This is a bizarre story. An upscale interior designer from California, San Diego to be exact, named Jade Janks murdered her stepfather who was recovering from a stint in the hospital. Jade was at his home, cleaning up for him when she found out that he had nude pictures of her on his computer. Apparently, the photos were consensual and private and taken when Jade and a past boyfriend were together. How the stepfather got his hands on them, I am not sure. Janks and her stepfather had co-founded a non-profit organization to save butterflies, called âButterfly Farms.â Jade and her stepfather used to share a home together, and even though he and her mother got divorced many years ago, Jade continued to help her stepfather.
But all of that changed when she discovered those naked pictures of herself on his computer. Apparently one of them was his âscreensaver.â
Dear God, what a creep.Â
The New York Post reported that Thomas Merrimanâs body was found in January 2021, under a pile of trash at the Solana Beach, Calif., home he shared with stepdaughter Jade Janks.
The murder trial of Janks, 39, an interior designer who co-founded the research nonprofit Butterfly Farms, began this week in Vista Superior Court.
She has pleaded not guilty to killing the 64-year-old Merriman, who prosecutors said died of an overdose of sleeping pills Janks gave him after she discovered the photos â one of which he reportedly used as his screensaver.
âThis was no accident,â San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo said, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. âThis was murder by design.â
The photos were taken more than a decade ago, consensually, by Janks and her boyfriend, authorities said. Itâs unclear how they came into Merrimanâs possession.
Janks found the photos while she was cleaning her stepfatherâs apartment, who had been hospitalized, Del Portillo added.
She texted with another man about giving Merriman the pills, prosecutors contended.
âI just dosed the hell out of him. Stopping for whiskey then at Dixieland to stall. LMK,â Janks allegedly texted the day she picked Merriman up from the hospital, according to Del Portillo.
Janks seems to second guess her plan in another text message the prosecutors shared.
âHeâs waking up,â one alleged text read, according to NBC San Diego. âI really donât want to be the one to do this.â
âI am about to club him on the head as he is waking up,â another read.
Janks eventually called another person for help, said prosecutors. That person called the authorities the next day.
Deputies then searched the home and found Merrimanâs body under a pile of boxes, blankets and other trash as they were leaving.
Her attorneys argue Jade didnât kill him, it was his own cocktail of drugs and his poor health that killed himâŚ
Um, that might be a hard story to sell to a jury after they read those text messages.
Maybe instead of killing him, she could have told him off, smashed his PC, and never spoken to him again. At least then sheâd have that perv out of her life, and she wouldnât be going to prison, likely for the rest of her life.