Cellphone records place suspect near Samantha Woll’s home around suspected murder time

DETROIT — Cellphone records place the man accused of killing Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll in the area of her home around the time prosecutors say she was killed, according to testimony from an FBI agent who reviewed the data.

FBI Special Agent Bryan Toltzis went through the GPS data Tuesday morning from Michael Jackson-Bolanos’ cellphone from midnight through 7 a.m. Oct. 21, when Woll was found dead outside her Lafayette Park townhouse by a neighbor. She had been stabbed eight times in the head and neck.

At the same time as Woll’s alarm system detected motion in her living room, at 4:20 a.m. Oct. 21, Jackson-Bolanos’ phone was in the “immediate area of the crime scene,” Toltzis said.

This is the time Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey said Woll was likely killed. Jackson-Bolanos’ attorney, Brian Brown, said the two minutes before the alarm system went idle and did not detect more movement was not enough for Woll’s brutal killing.

Jackson-Bolanos, 29, of Detroit, is being tried on multiple charges connected to Woll’s death, including first-degree murder and felony murder while committing a home invasion. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Toltzis used maps to show that Jackson-Bolanos traveled east around 4:30 a.m. and made a phone call, then traveled back to the area of his girlfriend’s Midtown apartment.

His phone was also in the area of Woll’s home from 1:42 a.m. to 2:03 a.m. Oct. 21, but he continued moving east past her home, then turned back, the FBI agent said. He was in the area of Woll’s home from 3:50 a.m. to 4:20 a.m.

Police focused their attention on Jackson-Bolanos after Michigan State Police Trooper Alexander Martinez saw him walking in a parking lot by Woll’s apartment. Police tracked Jackson-Bolanos using both surveillance footage around Detroit and cellphone records, Toltzis said.

Toltzis also said he looked through phone records for Woll’s ex-boyfriend who confessed to killing her during what he described as a full-blown panic attack, a man she met at a wedding Oct. 20 and several other men her close friend asked police to rule out as being involved in her death.

None were around Woll’s townhome Oct. 21, Toltzis said.

“If any of these devices went anywhere near the victim’s residence, that would’ve been notated and looked into by law enforcement,” Toltzis said.

Woll, 40, was a prominent Jewish leader in Detroit who served as president of the board of Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue.