XIII — Much Better — Sadness — A Very Different Perspective

A California interior designer was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday after prosecutors said she killed her butterfly conservationist stepfather when she found nude photos of herself on his computer.

…Janks, who had been free on bail, was immediately taken into custody and faces between 25 years to life in prison for the slaying of 64-year-old Thomas Merriman, co-founder of Butterfly Farms in Encinitas.

Merriman was killed on Dec. 31, 2020, not long after Janks found the compromising photos on Merriman’s computer.

Janks drugged Merriman and then suffocated him with a plastic bag and choked him to death, prosecutors said. A text message Janks sent to an acquaintance the day of Merriman’s death, and shown to jurors, read: “I just dosed the hell out of him.”

Janks’ defense insisted Merriman died from poor health and his own chronic drug abuse. Merriman’s official cause of death was listed as an overdose of prescription sleep medication.

….Jurors also rejected lesser charges such as manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, which could have allowed a judge to consider mitigating circumstances at sentencing.

As it stands now, Janks is facing a mandatory 25 to life when she’s next in court on April 3.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-woman-convicted-murdering-stepfather-191104896.html