The trial for the man accused of brutally killing Detroit synagogue leader Samantha Woll in 2023 is under way, and her ex-boyfriend has testified about being the man briefly taken into custody but released for formal charges were laid against Michael Jackson-Bolanos.
Woll, the 40 year old president of Detroit’s Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, was found dead outside her home on October 21, as CrimeOnline reported. Investigators say she was stabbed inside the house and staggered outside, where she collapsed.
Jeff Herbstman was detained and questioned in November but was released without charge — and without being named — just a few days later. Herbstman took the stand in Jackson-Bolanos’s trial on Tuesday, telling a jury he was detained after he called police on November 7 and said he “may have murdered” his ex-girlfriend, the Detroit News reported.
During his detention, Herbstman confessed to killing Woll and later retracted the “confession.”
Herbstman was on the stand for four hours on Tuesday, part of the prosecution’s chronological roll-out of the investigation, which has so far not mentioned the defendant. Herbstman said he initially spoke with police on October 22, the day after Woll’s murder, and told them he was home all night and went to bed around 10 p.m. on October 20.
Woll, who had broken up with Herbstman in July, had been at a wedding that night and returned home just after midnight.
Herbstman testified that two weeks later, on a higher dose of his depression medication and then smoking marijuana, he had a “full-blown panic attack” and called 911. Prosecutors played that call for jurors.
“I’m having a panic attack. I’m convinced that I may have murdered my girlfriend and I don’t remember it,” Herbstman said. “I have the motive and the opportunity. I may be trying to outsmart people.”
The jurors heard Herbstman sobbing incoherently at times during the call, blaming himself for the communication issues that led to his breakup with Woll.
“I believe that people would consider I may have had a motive because we had broken up. That may be considered a motive for hurting Sam. I was convinced that could’ve been the case,” Herbstman testified about his 911 call. “I was alone that night, I didn’t have anybody else to corroborate the fact that I was by myself in my house at the time she was killed.”
But, he said, he didn’t remember killing Woll. He testified that he believed he was having a psychotic break when he made the 911 call.
In his opening statement, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey said investigators found no evidence that Herbstman killed Woll. His phone was at his home all night the night of the murder, and the ex-boyfriend was not seen on any surveillance video around Woll’s home that night. He was released from custody on November 10.
A month later, police took Jackson-Bolanos into custody. He was formally charged with Woll’s murder on December 13, with Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy saying there “no facts to suggest” any prior connection between the two.
Police had said from the start they saw no evidence to suggest anti-semitism was a motive in the attack on Woll. Instead, they said, it appeared to be a crime of opportunity.
Jackson-Bolanos, who was already a suspect in several larcenies in the area, is also charged with several other crimes, including committing a felony murder during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of a larceny and/or a first-degree home invasion.
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[Featured image: Samantha Woll/Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue]
