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<h2 class="has-text-color wp-block-heading" style="color:#261d1d;font-size:14px"><strong>Interior designer Jade Janks, 39, is found guilty of killing ex-stepdad by a court in San Diego, California</strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color wp-block-heading" style="color:#261d1d;font-size:14px"><strong>Jade Janks was found guilty Wednesday of killing her former stepfather at his Californian home on New Year&#8217;s Eve in 2020</strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color wp-block-heading" style="color:#261d1d;font-size:14px"><strong>She&#8217;s accused of drugging and strangling Thomas Merriman, 64, who was once married to her mother</strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color wp-block-heading" style="color:#261d1d;font-size:14px"><strong>Court threw out defense argument that the victim had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, and died from natural causes </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color wp-block-heading" style="color:#261d1d;font-size:14px"><strong>Janks had found out several days earlier that Thomas Merriman, 64, was using her naked photos as a screensaver on his computer &#8211; her search turned up more than 100 of her nude images </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color wp-block-heading" style="color:#261d1d;font-size:14px"><strong>Janks found the photos while cleaning Merriman&#8217;s apartment after he had been hospitalized in San Diego </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color wp-block-heading" style="color:#261d1d;font-size:14px"><strong>She picked him up from hospital and gave him an overdose of pills, admitting in texts to friends she killed him, h<strong>owever, to some friends she said he had cancer</strong></strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color wp-block-heading" style="color:#261d1d;font-size:14px"><strong><strong>Prosecutors tendered messages she sent to friends, one read: ‘I just dosed the hell out of him. Stopping for whiskey at Dixieland to stall. LMK’</strong> </strong></h2>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Jade-Janks-7.png" alt="" class="wp-image-424426" width="837" height="718"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>San Diego based interior designer, Jade Janks, seen [photo],in court during her murder trial, Wednesday was found guilty of killing her former stepfather while claiming he died of cancer</strong></figcaption></figure>



<p>A Californian interior designer has been found guilty of killing her former stepfather while claiming he died of cancer.<br>Jade Janks killed Thomas Merriman after she found her naked photos being used as a screensaver.<br>Janks, 39, faces life in prison after the jury in Vista took less than a day to find her guilty of <a href="https://konniemoments.com/2022/12/10/san-diego-interior-designer-39-on-trial-for-drugging-and-strangling-her-ex-stepdad-64-on-2020-new-year-eve-jade-janks-discovered-he-was-using-her-nude-photo-as-screensaver/">killing Thomas Merriman</a>, 64, on New Year&#8217;s Eve in 2020.<br>She told most friends he had died from cancer, but in text messages to others confessed to killing him with an overdose of pills. <br>&#8216;This was no accident,&#8217; said Jorge Del Portillo, Deputy District Attorney.<br>&#8216;This was murder by design,&#8217; Portillo told the North County Superior Court. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Memorial-set-up-to-Thomas-Merriman-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-424415" width="836" height="820"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>Thomas &#8216;Tom&#8217; Merriman owned a butterfly farm in Encinitas. He was killed on December 31, 2020</strong></figcaption></figure>



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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Jade-Janks-and-Thomas-Merriman-1-1.png?resize=174%2C131&;ssl=1" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://konniemoments.com/2022/12/10/san-diego-interior-designer-39-on-trial-for-drugging-and-strangling-her-ex-stepdad-64-on-2020-new-year-eve-jade-janks-discovered-he-was-using-her-nude-photo-as-screensaver/">Jade Janks, 39, is accused of killing stepdad after plying him with sleeping pills and then strangling and suffocating him on New Year’s Eve 2020, in San Diego, CA [&#8230;]</a></figcaption></figure>



<p>Merriman, a butterfly park owner who was divorced from Janks&#8217; mother but to whom the family remained close, was in hospital following a fall. <br>Janks&#8217; trial for the murder of Merriman, the co-founder of a popular butterfly farm in Encinitas, began Dec. 7. She took the stand last week.<br>Janks testified that although her mother and Thomas Merriman were long divorced, she still took care of him, and he referred to Janks as his daughter. <br>A few years ago, Merriman and Janks ended up as next door neighbors. She was tidying up Merriman’s apartment while he was in a medical facility in late December 2020 when she bumped his computer, and it awoke with her nude photo as the screensaver. <br>Horrified, she searched the computer and found hundreds more images.<br>The images were several years old, some dating back to her late teens, and included those taken consensually with a former boyfriend. <br>Janks believes her former stepfather had swiped the photos from her laptop and from a long-missing digital camera.<br>She had planned to confront Merriman, Janks testified. Furthermore, because they were neighbors who shared a driveway on South Nardo Avenue, she wanted him to move away.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-44.png" alt="" class="wp-image-425389"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"> <strong>Janks, [center], testified that Merriman who struggled with <strong>addiction to drugs and alcoho</strong></strong>l<strong> died from an overdose. However, to some friends she said he had cancer. Prosecutors tendered messages she sent to friends, one read: ‘I just dosed the hell out of him. Stopping for whiskey at Dixieland to stall. LMK’.</strong></figcaption></figure>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-41.png" alt="" class="wp-image-425370" width="845" height="915"/></figure>



<p>Janks&#8217; mother and Merriman who struggled with alcohol abuse and addictions divorced in 2008 after 13 years, and multiple instances of domestic abuse. <br>District Attorney Del Portillo said that Janks was &#8216;beyond freaked out&#8217; for find the photos, and immediately began plotting how to kill him.<br>His body was found under a pile of trash outside of his home on January 2. Toxicologists found an overdose of drugs in his system, but no evidence of strangulation &#8211; although prosecutors claimed Janks strangled him. <br>Janks insisted in court that he died of natural causes. Her attorney, Marc Carlos, said Merriman died due to ill health and his own cocktail of sleeping pills. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-38.png" alt="" class="wp-image-425366" width="851" height="827"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>Jade Janks, [photo], who operated an interior design business in San Diego, allegedly drugged, suffocated and strangled her stepdad after discovering he was in possession of her nude photos </strong></figcaption></figure>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Thomas-Merriman-2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-424425" width="840" height="706"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>Thomas Merriman, [photo], was recovering from injuries sustained after a fall when he died. <strong>A few days before he was released from the hospital, Janks was cleaning in Merriman&#8217;s apartment when she bumped into his computer, waking it. That&#8217;s when she saw a nude photo that she had taken years previously as his screensaver</strong> </strong></figcaption></figure>



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<p>Carlos added: &#8216;Jade Janks loved her stepfather. Tom Merriman loved Jade Janks. <br>&#8216;Unfortunately, Tom Merriman was a troubled individual, and he loved her in different ways.&#8217; <br>Merriman&#8217;s body was found under trash bags by police outside of his home in Solano Beach. Officers had gone to the home to conduct a welfare check. <br>Prosecutors say that Janks told others that she killed Merriman.<br>A former friend of Janks&#8217;, Sarah Jacobs, testified that Janks told her about the photo but said that didn&#8217;t indicate that Merriman would face any repercussions. <br>Jacobs described the photo as showing Janks &#8216;scantily clad.&#8217;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-37.png" alt="" class="wp-image-425365" width="843" height="1045"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>Prosecutors said that the discovery of the nude pics left Janks ‘distraught’ and ‘disturbed to the core. Prosecutors say after that discovery , , Janks began hatching a plot to kill her stepdad. Toxicologist Raymond Gary was next to testify, he said that Merriman had high levels of the sleeping drug zolpidem in his system</strong></figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-36.png" alt="" class="wp-image-425364" width="840" height="847"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>In court the defendant insisted in court that Merriman [photo],who co-founded the Butterfly Farm, a nonprofit, alongside a friend, died of natural causes. Defense attorney, Marc Carlos, said Merriman died due to ill health and his own cocktail of sleeping pills. </strong></figcaption></figure>



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<p>This week, prosecutors showed text messages in court that Janks sent to various friends. <br>They read: &#8216;I just dosed the hell out of him. Stopping for whiskey at Dixieland to stall. LMK.&#8217; <br>&#8216;He&#8217;s waking up. I really don&#8217;t want to be the one to do this.&#8217;<br>&#8216;I can&#8217;t carry him alone and I can&#8217;t keep a kicking body in my trunk.&#8217;<br>&#8216;I am about to club him on the head as he is waking up.&#8217; <br>&#8216;I&#8217;m not strong enough. He is very aware now and I am on my own.&#8217;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-43.png" alt="" class="wp-image-425386" width="838" height="974"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>Jade Janks, who operated an interior design business in San Diego, allegedly drugged, suffocated and strangled her stepdad after discovering he was in possession of nude photos of her. <strong>The arresting officer later testified, San Diego Sheriff&#8217;s Office Matthew Gibson, he said that Janks was calm when she was arrested</strong></strong></figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-42.png" alt="" class="wp-image-425377" width="840" height="600"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>Whistleblower: Adam Siplyak, [photo], a friend who originally answered her call for help, later said that he couldn’t help and went to the police to report Janks</strong>. <strong>How attorney conceded that Siplyak and Janks have cuddled and kissed in the past but have not had a sexual relationship</strong></figcaption></figure>



<p>A friend who did answer her call for help, Adam Siplyak, went to the home on New Year&#8217;s Eve but said he would not help her to get rid of the body. <br>The following day, he went to the police to report what happened. <br>Janks originally told him that she needed help getting Merriman home because he was high on pills. <br>However, when Siplyak showed up, she confessed what happened. <br>The lead detective in the case, Lisa Brannan said in court: &#8216;Ms. Janks told Mr. Siplyak that she killed her stepfather and she said, &#8216;I suffocated him with a bag and I choked him.&#8217; She also said that she gave him a bunch of drugs.&#8217;<br>The detective continued: &#8216;She wanted his help with getting the body out of her car. <br>&#8216;She wanted to take her stepfather to his home and put him in his bed. <br>&#8216;She wanted to look like he had overdosed in his bed as he had died in his bed.&#8217;<br>After refusing to help her, Siplyak said: &#8216;I have a son to raise.&#8217; <br>The arresting officer later testified, San Diego Sheriff&#8217;s Office Matthew Gibson, he said that Janks was calm when she was arrested.</p>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-40.png" alt="" class="wp-image-425369" width="837" height="836"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>Toxicologist Raymond Gary was next to testify, he said that Merriman had high levels of the sleeping drug zolpidem in his system</strong></figcaption></figure>



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<p>Janks was free on a $1 million bail albeit with a GPS anklet. <br>At the time her bail was set, prosecutors argued that the suspect has the financial resources to flee and connections in South Africa. <br>Janks&#8217; biological father, Steve Janks, is a native of South Africa and now lives in Southern California. <br>She owner of a start-up interior design business, Jank Janks Interiors. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-39.png" alt="" class="wp-image-425368" width="841" height="1101"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>Janks, shown here with her mother, Jeni, [left]. who<strong> divorced Merriman in 2008, but she had remained close to her stepdad</strong></strong>. Janks was freed earlier this year on a $1 million bail </figcaption></figure>



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<p>Merriman and Janks&#8217; mother Jeni married in July 1995. The couple had a son together, Cash. <br>Merriman had another daughter from a previous relationship. <br>The couple filed for divorce on multiple occasions during that time, finally doing so in 2008. <br>In 2013, Merriman founded the Butterfly Farm, a nonprofit, alongside his friend Pat Flanagan. <br></p>

California interior designer Jade Janks, 39, found GUILTY of killing ex-stepdad – She drugged and strangled Tom Merriman, 64, after discovering he stole more than 100 of her nude photo, one used as a screensaver
