News about Tom Merriman

If Jade Janks is sentenced to death in December 31, 2020, she faces life in jail for killing her former stepfather Thomas Merriman, 64. In text messages to relatives, Janks denied suffering from a self-inflicted overdose, but text messages confirmed it. Merriman, a butterfly park owner who was divorced from Janks' mother but to whom the family remained close, was admitted to the hospital after a fall. Janks went to his house to dust it and nudged his notebook, finding her naked photo as a screensaver. The photos were taken over a decade ago by a former boyfriend, but it's unclear how Merriman, who suffered with alcohol use and heroin, became obsessed with them. After 13 years and numerous instances of domestic violence, Janks' mother divorced Merriman in 2008. Janks was 'beyond freaked out' for finding the pictures,' Del Portillo said, and immediately began plotting how to murder him.

After catching her using a robbed nude snapshot of her as his screenaver, a San Diego interior designer is charged with murdering her butterfly farm-owning ex-stepdad. In San Diego on New Year's Eve 2020, Jade Janks (left and center) has been charged with drugging, suffocation, and strangling Thomas Merriman, right. The 39-year-old denies murder. Prosecutors said Janks, a successful interior design company, was 'beyond freaked out' after she discovered several naked photos of herself in 64 year-old Merriman's house, one of which he was even using as a computer screensaver. According to documents, Janks' mother divorced Merriman in 2008 after multiple incidents of domestic violence, though Janks and Merriman maintained a friendship. 'This was no accident,' Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo said. It was murder by design.' It was alleged that Janks suffocated Merriman with a plastic bag in court. Thomas Merriman, 64, the co-founder of a famed butterfly farm in Encinitas, died as a result of poor health and his own mix of sleeping pills, according to Janks' lawyer Marc Carlos. On January 2, his body was discovered outside of his house under a pile of garbage. She has signed a not guilty plea. If convicted, Janks could face life in prison.