A California woman was convicted of murdering her estranged stepfather after discovering hundreds of naked photographs of herself on his computer.
Jade Janks, 39, was convicted guilty of first-degree murder of Thomas Merriman on Wednesday. Merriman founded a nonprofit butterfly research and education organization in Encinitas, California.
Janks is sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors said that the Solana Beach interior designer used a plastic bag to drug, choke, and suffocate her estranged stepfather. The murder occurred two years prior, on New Year’s Eve 2020.
Janks was assisting her ex-stepfather during his hospitalization. She was cleaning his house when she saw hundreds of naked images of herself on his computer and felt outraged.
Janks’ defense team contended that the images were ordered by body component and were taken over a long period of time. There were even images from her adolescence.
It was the most violating, terrible, gut-wrenching experience ever, Janks said. She felt nauseous and unable to even touch her own skin. She is not sure if there are words for it; she has never seen something that nasty in a movie.
See Janks’ astonished expression when the judgement is announced in the video.
