A woman has been found guilty of drugging and strangling her stepdad to death after finding naked pictures of herself on his computer.
Jade Janks, 39, was convicted of first-degree murder on Wednesday for the killing of 64-year-old Thomas Merriman after a jury took less than a day to find her guilty.
The interior designer pleaded her innocence throughout the trial insisting she did not murder her stepdad on New Years Eve 2020 after he used her naked pictures as his screensaver.
She blamed his death on an illness but did admit she was horrified to find Merriman had over 100 nude photos of her on his computer.
Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo told jurors in the North County Superior Court: “This was no accident. This was murder by design.”
Merriman, who was co-founder of the education and research nonprofit Butterfly Farm, was found under a pile of rubbish at the home by cops after Janks was left “beyond freaked out” at finding the photos.
The nude photos were taken consensually by Janks and her boyfriend more than a decade ago, according to authorities.
However, it is unclear how the intimate photos ended up on Merriman's computer.
Janks said she found the pictures after she was cleaning her stepdad's flat when he went into hospital.
It was during this cleaning sweep she was left mortified and, according to prosecutors, Janks texted a man on the day she picked up Merriman from the hospital.
She wrote: “I just dosed the hell out of him. Stopping for whiskey then at Dixieland to stall. LMK."
In another text message she is concerned the amount of pills Merriman has taken might not be enough and that he could wake up.
Janks texts: "He’s waking up. I really don’t want to be the one to do this.
"I am about to club him on the head as he is waking up.
"I can’t carry him alone and I can’t keep a kicking body in my trunk."
She called another person for help several hours later, which is when authorities were alerted of her texts and police were called to the house.
Cops arrived to the home of the stepdad and found Merriman's body under a pile of rubbish including blankets and boxes - just before they were about to leave the property.
Her stepdad's cause of death was revealed to be acute intoxication of zolpidem - the sleeping drug named under Ambien.
She now faces life in jail for the murder of hers Merriman.
