Prosecutors Claim Activist Jade Janks Murdered Her Stepfather For Keeping Shocking Nude Photos Of Her On His Computer
Dec. 11 2022, Published 6:00 p.m. ET
Thomas Merriman was found dead in his home in Solana Beach, Calif, in January 2021. Now, prosecutors claim his stepdaughter, activist and interior designer Jade Janks, 39, murdered him after discovering her nude photo being used as a screensaver on his computer.
The Butterfly Farms nonprofit cofounder's high profile trial began on Wednesday, December 7. Janks pleaded "not guilty" to the charge.
In the trial's opening statements, Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo alleged that the 64-year-old died after Janks gave him a fatal dose of sleeping pills. He also stated the designer had bragged to others about drugging and attempting to suffocate the 64-year-old.
According to the prosecution, Janks, who shared the California home with her stepfather, had been cleaning up the house in December 2020 when she had accidentally bumped into his computer. She immediately saw the naked photo being used as his screensaver, and upon searching through his files, she discovered other nude images of herself that had reportedly been consensually taken with a boyfriend more than ten years prior.
It is unclear how her late stepfather obtained the incriminating photographs.
"This was no accident," Del Portillo said on Wednesday. "This was murder by design."
As evidence, prosecution showed the jury dozens of text messages in which Janks allegedly implied she had drugged Merriman and was unsure on how to proceed.
One text read, "I just dosed the hell out of him," and a second said, "He’s waking up. I really don’t want to be the one to do this."
"I can’t carry him alone and I can’t keep a kicking body in my trunk," a third noted, with others showing Janks allegedly saying she planned to "club him on the head" while he was waking up and that he was "very aware now."
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However, Janks' attorney, Marc Carlos, argued Merriman had been an alcoholic and that he'd simply passed after consuming a cocktail of pills of his own making.
"The medical examiner will not tell you it was strangulation," added Carlos. "The science does not support strangulation."
