1 of 2 | Samantha Woll, the 40-year-old board president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Detroit Synagogue, was found at about 6:38 a.m. on Oct. 21, outside of a neighbor's home in the Lafayette Park neighborhood of Detroit. Photo courtesy of Isaac Agree Downtown
Dec. 13 (UPI) -- A 28-year-old Detroit man has been arrested and charged with the murder of Samantha Woll, prosecutors said Wednesday, nearly 55 days after the local synagogue leader was found stabbed to death outside her home.
Michael Manual Jackson-Bolanos has been charged with felony murder committed during a first-degree home invasion, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced during a press conference. The suspect is accused of killing Woll, 40, on Oct. 21 during a break in, though there were no signs of forced entry.
Jackson-Bolanos has also been charged with lying to a police officer. Worthy explained that he is accused of lying to police about either stealing or attempting to steal from cars in Woll's neighborhood the same day she was killed.
"This was an extraordinary sad and tragic case," Worthy said, adding that it took "painstaking, diligent and tireless work" in order to bring charges against Jackson-Bolanos.
The body of Woll, board president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Detroit Synagogue, was found at about 6:38 a.m. on Oct. 21, outside of a neighbor's home in the Lafayette Park neighborhood, by someone walking past the apartments.
Responding officers found her body in a pool of blood, and the front door of her home ajar, with a trail of blood leading outside.
Woll's death occurred after the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7 which has prompted a surge in anti-Semitic violence and incidents across the United States, leading to speculation that her death may have been bias-related. Authorities were quick to state that this was not a hate crime -- a stance that Worthy reiterated Wednesday.
"There are no facts to suggest that this defendant knew Ms. Woll, and there are certainly no facts to suggest that this was a hate crime," she said.
Worthy said Woll's death had been ruled homicide as the result of "multiple sharp forced wounds with a straight edge cutting instrument."
The announcement of the arrest and charges Wednesday comes after authorities last month detained a person of interest in the case, who was released without being charged 72 hours later.
Fielding questions to explain the nearly two-month span between Woll's death and the filing charges, Worthy said, "investigations don't usually happen in the 44-minute legal procedure type TV shows."
"They take time. They take attention. They take energy. They take passion. They take experience," she said. "There was an incredible amount of work that was done in this case."
Detroit Police Chief James White told reporters during the press conference that they became aware of Jackson-Bolanos about three weeks ago, and linked him to vehicle larcenies in Woll's neighborhood.
He said what Jackson-Bolanos said during questioning "was concerning" and that after his release, "we kept an eye on him ... until we got enough to ultimately make an arrest."
"This is one of the most complex cases I've been involved in," he said.
Jackson-Bolanos' attorney, Brian Brown, told the Detroit Free Press that their client was innocent and pointed to the fact that a previous suspect had been detained and that the crime had placed "a lot of pressure" on police to bring the case to a close.
"My client maintains his innocence," Brown said, "and I think he was just a victim of circumstance and not an individual who perpetrated this crime."
