference on 13 December, authorities seemed to walk back from that characterisation, saying that they believed there were no connections between the suspect and Woll previous to the killing. Chief White declined questions from reporters on whether the killing had been circumstantial or targeted, and if Woll had tried to defend herself.

He also did not elaborate on earlier remarks that there were no signs of forced entry. Authorities had initially described the main crime scene as the sidewalk where Woll’s body was found, noting that it was believed she was attacked inside her home but a larger amount of blood was found outside.

The chief of police has since said that Woll’s door was found “ajar and unlocked, and a significant amount of blood was inside.”

Ms Worthy declined to speak on potential motives behind the killing, saying that she didn’t want to jeopardise the future criminal trial.