Latest / NO FILTER / When A Killer Has Less Than a Minute_ The Murder of Samantha Woll [True Crime Documentary]

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When A Killer Has Less Than a Minute_ The Murder of Samantha Woll [True Crime Documentary] · NO FILTER

0:01
Speaker 1: Sometime between the hours of one thirty and four thirty
0:04
Speaker 1: am on Saturday, October twenty first, twenty twenty three, forty
0:08
Speaker 1: year old Samantha Wall was stabbed to death inside of
0:11
Speaker 1: her townhouse in Detroit, Michigan. A neighbor discovered Sam lying
0:15
Speaker 1: on a walkway outside of her home later that morning,
0:18
Speaker 1: where she had managed to crawl out to seek help
0:21
Speaker 1: before succumbing to her injuries. The investigation would find that
0:25
Speaker 1: at least one other identifiable person had been outside of
0:29
Speaker 1: Sam's townhouse that night. The question was whether they had
0:33
Speaker 1: found the killer or simply a reluctant witness. Hi there,
0:41
Speaker 1: I'm Kevin and welcome to Just Thought, Loune. Today's case
0:44
Speaker 1: is complicated. It is either an example of exceptional and
0:47
Speaker 1: thorough investigative work or a failure of the justice system.
0:52
Speaker 1: It may be both. Let's take a look. The neighborhood
1:09
Speaker 1: of Lafayette Park, east of downtown Detroit, is composed of
1:13
Speaker 1: two large blocks of residential housing with a greenway a
1:16
Speaker 1: secluded green enclave running directly through it. Just west of
1:20
Speaker 1: the greenway is Joliette Place, a stretch of mostly townhouse
1:24
Speaker 1: units next to an elementary school around six a m.
1:29
Speaker 1: On the morning of October twenty first, twenty twenty three,
1:33
Speaker 1: local resident Kevin Mull, who was caring for a friend's dog,
1:37
Speaker 1: stepped out from his front door to let the pup
1:39
Speaker 1: do his business. At that time, it was dark outside.
1:43
Speaker 1: Kevin could barely see what appeared to be the figure
1:46
Speaker 1: of a person lying with their back towards him, legs
1:49
Speaker 1: tucked in on the sidewalk of the unit across the way.
1:53
Speaker 1: There was no movement. The person wore no shoes. Reaching
1:57
Speaker 1: towards the huddled body, Kevin nudged the per since back,
2:00
Speaker 1: hoping for a reaction, but found none. What he did
2:05
Speaker 1: find was that what little skin was exposed on the
2:07
Speaker 1: individual had turned a shade of blue. Kevin knew with
2:11
Speaker 1: certainty that the woman on the walkway in front of
2:13
Speaker 1: him was dead. He and his wife, Jessica called emergency
2:17
Speaker 1: services from their home across the street. Jessica would later
2:21
Speaker 1: learn that the body found by her husband had been
2:24
Speaker 1: a good neighbor and friend, Samantha Wall.
2:28
Speaker 2: My husband was just sudlock locking our dog, and he
2:33
Speaker 2: told me there is a person, potentially a body, laying
2:39
Speaker 2: on the sidewalk. He attempted distant regular person and they
2:44
Speaker 2: didn't move in their blood present and that's the.
2:47
Speaker 3: Great things just.
2:48
Speaker 4: Laying there is it?
2:51
Speaker 5: Is it on your block?
2:54
Speaker 3: Is in our property?
2:55
Speaker 2: I just on my neighbor's sadelock.
2:58
Speaker 6: How are those professional work?
3:00
Speaker 7: I'm sorry and I kind had the way that this
3:01
Speaker 7: person was laying either day from her side and moved
3:05
Speaker 7: the body and all pirled up in a mall in
3:11
Speaker 7: the person's barefoot and there's a lot of a sidewalk around.
3:16
Speaker 3: Somewhat blue.
3:19
Speaker 1: City of Detroit patrol officers Preston Q and Eric Dowd
3:23
Speaker 1: received the call at about six thirty am and responded
3:26
Speaker 1: to the scene roughly twenty minutes later. Ems had already
3:30
Speaker 1: reached the townhouses at Juliette Place before they arrived. Medics
3:34
Speaker 1: checked for a pulse, but it was far too late.
3:38
Speaker 1: On the ground, only steps from her home was forty
3:41
Speaker 1: year old Samantha Wall, and autopsy would later confirm that
3:45
Speaker 1: she had sustained eight stab wounds to her head and neck,
3:48
Speaker 1: mostly from behind. Detective Darren Jue followed a trail of
3:52
Speaker 1: blood from the sidewalk where Kevin had found her, leading
3:55
Speaker 1: back to Sam's front door, which sat open from the
3:59
Speaker 1: state of the ground floor. It was obvious that the
4:01
Speaker 1: altercation that had led to Sam's death took place inside
4:05
Speaker 1: of the townhouse. The living room was in a state
4:08
Speaker 1: of disorder. A pool of red in the entrance hallway
4:11
Speaker 1: marked a location where she had likely collapsed and perhaps
4:14
Speaker 1: laid for a time. In the kitchen, a fruit bowl
4:17
Speaker 1: had been knocked to the floor, suggesting that this room
4:21
Speaker 1: had been the location of some part of the struggle.
4:24
Speaker 1: Despite stains on the stairwell leading to the basement, the
4:27
Speaker 1: lower level was not deemed part of the crime scene. Similarly,
4:31
Speaker 1: the upper level, consisting of Sam's bedroom and guest bed,
4:35
Speaker 1: showed no indication of a disturbance. Her cell phone and
4:40
Speaker 1: iPhone was located on the ground level, just underneath the
4:43
Speaker 1: sofa in her living room. There were small but distinguishable
4:47
Speaker 1: smudges on the screen. Later forensic analysis found a likely
4:51
Speaker 1: footprint impression on a living room pillow it had fallen
4:55
Speaker 1: to the floor, along with similar items. Based on the
4:58
Speaker 1: spatter analysis, exis Sports determined that the mess in the
5:01
Speaker 1: living room occurred either during or shortly after the attack.
5:07
Speaker 1: In addition to the impression left on a throw pillow,
5:09
Speaker 1: analysts identified multiple footprints at the scene thought to be
5:13
Speaker 1: made by a bare foot. These were therefore attributed to Samantha.
5:17
Speaker 1: Fingerprints were taken throughout the scene as well, Most were
5:21
Speaker 1: of too poor quality to attempt a match. Those that
5:24
Speaker 1: were usable again matched back to Sam. It was a
5:28
Speaker 1: curious set of circumstances for investigators. They did not immediately
5:32
Speaker 1: rule out the possibility that Samantha had been the victim
5:35
Speaker 1: of a robbery, but it appeared quite unlikely. Her wallet,
5:40
Speaker 1: which contained cash, as well as her purse and car keys,
5:43
Speaker 1: sat in plain view on a bench in the entranceway.
5:46
Speaker 1: A credit card was visible on a side table, and
5:49
Speaker 1: Sam's laptop and other electronics appeared untouched elsewhere in the house.
5:54
Speaker 1: Then there was the nature of the attack itself, a
5:58
Speaker 1: violent stabbing, which often, but certainly not always, indicates a
6:02
Speaker 1: crime of passion.
6:05
Speaker 8: Can you speak to anything that could have been involved
6:10
Speaker 8: in why she was killed or murdered?
6:13
Speaker 9: A motive? Can you speak to anything.
6:15
Speaker 4: In that regard?
6:16
Speaker 8: We have to be very very cautious as to what
6:19
Speaker 8: information we share. There are some very intricate details about
6:22
Speaker 8: this case that, if revealed, could really damage what we're
6:28
Speaker 8: trying to accomplish. There are some facts that are known
6:31
Speaker 8: only to our suspect, and so I can't get into
6:37
Speaker 8: causation right now or what he or she may feel
6:42
Speaker 8: was that, but more to come on that at a
6:45
Speaker 8: later date. Right now, what we want to do is
6:49
Speaker 8: get every bit of information we can clarified, analyze the
6:55
Speaker 8: evidence that we have analyzed, so we can put more
6:57
Speaker 8: information out to the community to help us identify and
7:00
Speaker 8: bring the suspect to justice.
7:02
Speaker 3: Thank Chief.
7:07
Speaker 1: SMITHA. Wall's death came as a devastating blow to everyone
7:10
Speaker 1: who had been fortunate enough to know her in life.
7:13
Speaker 1: Family later wrote that they were forced to say a
7:16
Speaker 1: wrenching goodbye to a woman who had lived a life
7:19
Speaker 1: of large ideas and small acts of kindness. Friends recalled
7:23
Speaker 1: that Sam had always fought against injustice, motivated by the
7:27
Speaker 1: principle of tikin Olam Hebrew for healing the world. The
7:32
Speaker 1: concept of fixing society's ills or mending the world was
7:36
Speaker 1: a defining principle of both her faith and actions. As
7:40
Speaker 1: a teenager, Sam volunteered for a group called the Friendship Circle,
7:44
Speaker 1: which mentored children with developmental disabilities. It is now a
7:48
Speaker 1: successful nonprofit that aids and supports three thousand Metro detroiters
7:52
Speaker 1: with disabilities and their families. After college, she spent four
7:57
Speaker 1: summers working at a rape crisis center. More recently, Sam
8:01
Speaker 1: wrote for the Michigan Daily, focusing on social justice issues.
8:06
Speaker 1: In her spare time, she continued to advocate for progressive causes.
8:11
Speaker 1: She ran at least a mile a day rain or Shine,
8:14
Speaker 1: loved music, especially opera and classical, and she had acquired
8:18
Speaker 1: an extensive book collection. When she died, Sam was the
8:22
Speaker 1: president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit. Notably,
8:27
Speaker 1: Sam had helped start an interfaith forum where Muslims and
8:30
Speaker 1: Jews could find common ground. The nature of Sam's advocacy
8:34
Speaker 1: seemed always to be motivated first and foremost by kindness.
8:39
Speaker 10: She truly believed in repairing the world around her, making
8:42
Speaker 10: the world a better place, and in her forty years,
8:47
Speaker 10: Detroit is better. The world is better because Sam Wall
8:50
Speaker 10: was in it. So she'll be missed.
8:55
Speaker 1: The night before she was discovered, Sam had attended a
8:58
Speaker 1: friend's wedding not far from her home. Guests at the
9:01
Speaker 1: occasion recalled that she was in good spirits. They reported
9:05
Speaker 1: no suspicious activity. Sam's phone data showed her driving home
9:09
Speaker 1: from the wedding at twelve thirty am. Security cameras from
9:12
Speaker 1: the nearby primary school, Chrysler Elementary, captured a portion of
9:16
Speaker 1: the parking lot next to the townhouses. The camera showed
9:20
Speaker 1: a vehicle entering the lot at the same time as
9:22
Speaker 1: Sam's phone GPS data. The censor on the front door
9:26
Speaker 1: of her house was activated. One minute later. Sam had
9:30
Speaker 1: returned home safely. The ADT home security system showed movement
9:34
Speaker 1: in the living room from twelve thirty two am onwards
9:37
Speaker 1: for roughly one hour. The back door opened for a time,
9:41
Speaker 1: likely for a quick vape set friends, and was later
9:44
Speaker 1: closed and locked. The outfit that Samantha war to the
9:47
Speaker 1: wedding was left out on her bed upstairs. Her last
9:50
Speaker 1: text message, a smiley emoji sent to a friend, was
9:54
Speaker 1: sent at one one am. Other activity on the device,
9:58
Speaker 1: the opening and closing of applicationations continued to just after
10:02
Speaker 1: one point thirty. Movement inside the townhouse ceased at one
10:07
Speaker 1: twenty four. At that time, the system went into idle mode,
10:11
Speaker 1: indicating that nothing had triggered a censor in the preceding
10:14
Speaker 1: two to three minutes. If Sam had laid down at
10:19
Speaker 1: that time and remained motionless, perhaps while on her phone,
10:23
Speaker 1: the system would have logged zero movement inside the living room.
10:27
Speaker 1: The next time a censor was triggered was at four
10:30
Speaker 1: to twenty a m. When movement was captured very briefly,
10:34
Speaker 1: also in the living room. The system went back into
10:37
Speaker 1: idle mode only two minutes after that. At four twenty two.
10:42
Speaker 1: There were no sensors in the front hallway except the
10:44
Speaker 1: one that tracked the opening and closing of her front door.
10:48
Speaker 1: Testing was undertaken weeks later, assisted by the knowledge of
10:51
Speaker 1: ADT experts. These tests determined that the system was in
10:56
Speaker 1: working order and that the sensors were accurate within twelve
11:00
Speaker 1: seconds of real time until the police arrived at six
11:05
Speaker 1: point thirty that morning. The censor on Samantha's front door
11:08
Speaker 1: showed that it had never been properly closed or locked
11:12
Speaker 1: after she had returned home at twelve thirty one. Therefore,
11:16
Speaker 1: this censor gave no indication as to when the killer entered.
11:20
Speaker 1: The front door had been open all night. James Griffune,
11:28
Speaker 1: resident of Lafayette, awoke around one twenty a m. On
11:31
Speaker 1: the night of October twenty first to whimpers from his
11:34
Speaker 1: new puppy. Wandering out into the darkness with his pup,
11:37
Speaker 1: James heard voices calling out, yelling, chanting. Perhaps he was
11:42
Speaker 1: unable to discern the words. The structure of the neighborhood,
11:46
Speaker 1: according to James, with the buildings surrounding each other, created
11:49
Speaker 1: a kind of echo effect. Anyone who stood in the
11:53
Speaker 1: grassy center at ground level would have difficulty determining the
11:56
Speaker 1: direction of external noises. Even the sound of crowds cheer
12:00
Speaker 1: from Kamerica Park to the west could seem as though
12:03
Speaker 1: it emanated from the east, James said. The day after
12:06
Speaker 1: Sam was found, James told law enforcement what he had
12:09
Speaker 1: heard and when he had heard it, though his description
12:13
Speaker 1: was unfortunately ambiguous. The only thing that he could definitively
12:17
Speaker 1: say was that he had heard voices in the night.
12:21
Speaker 1: Maybe it was nothing, Maybe he had heard the chanting
12:23
Speaker 1: of casino workers that were striking a few streets over,
12:27
Speaker 1: or perhaps he had heard something relevant to the investigation
12:31
Speaker 1: into the murder of a beloved neighbor. James told Michigan
12:35
Speaker 1: State Police that he felt guilty for not reporting what
12:38
Speaker 1: he had heard much earlier.
12:42
Speaker 9: Calm, so much later than I just heard the stretch
12:48
Speaker 9: and I'm.
12:54
Speaker 8: A couple of minutes.
12:55
Speaker 6: It was.
13:00
Speaker 4: Hours, Like I really have gone down there, Like I didn't.
13:05
Speaker 3: You know, like I'm that.
13:07
Speaker 11: I'm that callous.
13:10
Speaker 12: Yes, like he didn't sound to be like I never
13:13
Speaker 12: heard the word help or anything like that, and I was,
13:17
Speaker 12: I having been down here for as long as we have,
13:19
Speaker 12: I thought.
13:19
Speaker 9: Callus is like's not He's not my problem, and I've
13:22
Speaker 9: been feel that for come four hours.
13:26
Speaker 1: From more, James was able to offer an exact time
13:30
Speaker 1: frame in which he heard the voices. His garment watch
13:33
Speaker 1: tracked everything, including his sleep patterns and the time that
13:37
Speaker 1: he had awoken to walk his puppy. The watch showed
13:40
Speaker 1: James was awake at one twenty one am and tracked
13:43
Speaker 1: him walking outside for the following six minutes. This time
13:47
Speaker 1: period overlapped with when sam security system logged its last
13:51
Speaker 1: activity before going into idle mode for the first time
13:54
Speaker 1: that night at one twenty four am. Investigators sought leads
13:59
Speaker 1: in the case by scrutinizing every angle, including, of course,
14:03
Speaker 1: Sam Wall's personal life. The beautiful and determined forty year
14:07
Speaker 1: old had an act of dating life, but not a
14:09
Speaker 1: particularly scandalous one. A serious relationship with ex boyfriend Jeffrey
14:14
Speaker 1: Herpsman had blossomed from a friendship after the two had
14:18
Speaker 1: met through their synagogue five years earlier. They began dating
14:21
Speaker 1: in the summer of twenty twenty two and were together
14:24
Speaker 1: for nearly a year. According to jeff as well as
14:28
Speaker 1: other friends of Sam's, the two split amicably in July
14:31
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. They were no longer in regular communication
14:36
Speaker 1: with each other following the split, but had remained on
14:38
Speaker 1: good terms. Weeks passed as detectives tore through mounds of
14:45
Speaker 1: digital evidence, primarily the cameras from the school as well
14:49
Speaker 1: as others from the surrounding area, hopeful that they would
14:52
Speaker 1: spot something suspicious. However, before such a discovery could be made,
14:57
Speaker 1: in early November, the investigations saw a sh shocking development.
15:01
Speaker 1: Someone who had already been dismissed as a person of
15:04
Speaker 1: interest seemingly confessed from the parking lot of a Sheridan
15:09
Speaker 1: hotel in Kalamazoo. Jeffrey Herbsman called nine one one.
15:14
Speaker 6: Oh, all right, that's what happened.
15:53
Speaker 9: The area.
15:59
Speaker 5: Okay, champ, okay you my hand, I know, I know.
16:09
Speaker 1: I'm Jeffrey was working as a data scientist for the
16:16
Speaker 1: medical technology company Striker. On November seventh, he was in
16:21
Speaker 1: Kalamazoo for work. An hour or so after smoking cannabis
16:25
Speaker 1: and returning to his hotel room. Jeff reported experiencing what
16:28
Speaker 1: he called a psychotic break.
16:31
Speaker 13: Hi, can you the door?
16:34
Speaker 14: Can you open the door?
16:35
Speaker 15: Party?
16:37
Speaker 9: I know, I know, I know, I mean trouble.
16:41
Speaker 11: What's going on?
16:42
Speaker 3: You can say it in the garden?
16:43
Speaker 5: Marks?
16:44
Speaker 3: No?
16:45
Speaker 9: No, what's going on?
16:49
Speaker 3: Wait?
16:49
Speaker 16: Tes?
16:53
Speaker 17: Yeah, what's going on?
16:57
Speaker 18: I don't remember any what prompted you to call a night?
17:05
Speaker 18: Do you have any anything on him? There's a knife,
17:09
Speaker 18: carky like a pocket knifer. So let's going after when
17:21
Speaker 18: are you?
17:22
Speaker 3: Let's gook for your mind right now?
17:24
Speaker 4: I have anything good?
17:25
Speaker 6: Jack?
17:26
Speaker 3: Okay? And I don't remember it? Where's your girlfriends?
17:34
Speaker 10: Stay at?
17:36
Speaker 1: Lying on the pavement, the forty one year old explained
17:39
Speaker 1: that he could not shake the feeling that he had
17:41
Speaker 1: killed Samantha, though he had no recollection whatsoever of the crime. Objectively,
17:47
Speaker 1: he thought he had motive because she had broken up
17:50
Speaker 1: with him, though he had understood her reasoning at the
17:53
Speaker 1: time and did not falter for it. He told police
17:56
Speaker 1: that he had opportunity to commit the murder as well,
18:00
Speaker 1: he had been alone all night in his apartment. He
18:03
Speaker 1: could not provide an alibi. In his confused mental state.
18:06
Speaker 1: He said, I might be trying to outsmart people.
18:11
Speaker 6: Get you killed her?
18:24
Speaker 14: Where did this happen?
18:25
Speaker 19: A yeah, Sam Wall, she's forty female universe. But he
18:35
Speaker 19: said that her phone phone.
18:41
Speaker 5: What happened.
18:50
Speaker 1: At the station? Jeff called his parents. They had asked
18:53
Speaker 1: around for an attorney should he need one, and he
18:56
Speaker 1: now found himself in just such a situation.
19:00
Speaker 3: Hi, Mom, Yeah, this is.
19:09
Speaker 4: I'm I had a panic attack and ended up in
19:12
Speaker 4: the Kalamazoo police station.
19:16
Speaker 6: Okay, if you.
19:18
Speaker 3: Can please contact that attorney for me? Okay, systems right now,
19:30
Speaker 3: I could use a psychiatrist.
19:32
Speaker 5: Yes, well.
19:35
Speaker 16: I did.
19:37
Speaker 5: And what did they say?
19:39
Speaker 3: They haven't said anything.
19:43
Speaker 1: Jeffrey was held in custody. His home was searched by
19:46
Speaker 1: Detroit p D and the FBI. His car was examined
19:49
Speaker 1: by a forensic team, His phone data was extracted and
19:53
Speaker 1: his communications scrutinized. Jeff was interviewed multiple times.
20:02
Speaker 14: You got water, sack, use the bath or anything like that.
20:06
Speaker 3: You know what's do you know what for?
20:17
Speaker 10: Yeah?
20:21
Speaker 3: Okay, well as long as you know.
20:36
Speaker 1: What investigators found was that Jeff was exactly where he
20:39
Speaker 1: had originally claimed to have been on the night that
20:42
Speaker 1: Sam was killed. In his apartment alone. There was not
20:46
Speaker 1: a spot of blood, DNA, or other physical evidence linking
20:50
Speaker 1: him to the crime scene. Cameras in the area did
20:52
Speaker 1: not show him driving into or exiting the area of
20:55
Speaker 1: Sam's building. Jeff was suffering from depression, a condition that
20:59
Speaker 1: he had sought treatment for in the final months of
21:02
Speaker 1: his relationship with Sam. At that time, he underwent three
21:06
Speaker 1: months of transcranial magnetic stimulation, as he referenced between incoherent
21:11
Speaker 1: cries to the Kalamazoo police.
21:28
Speaker 19: In this position, He's from Detroit and says.
21:31
Speaker 3: That he girlfriend.
21:33
Speaker 1: This treatment having failed, his medication was adjusted. On November seventh,
21:39
Speaker 1: Jeff was on day two of a double dosage of
21:41
Speaker 1: ovality prescribed to him by his doctor. The antidepressant comes
21:46
Speaker 1: with the potential for significant adverse side effects. These include
21:50
Speaker 1: panic attacks and delusions. Investigators determined that his reaction to
21:55
Speaker 1: the high dosage of the drug, coupled with the grief
21:58
Speaker 1: of losing a woman that he loved, were the cause
22:01
Speaker 1: of his episode, as well as his false confession Jeff
22:06
Speaker 1: Herbsman did not kill Sam Wall he was released from custody.
22:11
Speaker 1: They were back to square one.
22:14
Speaker 13: We do want justice, we don't want them to arrest
22:16
Speaker 13: someone who didn't do it.
22:17
Speaker 20: So, you know, there's something about our justice system that
22:20
Speaker 20: it's thorough and so is it ups and downs and
22:22
Speaker 20: it's frustrating, But I'm glad they're being careful and they're
22:26
Speaker 20: doing what they can do.
22:29
Speaker 1: Based on the state of Sam's living room as well
22:31
Speaker 1: as her phone activity, Detroit police believed that she had
22:34
Speaker 1: fallen asleep on her couch when the system went into
22:36
Speaker 1: the idle mode at one twenty four am. They determined
22:40
Speaker 1: therefore that the second motion capture a few hours later
22:43
Speaker 1: at four to twenty marked the time of the murder.
22:47
Speaker 1: So when officers tasked with reviewing security camera footage from
22:50
Speaker 1: the area spotted an unidentified mail figure in the parking
22:54
Speaker 1: lot outside of Sam's building at four AM, they believed
22:58
Speaker 1: they had a strong lead. Few people were spotted on
23:01
Speaker 1: the cameras in the neighborhood throughout the night, which made
23:04
Speaker 1: this figure at four a m of particular interest. No
23:08
Speaker 1: other sightings were made in close proximity to the suspected
23:11
Speaker 1: time that the crime took place. They were able to
23:15
Speaker 1: track this individual's movements across the city by utilizing private
23:19
Speaker 1: security camera footage. What they found was that the man
23:23
Speaker 1: had first passed through Lafayette at around two a m.
23:26
Speaker 1: Only to circle back to Joliette Place at about four o'clock.
23:30
Speaker 1: Along the way, the individual was routinely caught trying to
23:33
Speaker 1: open the doors of vehicles. When he was able to,
23:36
Speaker 1: the suspect leaned inside and removed items. Digital analysts tracked
23:41
Speaker 1: the figure back to his originating address at the Alexandrine
23:45
Speaker 1: apartment complex, the location that he also returned to after
23:49
Speaker 1: roughly five hours of walking the city streets. Based on
23:53
Speaker 1: this abundance of video evidence, investigators reached out to T
23:56
Speaker 1: Mobile requesting that the cellular provider cross refer their client's
24:00
Speaker 1: location data with the time and location of the crime.
24:04
Speaker 1: They aligned each cellular match to the area where the
24:07
Speaker 1: figure was caught on camera. Investigators were able to narrow
24:11
Speaker 1: down the name of the individual who had been in
24:13
Speaker 1: the parking lot at two a m. And again two
24:16
Speaker 1: hours later. Michael Jackson Bolanos was the manager at a
24:20
Speaker 1: Detroit cafe and produced music in his free time. His girlfriend,
24:25
Speaker 1: a woman named Tierra White, lived at the Alexandrine Apartments
24:29
Speaker 1: in Midtown. Michael also had a history of vehicle theft.
24:37
Speaker 1: Although sections of The footage is grainy, some of it
24:40
Speaker 1: nearly impossible to view without enhancements from specialist equipment. Portions
24:44
Speaker 1: clearly showed Michael trying to open car doors, leading into vehicles,
24:48
Speaker 1: and occasionally removing items in doing so. He inadvertently did
24:52
Speaker 1: the police reviewing the poor quality recordings of favor by
24:56
Speaker 1: giving them a distinct item to view and track. At
25:00
Speaker 1: three oh five am, at the White and McDougall intersection,
25:03
Speaker 1: Michael took a white bag from inside a vehicle, subsequently
25:07
Speaker 1: carrying it with him at his side for hours afterwards.
25:11
Speaker 1: Though he dressed all in black, the bag was a
25:13
Speaker 1: visible indicator linking his movements from camera to camera, from
25:18
Speaker 1: Spinnaker Lane where he climbed a wall into a restricted
25:21
Speaker 1: parking area, to Jefferson, where he is clearly seen carrying
25:24
Speaker 1: the bag, and then to East Lafayette, where he walked
25:28
Speaker 1: in front of a vehicle carrying a light object. That vehicle,
25:32
Speaker 1: a white SUV, was found on the morning of October
25:35
Speaker 1: twenty first, to have a flat tire. Multiple punctures had
25:39
Speaker 1: been made straight through the rubber. These were roughly the
25:42
Speaker 1: same size as the stab wounds sustained by Sam Wall.
25:48
Speaker 1: The dash camera of a responding officer captured the tire
25:52
Speaker 1: slowly deflating over the course of the morning. It seemed
25:55
Speaker 1: the tire of this nearby vehicle had been slashed in
25:58
Speaker 1: close proximity in time to the murder. They also noted
26:03
Speaker 1: in footage prior to four am that Michael was wearing
26:05
Speaker 1: a pair of what appeared to be surgical gloves. There
26:10
Speaker 1: is a gap in footage tracking Michael between four am
26:13
Speaker 1: outside of Sam's building until four twenty three am, when
26:16
Speaker 1: he has captured a quarter mile away on Monroe Street
26:19
Speaker 1: on a bridge running over the I three seventy five.
26:23
Speaker 1: Police believed that it was over this roughly twenty minute
26:26
Speaker 1: span that Sam had been killed. When Michael was spotted again,
26:30
Speaker 1: he no longer appeared to be wearing his gloves. Detroit
26:36
Speaker 1: PD and Michigan State Police performed mobile surveillance on Michael
26:40
Speaker 1: Jackson Bolanos for weeks, hoping to gain further leads. On
26:44
Speaker 1: November thirtieth, he was pulled over for a standard to
26:47
Speaker 1: traffic stop, at which time officers requested that he come
26:50
Speaker 1: into the station to answer a few questions.
26:55
Speaker 14: Okay, all right, something or great, So I'm gonna say
27:03
Speaker 14: to see I said you called down.
27:11
Speaker 1: Yet The arresting officer patted Michael down before taking him
27:20
Speaker 1: into the station, but upon entering the interrogation room, Michael
27:24
Speaker 1: emptied his pockets onto the table, dropping an I D,
27:27
Speaker 1: a piece of paper, and a knife. He claimed that
27:31
Speaker 1: it was the only one that he owned. He kept
27:33
Speaker 1: it on hand to cut seat belts in case of
27:35
Speaker 1: an emergency, he said. When Michael sat down to speak
27:40
Speaker 1: with detectives, he believed that he was being questioned in
27:42
Speaker 1: relation to stolen property. He was not informed that he
27:46
Speaker 1: had been under mobile surveillance as a murder suspect, nor
27:49
Speaker 1: that he was speaking with homicide detectives. Michael did not
27:53
Speaker 1: request an attorney, So they brought you here.
27:59
Speaker 3: Asked some detectives above some property, So basic questions. Appreciate you.
28:08
Speaker 1: Michael eventually provided four different versions of his activities on
28:12
Speaker 1: the night of the murder. At first, he insisted that
28:15
Speaker 1: he did not steal from any vehicles. With his previous convictions,
28:19
Speaker 1: another charge was likely to result in a lengthy prison term.
28:24
Speaker 3: I don't, can they cross, I just want the manager.
28:27
Speaker 3: I just got nothing.
28:29
Speaker 11: I'm literally don't.
28:32
Speaker 1: After being presented with still images from some of the
28:35
Speaker 1: security footage. Michael conceded reluctantly that he took photos of
28:40
Speaker 1: cars for others to steal, posting the photos and videos
28:43
Speaker 1: with their locations to a telegram chat. Repeatedly, Michael told
28:47
Speaker 1: detectives that he never did anything violent.
28:53
Speaker 7: The apartment of the Alexandria, So we're able value from
28:58
Speaker 7: your apartment.
29:01
Speaker 21: All over downtown, all over downs downtown.
29:05
Speaker 3: And I was not a bill hours on many night
29:08
Speaker 3: homes I walk around. I had not hit no cars
29:11
Speaker 3: or nothing. So I'm not hitting no cars in one soul.
29:16
Speaker 22: This is right here, and this is you leaving the
29:24
Speaker 22: area where you were amprehanded and then coming back out
29:27
Speaker 22: with a bad through stores.
29:30
Speaker 3: This is a store.
29:31
Speaker 21: This is a store bag.
29:32
Speaker 3: Yeah it is. You got this after going into a
29:34
Speaker 3: parking structure. How do you get nothing going after going
29:39
Speaker 3: into another parking structure.
29:41
Speaker 11: I have not hit no cars. I do not hit cars.
29:44
Speaker 11: I don't do that.
29:46
Speaker 1: Crucially, on multiple occasions, Michael stated that he did not
29:50
Speaker 1: encounter anything out of the ordinary when wandering the city
29:53
Speaker 1: on the night of October twenty first. Had he been
29:56
Speaker 1: a potential witness to Samantha Wall's murder, see or heard
30:00
Speaker 1: anything relevant while he was near to the building. He
30:03
Speaker 1: was not saying.
30:06
Speaker 3: Over there, do you see anything out of the way
30:09
Speaker 3: or anything out of normal. I didn't see nothing or nothing. Okay,
30:15
Speaker 3: you're gonna say like I'm just hitting cars or lay
30:18
Speaker 3: I'm not doing nothing out the door.
30:20
Speaker 16: Nothing.
30:23
Speaker 3: There was an incident. Wanted the gods right listening.
30:28
Speaker 21: There was somebody got into it with somebody and wanted.
30:32
Speaker 3: The mean with nobody and no kind of I don't
30:36
Speaker 3: have no interaction with nobody.
30:39
Speaker 1: If Michael had entered Sam's open door at four twenty
30:42
Speaker 1: when her ADT system logged movement and killed her, then
30:45
Speaker 1: he would have had to run the quarter mile to
30:47
Speaker 1: reach the bridge. Estimates by law enforcement determined that he
30:51
Speaker 1: needed to cover that distance in seventy seconds. Michael stated
30:55
Speaker 1: that he had in fact run from the lot, but
30:58
Speaker 1: in response to spotting what he thought was a security vehicle.
31:02
Speaker 7: You see the security car and that's why you rann
31:05
Speaker 7: No nothing, I didn't see that out the way beside
31:08
Speaker 7: them my tip off.
31:11
Speaker 6: Why they got.
31:14
Speaker 3: Because not enough?
31:17
Speaker 23: I don't know.
31:17
Speaker 3: Man.
31:19
Speaker 1: Detectives told Michael that his phone location data placed him
31:22
Speaker 1: inside Sam's house. They also told him that they had
31:26
Speaker 1: video showing him exiting her building at the same time
31:29
Speaker 1: that Sam's security system logged movement. This evidence did not exist.
31:38
Speaker 3: To his video. I did not.
31:50
Speaker 2: Want to know.
31:51
Speaker 3: How did I go in the house?
31:55
Speaker 4: You got.
32:00
Speaker 5: Much?
32:01
Speaker 21: I do not know nobody's house.
32:05
Speaker 5: The only thing.
32:11
Speaker 21: We see you right, you said, detective got right?
32:23
Speaker 3: You want.
32:25
Speaker 18: You?
32:26
Speaker 3: You see you see like you and he come out
32:29
Speaker 3: of the house.
32:29
Speaker 21: So you see you got out of there. So we
32:33
Speaker 21: brought back because at that back.
32:37
Speaker 3: I never came.
32:41
Speaker 1: After a detective handed Michael his card, revealing they worked
32:45
Speaker 1: in the homicide division, the conversation shifted. Michael admitted to
32:50
Speaker 1: hitting handles or trying to steal from unlocked vehicles. He
32:54
Speaker 1: denied entering any homes. He emphatically denied any part in
32:59
Speaker 1: Sam's murder.
33:02
Speaker 11: Do you know where?
33:05
Speaker 3: Room in the end? But you know where? Oh riding?
33:20
Speaker 3: I thanks? How loving property investinating.
33:28
Speaker 1: When a search warrant was obtained, police located a handful
33:30
Speaker 1: of curious items, including more than one knife that Michael
33:35
Speaker 1: had claimed not to own. The match to a murder
33:38
Speaker 1: weapon was not made. However, they also found the black
33:41
Speaker 1: north faced jacket that he had been wearing on October
33:44
Speaker 1: twenty first, on the back of the right sleeve trace
33:47
Speaker 1: amounts of blood were detected. Forensic testing later revealed these
33:51
Speaker 1: small stains were a match to Samantha Wall. Similarly, specks
33:56
Speaker 1: of Sam's blood were located on the backpack that Michael
33:59
Speaker 1: was seen wearing home on the night of the murder.
34:03
Speaker 9: Since October the.
34:03
Speaker 16: First, the day that Samantha Heather Wall was killed, there
34:07
Speaker 16: has been a painstaking, diligent and tyliss work done by
34:10
Speaker 16: the Detroit Police Department in my office, oftentimes around the clock,
34:13
Speaker 16: and I commend them for that. Every known lead, possible suspect,
34:18
Speaker 16: forensic submissions and other investigative tools were employed in deploy
34:22
Speaker 16: consistently by the Detroit Police Department.
34:25
Speaker 3: So today I'm going to announce these charges.
34:27
Speaker 16: We have charged Michael Manuel Jackson belonas count one homicide
34:33
Speaker 16: felony murder.
34:37
Speaker 1: In July of twenty twenty four, twenty nine year old
34:40
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson Bolanos went to trial for first degree murder,
34:44
Speaker 1: home invasion and alling to a peace officer. The defense
34:51
Speaker 1: poke tolls across the prosecution's theory of the crime. Defense
34:55
Speaker 1: attorney Brian Brown argued that the murder had to have
34:57
Speaker 1: been a crime of passion. One was found with bruising
35:01
Speaker 1: around the eye, forehead, elbows, and knees. The attack had
35:04
Speaker 1: been personal, Brown said, and it had not been over quickly.
35:09
Speaker 1: The defense also played a recording from earlier in the
35:12
Speaker 1: night from Chrysler Elementary's security camera, which showed a man
35:16
Speaker 1: running in the parking lot just before one point thirty am.
35:20
Speaker 1: That man was never identified.
35:25
Speaker 24: She was stabbed eight times in the neck, in the
35:31
Speaker 24: back of the head, in the back of the neck.
35:34
Speaker 24: To me, that would indicate a crime of passion. This
35:39
Speaker 24: wasn't just some random person walking into her house trying
35:44
Speaker 24: to steal anything.
35:45
Speaker 1: Brown argued that the proposed timeline was impossible based on
35:50
Speaker 1: the disturbance at the scene, stretching from the kitchen, where
35:52
Speaker 1: he speculated that the altercation began, through the living room
35:56
Speaker 1: and into the hallway. There was no way that whoever
35:59
Speaker 1: stabs Sam had entered and left the house under a
36:02
Speaker 1: minute as indicated by the ADT system. The attack must
36:06
Speaker 1: have occurred within an hour of her return home, he said.
36:09
Speaker 1: The highest concentration of blood at the scene was by
36:12
Speaker 1: the front entrance. Brown posited that Sam had passed out
36:16
Speaker 1: in the hallway for a period of a few hours
36:19
Speaker 1: before regaining consciousness. He identified outlines in the blood that
36:23
Speaker 1: could have been footprints pointing away from the entryway. Sam
36:27
Speaker 1: may have awoken in the hallway and sought out her
36:30
Speaker 1: phone in the living room, Perhaps she was unable to
36:33
Speaker 1: locate it or properly use it. This movement would have
36:37
Speaker 1: set off the living room censor at four to twenty
36:39
Speaker 1: am before she crawled outside to seek help, ultimately collapsing
36:44
Speaker 1: where she was found by Kevin Mull at six am.
36:48
Speaker 24: Now, the prosecutor wants you to believe that allegedly my
36:52
Speaker 24: client went in her at four to twenty, stabbed her
36:56
Speaker 24: eight times, tussle with her from room to room, and
37:00
Speaker 24: then there's no more idea the system we went into
37:03
Speaker 24: idelo at four to twenty two. Ladies and gentlemen of jury,
37:07
Speaker 24: after all the evidence is submitted, we want you to
37:11
Speaker 24: use your logic and reasoning skills to realize that the
37:16
Speaker 24: time frame that they say that this happened in is
37:20
Speaker 24: virtually impossible, virtually impossible for him to come in there
37:25
Speaker 24: and stabbor that many times.
37:28
Speaker 1: Be here up in less than a minute.
37:31
Speaker 25: And then he's seen on camera at four to twenty three,
37:35
Speaker 25: not four twenty four, At four to twenty three, walking
37:39
Speaker 25: in front of Greektown Casino, walking towards individuals who were outside.
37:46
Speaker 1: If the murder took place earlier in the night, the
37:48
Speaker 1: killer could not be Michael Jackson Bolanos. The defense argued
37:52
Speaker 1: that Jeffrey Herbsman was the likely killer, had an.
37:56
Speaker 14: Ex word fray.
37:59
Speaker 24: And you were here sets the money from him, as
38:01
Speaker 24: indicated by the prosecutor jeff helps Me who called the
38:06
Speaker 24: police in a streaking situation where he indicated that he
38:14
Speaker 24: thought yet killed it.
38:16
Speaker 1: In support of the alternative timeline, the defense pointed to
38:19
Speaker 1: neighborhood resident and witness James Graffoon, who had heard loud
38:23
Speaker 1: voices around one thirty am. James described the noises as
38:27
Speaker 1: repetitive and not distressing. He very likely heard striking casino
38:32
Speaker 1: workers from a few blocks over, but he could not
38:35
Speaker 1: be certain one.
38:36
Speaker 12: Thirty, around one thirty in the morning, and that I
38:42
Speaker 12: didn't at that time, I didn't hear anything that would
38:44
Speaker 12: indicate a murder was happening.
38:45
Speaker 9: And here screaming or anything like that. The neighborhood's quiet,
38:49
Speaker 9: but I did hear that sound.
38:51
Speaker 12: I didn't know, like if the police would be interested
38:53
Speaker 12: in hearing about an amplified.
38:55
Speaker 9: Voice coming from bouncing off the bill.
38:57
Speaker 12: I had no idea, but I wanted to give the
38:59
Speaker 12: police's much information as I could, just to see if
39:03
Speaker 12: it wasn't my job to put together the information. I
39:06
Speaker 12: just wanted to give them what information I had about
39:10
Speaker 12: being out at that time.
39:11
Speaker 23: And it was like calm, and I.
39:15
Speaker 9: Would say bored, Like there was an element of it.
39:18
Speaker 9: It was like don't don't like, don't go with the
39:21
Speaker 9: casino kind of like that kind of a thing, like
39:23
Speaker 9: it sounded repetitive is And.
39:25
Speaker 23: Could you hear the words from the voice, any words
39:30
Speaker 23: like made out?
39:31
Speaker 9: I honestly like, I can't say that I did, Like
39:35
Speaker 9: I might have been able to guess what some of
39:37
Speaker 9: the words, but I don't want to guess up here
39:40
Speaker 9: on the stand about anything specifically.
39:42
Speaker 23: Did it sound like there was a violent confrontation?
39:47
Speaker 5: Not not in the Slayers Now?
39:50
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Herbsman described to the jury in detail what had
39:53
Speaker 1: occurred on the night of his nine to one one call.
39:55
Speaker 1: He had returned to his hotel room in Kalamazoo and
39:58
Speaker 1: began listening to a podcast. When his mind began racing
40:02
Speaker 1: and his thoughts became distressing.
40:04
Speaker 4: I began to feel abnormal. While listening to the podcast,
40:12
Speaker 4: my thoughts began racing. They soon became what I would
40:19
Speaker 4: describe as as an uncontrollable that I couldn't stop worrying
40:22
Speaker 4: about things. I initially it was it was work related.
40:28
Speaker 4: I couldn't stop worrying about UH that I had I
40:33
Speaker 4: had brought the wrong clothes to work, that I wasn't
40:37
Speaker 4: going to make a good impression. I was worrying about
40:41
Speaker 4: having to meet with the director of the program. And
40:47
Speaker 4: and then my thoughts began to focus around Sam's death, and.
40:58
Speaker 3: It was specifically, what sort of direction did your thoughts.
41:05
Speaker 4: I began to believe that I that that I was
41:11
Speaker 4: responsible for her death, that I had somehow killed her
41:16
Speaker 4: and and didn't remember UH doing it. And I couldn't
41:23
Speaker 4: shake that feeling, and it was it was disturbing to
41:28
Speaker 4: the extreme.
41:31
Speaker 1: So do you still have those thoughts today?
41:33
Speaker 5: No?
41:34
Speaker 23: Did you actually do anything to try to outsmart the
41:38
Speaker 23: police or anything like that.
41:41
Speaker 21: No.
41:41
Speaker 4: I tried to be as helpful as possible for the police.
41:44
Speaker 1: Friends of Sam's testified that her breakup with Jeff was unexceptional.
41:48
Speaker 1: The two had cared for each other deeply, but had
41:50
Speaker 1: not been a great fit as a couple. Sam had
41:53
Speaker 1: never expressed any concerns relating to his behavior, Jeff had
41:57
Speaker 1: never shown any violent tendencies, and others who knew Jeff
42:01
Speaker 1: had never questioned his good character.
42:04
Speaker 3: What did you pride? Chinese?
42:07
Speaker 4: I tried to call her more. She wanted more physical touching,
42:12
Speaker 4: so I tried that. I brought her flowers. I apologized, and.
42:20
Speaker 3: She rejected all the day.
42:21
Speaker 24: Despite you doing all of those different She's still rejected, Deans.
42:30
Speaker 4: I think rejected is a strong word.
42:33
Speaker 3: She did. She did airasion back into her armors and
42:36
Speaker 3: and did you ever after that?
42:38
Speaker 4: It happened in we We did get to get back together,
42:42
Speaker 4: but ultimately she.
42:45
Speaker 11: Right yes.
42:47
Speaker 1: To Sam's family and friends, it seemed that Jeff's mental
42:50
Speaker 1: health struggles were being weaponized by Michael Jackson Bolano's defense team. However,
42:56
Speaker 1: the defense's tactics were characterized it seemed to be effective.
43:00
Speaker 1: Brian Brown hammered Jeff about the statements that he made
43:03
Speaker 1: to police and whether he was in fact motivated to
43:06
Speaker 1: confess to the murder by the guilt he felt over
43:09
Speaker 1: committing the crime.
43:11
Speaker 4: When I was sitting in that room, I was trying
43:13
Speaker 4: to understand what had gone on to cause me this
43:18
Speaker 4: utterly admiramal behavior that I had never experienced before, had
43:22
Speaker 4: never experienced since, and I believe was caused by an
43:26
Speaker 4: adverse reaction to this medication.
43:28
Speaker 24: Now we say average behavior that you've never experienced, and
43:31
Speaker 24: he talks about the actions that happened on actually the twenties,
43:35
Speaker 24: those actions.
43:37
Speaker 3: Is that what you were thinking about? No, he wasn't
43:39
Speaker 3: thinking about that at all. Ding crossed your mind at all.
43:44
Speaker 24: You weren't replaying in your mind anything about October the
43:47
Speaker 24: twentieth leading into the twenty first at all.
43:51
Speaker 14: All that time you were.
43:52
Speaker 3: Sitting in that police station. That was your saying, you
43:55
Speaker 3: didn't think about it at all.
43:57
Speaker 4: Again, if you listen to that tape, I had zero
44:00
Speaker 4: recollection of anything that happened related to those events.
44:06
Speaker 21: Would added person, Yes, okay?
44:10
Speaker 3: Do you always just make things up that didn't happen?
44:14
Speaker 16: No?
44:15
Speaker 11: Okay.
44:16
Speaker 3: So you're saying that this is the only time that
44:20
Speaker 3: you could remember.
44:23
Speaker 11: That you natives.
44:30
Speaker 4: This is the only time that I was having an
44:33
Speaker 4: adverse reaction to a medication.
44:37
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson Bolanos took the stand in his defense. He
44:40
Speaker 1: admitted lying to police repeatedly about stealing from cars on
44:44
Speaker 1: the night of the murder. He acknowledged that the video evidence,
44:47
Speaker 1: in conjunction with his phone data, more or less tracked
44:50
Speaker 1: his movements accurately across the city, but he maintained that
44:54
Speaker 1: he never entered anyone's home. At just after four am,
44:58
Speaker 1: when he was captured in the Jewel Up Place parking lot,
45:01
Speaker 1: he did encounter Sam Wall, He said, just like Kevin mull,
45:05
Speaker 1: he had spotted a figure lying on the ground. He too,
45:08
Speaker 1: chose to approach her.
45:11
Speaker 3: I did, And what if anything did you do when.
45:16
Speaker 11: I touched the person's neck to see if they were
45:19
Speaker 11: okay okay?
45:21
Speaker 3: And what's the person?
45:24
Speaker 11: It wasn't okay okay?
45:27
Speaker 3: And you said you touched their neck? Yes, you know
45:30
Speaker 3: which hand?
45:31
Speaker 11: Used my right hand? How why are you sure that
45:35
Speaker 11: you use your because I remember?
45:41
Speaker 3: And did you do anything? Did you shake the body?
45:44
Speaker 20: I didn't shake the body. I just checked the neck,
45:47
Speaker 20: put my hand kind of like in between right here.
45:50
Speaker 20: No air, no like breath or nothing. And once I
45:53
Speaker 20: realized that I just touched the dead person, I just grabbed.
45:57
Speaker 11: A bag and I left.
46:00
Speaker 21: And what did it?
46:01
Speaker 3: Field?
46:03
Speaker 11: Cold?
46:03
Speaker 1: And like Kresty, there is no DNA fingerprints or other
46:10
Speaker 1: physical evidence placing Michael inside Sam's home, nor is there
46:14
Speaker 1: camera footage showing him entering or exiting the building. The
46:18
Speaker 1: blood found on his sleeve and backpack, based on his testimony,
46:21
Speaker 1: was easily explained. He had leaned over and touched her
46:25
Speaker 1: with his right hand, which could have resulted in very
46:28
Speaker 1: small bloodstains on his right sleeve and backpack. This was, not,
46:32
Speaker 1: of course, the story that he had told police. The
46:35
Speaker 1: state also played recorded audio of a phone conversation he
46:39
Speaker 1: had with girlfriend Tiera following his arrest, in which she
46:42
Speaker 1: told him that she had washed his jacket before police
46:45
Speaker 1: found it, and never.
46:47
Speaker 9: Even never even washed.
46:49
Speaker 6: Jib was already.
46:53
Speaker 21: Jakie Joki.
46:58
Speaker 6: Launched it has for that.
47:02
Speaker 1: After Tierra made that statement on the recorded phone line,
47:05
Speaker 1: Michael promptly hung up. He called back moments later, stating,
47:09
Speaker 1: don't say nothing. I don't want to hear what you
47:11
Speaker 1: got to say about the jacket. There were also apparent
47:15
Speaker 1: inconsistencies with Michael's testimony, including an assertion that he ran
47:19
Speaker 1: from the scene out of fear for how it would
47:22
Speaker 1: look if he was the person who discovered Sam's body.
47:26
Speaker 11: Well, when I got close enough after I had touched
47:29
Speaker 11: a person. I could tell it was a female by
47:31
Speaker 11: the amount of hair.
47:32
Speaker 3: Okay, could you tell their race?
47:37
Speaker 16: No?
47:38
Speaker 3: Okay.
47:39
Speaker 20: When I realized she was dead, I wanted nothing to
47:42
Speaker 20: do with the entire situation. I'm a black guy in
47:44
Speaker 20: the middle of the night breaking in the cars, and
47:46
Speaker 20: I found myself standing in front of the dead white woman.
47:50
Speaker 11: That doesn't look good at all.
47:57
Speaker 1: Michael also testified that Sam was cold to the touch.
48:01
Speaker 1: The state was quick to point out that if the
48:03
Speaker 1: defense theory was correct and Sam had set off the
48:06
Speaker 1: living room censor herself at four twenty after spending a
48:09
Speaker 1: period of time unconscious, it was impossible for her to
48:13
Speaker 1: be cold one minute later.
48:16
Speaker 13: So you walk over to the person and you said
48:19
Speaker 13: that they were pulled to the touch in Christy, Yes,
48:23
Speaker 13: you're sure about that they were pulled to the touch.
48:26
Speaker 11: They were cold, Yes, I'm sure about a toucht on
48:28
Speaker 11: want bear game.
48:30
Speaker 3: With your bare hand? Yes? When did you take your
48:36
Speaker 3: gloves on?
48:37
Speaker 11: Before I had even got back to that parking lot.
48:41
Speaker 20: When I had jumped down from the wall, one of
48:43
Speaker 20: the gloves were rooted, so as I was walking on
48:45
Speaker 20: just discarded them.
48:47
Speaker 1: During the period of time that the defense argued Sam
48:50
Speaker 1: was attacked, She was repeatedly shown to be using her iPhone.
48:54
Speaker 1: The phone was unlocked at one O three to access Instagram,
48:57
Speaker 1: Facebook and other applications. This activity lasted for nearly ten minutes.
49:03
Speaker 1: The phone was again unlocked and in use until one
49:06
Speaker 1: twenty two. Two minutes later, with no movement detected inside
49:10
Speaker 1: the house, the ADT system went to idle. Sam's iPhone, however,
49:15
Speaker 1: accessed to Netflix five minutes later and the orientation shifted
49:19
Speaker 1: to landscape. The state argued that the most logical explanation
49:24
Speaker 1: was that she was on the couch, motionless in watching
49:27
Speaker 1: a video and not, as the defense suggested, in an
49:30
Speaker 1: extended struggle for her life at that time.
49:35
Speaker 3: The entirety of.
49:36
Speaker 23: The circumstances of Samantha Wool's death are consistent with this
49:42
Speaker 23: idea that this was an extremely quick killing and he
49:47
Speaker 23: got the heck out of there. They want to inject
49:49
Speaker 23: this idea that this was some kind of premeditated attack
49:54
Speaker 23: by one of her dating interests, one of her ex boyfriends,
49:59
Speaker 23: who left his phone at home, manages to elude and
50:03
Speaker 23: cloak himself and not be discovered on any video that
50:06
Speaker 23: night in the surrounding area. And then after this premeditated
50:11
Speaker 23: entering her house to kill her, doesn't even finish her off,
50:14
Speaker 23: allows her to stumble outside.
50:16
Speaker 3: That theory makes no sense.
50:19
Speaker 23: This idea that he comes up with for trial. This
50:22
Speaker 23: theory that Samantha Wool was stab and somehow was able
50:28
Speaker 23: to log into Netflix, that she passed out for three
50:34
Speaker 23: hours from these severe wounds to her neck and then
50:37
Speaker 23: just was able to get up and walk around, just
50:42
Speaker 23: happened to be right at the moment when the defendant
50:44
Speaker 23: was out there, and yet her body is cold to
50:48
Speaker 23: the touch, even though she's still alive. This theory is
50:54
Speaker 23: his lotto ticket.
50:57
Speaker 7: Do not cash it for him.
51:00
Speaker 9: Do not cash it for him.
51:05
Speaker 1: The defense placed emphasis on what Brian Brown characterized as
51:08
Speaker 1: the changing testimony of neighbor James, who could have heard
51:12
Speaker 1: the murder taking place.
51:15
Speaker 24: City went outside around one twenty. Is the wife is
51:19
Speaker 24: fok his dog, He says, he routine goes out there
51:22
Speaker 24: around twelve thirty.
51:24
Speaker 3: This particular night was an hour later.
51:28
Speaker 11: He heard.
51:30
Speaker 17: A very distinction of a woman originally streaming saying don't
51:37
Speaker 17: hit me no more, don't stavvy a direction.
51:42
Speaker 24: From the Joliet area. He never said anything about sound
51:47
Speaker 24: bouncing off of building. He never said anything about digging
51:51
Speaker 24: it with somebody striking.
51:54
Speaker 1: Questions were also raised about the footprint analysis, or lack thereof,
51:58
Speaker 1: which could have identified the print left on the throat pillow.
52:02
Speaker 1: There was never a match made to Michael Jackson Balanos,
52:06
Speaker 1: and the explanation provided by the state for the slashed
52:08
Speaker 1: tire was speculative. They argued that Michael stabbed the tire
52:12
Speaker 1: with his knife as practice in preparation for entering Sam's townhouse,
52:17
Speaker 1: having spotted her open front door.
52:20
Speaker 9: That doesn't even make sense.
52:21
Speaker 24: We're trying to say he was just a slash or
52:23
Speaker 24: he's Jason, he's Fridy, said he was just in a
52:25
Speaker 24: slashing move, said that he was practicing.
52:28
Speaker 9: That's absurd, said he.
52:30
Speaker 3: Was practicing the scene. That knife is sharp enough.
52:32
Speaker 24: So he's saying that, oh, I'm about to go into
52:34
Speaker 24: somebody's house that I don't know they're in.
52:36
Speaker 3: Here because he's saying that Saman's surprise them.
52:39
Speaker 24: So if the person doesn't know that individual was in
52:43
Speaker 24: a house, why would they practice stabbing some tires to
52:47
Speaker 24: see if their knife was sharp enough to kill somebody.
52:51
Speaker 24: That just doesn't even make sense. That defies all logic
52:54
Speaker 24: and common sense.
52:55
Speaker 3: That particular dude. It just doesn't make any sense at all.
52:59
Speaker 1: The bloodspeed on the back of the right sleeve could
53:01
Speaker 1: have been caused by a stabbing motion, but the defense
53:04
Speaker 1: said these were in a location consistent with Michael's testimony
53:08
Speaker 1: of reaching over Sam to check on her. Finally, there
53:12
Speaker 1: remained the allegations against Jeff Herbsman. This despite a thorough
53:17
Speaker 1: investigation that concluded he gave false statements and had nothing
53:21
Speaker 1: to do with Sam's murder.
53:24
Speaker 3: If you're going to stand up in court.
53:27
Speaker 23: And make serious accusations about somebody accuse that person of murder,
53:33
Speaker 23: you should have serious evidence to back it up. And
53:36
Speaker 23: I'm not saying at all, in any way, shape or
53:37
Speaker 23: form that they have any burden in this case.
53:39
Speaker 5: They don't.
53:40
Speaker 23: But I'm just saying that we are accusing the defendant
53:43
Speaker 23: of murder and we backed it up with serious evidence,
53:46
Speaker 23: evidence that you saw on full display over the last month.
53:51
Speaker 23: This is not serious evidence. The accusations they've met made
53:54
Speaker 23: against Jeff Herksmen are unsupported, They're unremarkable.
54:02
Speaker 1: The trial lasted roughly six weeks. After twenty three hours
54:05
Speaker 1: of deliberations over five days, the jury returned, but they
54:10
Speaker 1: had only managed to reach a partial verdict.
54:13
Speaker 26: In the case the People of the State of Michigan
54:15
Speaker 26: versus Michael Manuel Jackson Balanos. Mister four person, will you
54:20
Speaker 26: please read the verdict form as marked as to count
54:22
Speaker 26: one first degree phlony murder deadlock, as to you count
54:29
Speaker 26: two first degree premeditated murder, as to you count three
54:35
Speaker 26: home invasion, first degree dead block.
54:38
Speaker 1: The only count on which Michael was convicted was lying
54:42
Speaker 1: to police. The jury could not decide whether he had
54:45
Speaker 1: entered the house, nor if he had committed felony murder.
54:49
Speaker 1: He was acquitted a first degree premeditated murder. The jury
54:53
Speaker 1: four person later told the media that the divide in
54:56
Speaker 1: the jury room was split almost fifty to fifty on
54:58
Speaker 1: the deadlocked charges. There was no way they would have
55:01
Speaker 1: reached an agreement.
55:03
Speaker 13: How many votes were taking multiple we multiple votes a day?
55:09
Speaker 13: He said, about a dozen more, probably more than a
55:11
Speaker 13: more than a dozen. How close was it at the
55:12
Speaker 13: end for guilty not guilty? I mean, I don't necessarily
55:16
Speaker 13: want to get in the exact sub it, but I
55:17
Speaker 13: mean it was it was closer to It was closer
55:20
Speaker 13: to fifty to fifty. Because of the holes in the case,
55:22
Speaker 13: we all had to try to figure out, like what.
55:25
Speaker 3: Makes sense to us.
55:27
Speaker 13: I'm a little disappointed that. I mean, I know they
55:30
Speaker 13: if they said the Herbson had some sort of episode,
55:34
Speaker 13: but to me, that was proving he also alied to
55:39
Speaker 13: the police. Right, it's good for the goose, is good
55:42
Speaker 13: for the gander. Like if you know, if it was me,
55:46
Speaker 13: I would have I would have thought he could have
55:48
Speaker 13: been charge of the same thing. I mean, do you
55:50
Speaker 13: think yeah, I think so.
55:55
Speaker 1: At the sentencing hearing, Judge Van Houghton handed down eighteen
55:59
Speaker 1: months to fifty teen years for lying to the police.
56:02
Speaker 1: Had Michael not been categorized as a habitual offender, he
56:05
Speaker 1: may have been outright released on probation.
56:10
Speaker 15: A number of times that the defendant lied. And I
56:13
Speaker 15: have to say, if lying was an Olympic sport, you
56:16
Speaker 15: would get gold medal, sir, because you told lie after
56:19
Speaker 15: lie after lie throughout those interviews, interrogations and even a
56:27
Speaker 15: few on the stand.
56:30
Speaker 1: The judge also ruled that double jeopardy applied to the
56:33
Speaker 1: felony murder charge, despite the failure of the jury to
56:36
Speaker 1: reach a verdict. The ruling was based upon established legal precedents.
56:40
Speaker 1: Since a jury had found Michael Jackson Bolano's not guilty
56:44
Speaker 1: of first degree murder. He could not be retried on
56:47
Speaker 1: the felony murder charge because both counts were based on
56:50
Speaker 1: the same premise and the same crime. As it currently stands,
56:56
Speaker 1: no one will be held responsible for the murder of
56:59
Speaker 1: Samantha Wall. After the verdict, Sam's family told the media
57:06
Speaker 1: that it pains them that justice for Sam has not
57:08
Speaker 1: been served. Ironically, Sam had spent much of her own
57:12
Speaker 1: life working towards a more just world. A good friend
57:16
Speaker 1: also reflected upon how disappointed and disgusted Sam would have
57:20
Speaker 1: been to have seen those that she had loved traumatized
57:23
Speaker 1: all over again throughout the lengthy trial.
57:28
Speaker 11: We're still looking for justice.
57:32
Speaker 27: We are absolutely convinced overwhelming evidence points to him as
57:36
Speaker 27: the murderer, and disappointed in the justice system. But we're
57:41
Speaker 27: glad he's going to rain in jail for the next
57:45
Speaker 27: few months and hopefully longer.
57:46
Speaker 15: Our psychological torture going through this for so long and
57:52
Speaker 15: nothing will bring our daughter back. Even though we're hoping
57:56
Speaker 15: for justice, we just mister Dearly and want everyone.
57:59
Speaker 13: To know what a wonderful person she was.
58:05
Speaker 1: That was the tragic case of Samantha Wall. Thanks for
58:08
Speaker 1: joining me and a special thanks to Katie and Krim
58:12
Speaker 1: for a one for joining the members lounge. I'm Kevin,
58:16
Speaker 1: this is just thought lounge, and I'll see in the
58:18
Speaker 1: next one. When the see plays, tell me who the
58:25
Speaker 1: screen saves. I can hear the cries repeat.
58:27
Speaker 24: Gotta take my time because these crimes get deep, but
58:29
Speaker 24: these stories can't high.
58:30
Speaker 10: Let me find my seat, Kevin, go ahead and settle in.
58:33
Speaker 24: Gotta be selective, doing all the research, keeping it objective,
58:36
Speaker 24: always being effective.
58:37
Speaker 10: Can say he got a neck, pick it a litter.
58:39
Speaker 1: You see how Newton got his back.
58:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, the content that you need.
58:42
Speaker 6: This could be a new sign.
58:43
Speaker 19: We talk in the comments they got in the few lines.
58:46
Speaker 10: Tune in and like love that.
58:47
Speaker 19: It's to con It feels like the whole world is
58:49
Speaker 19: online for true crime.