A woman identified as Jade Janks, 39, was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday after drugging and strangling her ex-stepdad when she discovered he had photos of her nude on his computer.
Jade Janks, who is an interior designer, was found guilty of the murder act after she drugged and strangled Thomas Merriman, 64 years of age, on the 31st of December, 2020.
According to the DailyStar, Throughout the trial, Jade pleaded not guilty, as she claimed Thomas had died of an illness. However, it took the California jury less than 24 hours to convict her of first-degree murder on Wednesday (December 21). She now faces life imprisonment.
Thomas was a butterfly activist and co-founded the education and research nonprofit Butterfly Farms. His body was discovered in his driveway under cardboard boxes on January 2, 2021.
It was brought to the attention of the court that Janks was tidying Merriman’s apartment in late December 2020, while he was in the hospital, when she came across his computer. The screen turned on, and her naked photo was saved as his screensaver.
She then scrolled through his computer and discovered more than 100 similar photos.
Local reports stated that Janks had taken the photos more than a decade ago with her then-boyfriend. It is still unclear how Thomas got access to them.
Janks spoke of how she “dosed the hell out of him” after she picked him up from the hospital in a text shown to the court.
A further text read: “I am about to club him on the head as he is waking up.”
The cause of Thomas’ death was discovered to be acute intoxication with zolpidem, also known as Ambien.
Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo claimed that his death was “no accident,” as he added: “This was murder by design.”
Janks’ attorney Marc Carlos took to social media after the judgement to say there was “zero” evidence she strangled him.
During the trial, he explained to jurors: “The medical examiner will not tell you it was strangulation.”
“The science does not support strangulation.” he said