2023-12-14 22:57:39
Detroit — Two days after Samantha Woll was fatally stabbed inside her Detroit home, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sent two detectives to work on the investigation, although Detroit Police officials kicked them off the task force without explanation, a Nessel spokesperson said Thursday.
Detroit Police Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald insisted Detroit Police Department officials did explain why the two investigators were asked to leave the task force: Too many leaks were getting out to the media. But Fitzgerald said Nessel’s detectives were asked to again help with the Woll probe about two weeks ago.
The task force that investigated the case consists of DPD, Michigan State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Woll, 40, was stabbed Oct. 7 in her home after attending a wedding. Police say she stumbled out of her unit and collapsed on her front lawn.
Wayne County prosecutors say 28-year-old Michael Jackson-Bolanos stabbed Woll eight times after entering her home in Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood. Jackson-Bolanos, whom prosecutors say planned to burglarize Woll’s home, is charged with felony murder and other charges, and faces life in prison if convicted.
Jackson-Bolanos’ attorney Brian Brown didn’t respond Thursday to a request for comment.
Woll, board president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit, worked on Nessel’s reelection campaign in 2022, although the attorney general’s spokeswoman Kimberly Bush told The Detroit News Thursday that Nessel’s relationship with the victim wasn’t seen as a barrier to becoming involved in the investigation.
“Our office routinely offers the resources of our Criminal Investigations Division to support on local cases,” Bush told The News in an email. “For Sam’s case, we did provide two of our agents to assist, and were later told our assistance was no longer needed without further reason why.”
Fitzgerald said Thursday that the Attorney General’s office has never offered help on cases during his 29 years with the department.
“(The AG’s investigators) were there for the first two days (of the probe),” Fitzgerald said. “But we had a bunch of leaks, and in order to tighten that up, they were asked to leave the investigation. But about two weeks ago, we had a conversation with the AG, and we invited her two detectives back in. They were going to work another angle of the investigation and look at some people Sam knew.”
Bush said the Attorney General’s office has helped out in multiple local investigations, including the November prosecution of Stanley Garner for killing two men in Detroit in 2021, although Wayne County prosecutors, not Detroit Police, referred the case to the attorney general. Maria Miller, a spokesperson for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said their office requested the help because they were short-staffed at the time.
Other cases in which the Attorney General’s office helped in local investigations include a recent homicide case in Alpena and the Michigan State University shooting in February, when Bush said “we had 16 agents onsite interviewing witnesses.”
Bush said the office decided that Nessel’s relationship with Woll wasn’t a problem.
“The department’s ethics officer did review the situation and found that there were no ethical concerns,” she said.
More: Exclusive details revealed in killing of Jewish leader Samantha Woll
During Jackson-Bolanos’ arraignment Wednesday in 36th District Court, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Ryan Elsey said police found blood on the defendant’s jacket — “on a jacket that appears to be consistent with the very same jacket he was wearing that night when she was killed. And when given an opportunity to explain why that blood was there, he couldn’t explain it.”
Brown, the defense attorney, pointed out during the arraignment that his client had never been convicted of a violent crime.
According to Michigan Department of Corrections records, Jackson-Bolanos was convicted of receiving/concealing stolen property (motor vehicle) in 2014 and was incarcerated from May 31, 2014 to July 26, 2018.
“He was not granted parole and was discharged from prison upon the completion of his maximum sentence (5 years),” Department of Corrections spokesman Kyle Kaminski said in an email Thursday.
Jackson-Bolanos was then placed on probation from Jan. 2, 2019 to Sept. 19, 2021 for again receiving/concealing stolen property (motor vehicle) and was discharged from probation in 2021, Kaminski said.
Although Jackson-Bolanos was not convicted of a violent crime, he racked up 40 violations while in prison from 2014 to 2018, including three assaults, two fights and a sexual misconduct violation, according to state prison records.
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