Jade Janks and the Secret Photos | Full Episode + Post Mortem | Forensic Files

[Music] Sheriff's communication dispatcher 5538 well I've got a situation Last Night A
friend of mine asked me to come over she said that she had possibly killed her stepdads I don't know if she really did
this what exactly are you trying to report it sounds like she killed this guy it was the first day of a new year
the sheriff's department received a call from a guy that said she confessed to drugging him suffocating him and
strangling him to death Jade was very cool very popular I could not believe what they were saying
that Jade did Tom marman is Jade's stepdad and 100% she loved Tom she took care of him they lived next door to each
other she made him dinner she was always there for [Music] him detectives knew they had a phone
call from her good friend that she confessed to murdering Tom marman so they got a search
warrant we don't have to prove motive but we want to show a motive the photos the
photos she accidentally bumped his computer and the screen saver came out the screen saver is a nude photograph of
her in the shower she was able to find a lot more nude photos of her hundreds hundreds
it was the most violating just awful gut-wrenching feeling ever I felt sick I I couldn't even touch my own
skin she was beyond freaked out she's sleeping with a knife she is scared for her
life did you love Tom Tom love you yeah I mean did you want your stepfather dead did you see stand over him with a
plastic bag and pull tight to keep him from breathing to wrap a cord around his neck
and did you strangle him no so you have this supposed confession of her saying she she strangled him but
no evidence of strangulation your own strangulation expert said it's not strangulation that's right so your big
bomb fizzled it was gone [Music] [Music] San Diego County California an idilic Place most of the
time I stewed on this all night I apply slept and I'm scared to death I don't want to be a part of this I didn't have
anything to do with her that frightened phone call came in New Year's Day 2021 the caller said his one-time girlfriend
may have committed a murder the sheriff's department received a call from a guy that said my friend confessed
to me last night that she murdered her stepfather San Diego County Deputy da Jorge Del Portillo he told deputy is hey
I I don't know if what she's saying is true I didn't see him but this is something I had to tell the police the
alleged victim was a 64-year-old man named Tom maramman he lived here I liked him I thought he was very nice Ramona
Hamilton and her husband George were Tom's neighbors Ramona knew him better and she found out Tom also ran an
unusual business more milked more milked more milked a butterfly farm I'm a gardener and I love uh
butterflies Pat Flanigan also likes butterflies he was Tom maran's business partner out at the farm he was my best
friend did he become kind of a butterfly expert oh he is a butterfly expert you say he
is yeah you still talk about him in the present tense yeah I do it was right here on December
31st 2020 that Tom maramman was last seen alive Ramona and George saw him in his stepdaughter's SUV in the driveway
and he was sitting on this side the passenger side with his feet out and this walker out in front of him and he
looked like hell Tom had just spent more than two weeks in the hospital and a rehab center after a bad fall he also
had heart and liver problems he looked awful I don't even know if he knew me but at the time it just seemed like
maybe he got sent home from the hospital heavily drugged heav that's all we knew
that's all we knew hi sweetie and then George saw Tom's stepdaughter 37-year-old Jade jenss Tom maramman had
come into Jade's life when she was 14 marrying her mom Jade and Tom were apparently close she lived right next
door on this day Jade had just driven him home and he called her his daughter he called Jade his daughter right they
seemed close and they seemed very close she was fixing dinner for him every night she seemed to take care of him
what' you think of Jade I thought she was a very pretty woman Jade had done some work in Ramona's apartment she was
an interior decorator that's Jade she can be a tomboy and a girly girl all in the same
day she can get herself dirty for work carrying rocks and concrete in her pickup truck and we're dressed up ready
to go to like a nice fancy dinner Heather Pierce grew up next door to Jade in San Diego County Jade was very cool I
loved being around her Jade was 13 years older she's definitely a little more than a big sister and a little less than
a mom her energy is just very strong Ling and caring and genuine and so when you're around her like you feel good she
also knew Jade's stepdad Tom maramman I think she always just loved him and cared about him back at Tom place in
salana Beach it was now January 1st the day after he'd gotten back from the hospital the day after George and Ramona
had seen him looking so poorly in the driveway this time they only saw Jade in the driveway she was standing by a pile
of trash and boxes I saw her out at the side here with the boxes and cartons a little while later there was a knock on
the door and she come to the door to tell me that she'd made a mess down here but she cleaned it up later where was
the pile what about right here see where that dirt is right there yeah like right
in this area here right there it was a few hours later when law enforcement pulled into their driveway I'm scared to
death I don't want to be a part of this they came to investigate that strange phone call the one that claimed Tom
maramman had been murdered they were trying to find Tom where is Tom they walked by this pile of trash in the
driveway they knocked on his door they went inside they didn't find Tom but they did see his stepdaughter when they
saw J Jinx driving out of her driveway they pulled her over brought her in for questioning and ask that very question
where is Tom Jade said she was cold so they gave her a blanket we're trying to find Tom do you know where Tom is no his
family hasn't seen him for over 48 hours so he's he just got released from a hospital yesterday okay did you see him
yesterday yeah I picked him up from in the hospital okay do you know where he went no well can you tell me other than
he's just missing we don't know where he's at we're trying to find him eventually they let Jade go but there
was still no sign of Tom officers spent all night combing through his apartment looking for Clues then just after the
first morning light one of the officers was walking down the driveway toward Tom's apartment when she saw that pile
of trash it was just about here I have a picture of it here there's a wheelbarrow
there some boxes some bags she moved a trash bag from that trash and immediately saw the silhouette of a man
and there he was Tom maramman Tom marman laid dead and buried [Music] [Music] never seen that I've never seen a case
where a body was buried under a pile of trash in the driveway the apparent crime scene was
smack in the middle of the driveway of this Lush compound just a mile from the beach he was wearing the hospital
bracelet that he was just in the hospital the same t-shirt and the same pajamas that he was discharged as soon
as they found that body they knew we have our suspect and they may the arrest on the morning of January 2nd
2021 Jay Janks was arrested and charged with Tom maran's murder but things were about to get complicated she lawyered up
and didn't want to answer any more questions so authorities continued to work the case starting with that phone
call it sounds like she killed this guy that call had come from that friend of Jades a man named Adam zlac he told
police she'd called him to her apartment and then she asked him for a favor and asked me to move the body with
her I can't help you and I never saw the body Adam cipac may not have seen the body that night but
eventually he did tell police that Jade confessed to him that she knocked out with an overdose of medicine and then
strangled him it was a pretty dramatic story and authorities were confident that the autopsy would confirm it that
there'd be physical evidence that Tom maramman was strangled to death but that's not what happened I was actually
there for the autopsy assistant DA Teresa fam who led the investigation talked to the medical examiner so what
they found was unfortunately not a lot of physical evidence right so you have this supposed confession of her saying
she she strangled him but no evidence of strangulation that's right the final autopsy report created even more of a
challenge for the prosecutors it said that the cause of Tom maran's death was acute zulem in toxication zadam is the
generic name for the sleeping pill ambian is it possible that Tom marman died by accident he was in poor health
it's not that many pills that he took certainly it's possible but the evidence belii that notion this was no accident
but even if the autopsy didn't point to strangulation investigators say other evidence clearly pointed to murder
Jade's cell phone was a gold mine it was a gold mine Jade's phone was full of texts how would you categorize those
text messages suspicious incriminating a plan according to prosecutors that plan
was to get rid of Tom maram one way or another investigators say it all started on December 23rd that's about a week
before Tom's body was found Tom was in the hospital after that bad fall Jade says she was cleaning up his apartment
when she found something so she's at Tom's apartment and his laptop I guess it must have been in sleep mode or
something like that but she knocked into it and it woke up and on the screen saver is a nude photograph of her in the
shower and there was more much more she must have had his password so once she was able to get into his laptop with
when she was able to find a lot more nude photos of her hundreds hundreds these were photos that she took
willingly with her partner at the time somewhere of her in the shower naked authorities don't know how
maramman got those pictures but Jade says she never gave them to him and prosecutors say she panicked in her
words she was beyond freaked out that's what she wrote to a friend that she couldn't shower alone that she was
vomiting at just the idea of looking at a shower based on what she had discovered she's sleeping with a knife
on the nightstand just in case he comes early home from the hospital according to prosecutors that's
when Jade launches her plan how one of her friends connects her with a guy a guy the prosecutors called the
fixer there's a text message where he tells Jade if you have a problem I can fix it for you and that's how we came up
with the label the fixer the so-called fixer was a man named Alan roach who is Alan
roach Alan roach is a guy he's a security guard that's what he does but I think he makes himself out to be someone
else that he's not we were thinking Jade views him as the character in Pulp Fiction someone that you reach out to
when you want one of your problems fixed and that's what he was he was the fixer
he was the fixer is Ellen a Hitman he is not a Hitman what's important is what does Jade think Allen
is prosecutors say Jade wanted her fixer to help her get rid of Tom she had a plan that she stuck to the plan was
murder the plan was [Music] murder it was December 2022 2 years after Tom maran's body was found under
that pile of garbage and Jay jenss was about to stand trial for his murder and let me just ask you flat out did Jade
jenss murder her stepfather Tom marman Jade has maintained her inocence throughout this entire uh incident
Jade's attorney Mark Carlos he insists this was not a murder and says Jade had no reason to kill her stepfather finding
nude photos of yourself on a stepfather's computer would make you angry you know might make you break off
relationships with him but enough to kill somebody I don't think so he says Tom's death was an unfortunate accident
brought on by his poor health and self-administered prescription drugs I think he took the medication himself he
had multiple substances in his system I think he made a cocktail of the drugs that he had with him and had a bad
reaction to it and caused his his death at trial Jade was supported by family and friends including her biological
father Steve jenss and her longtime friend Heather Pierce Tom was a mess an absolute mess for a long time there's no
way that she had like a plan and first degree and all of that I was like there's no way because that's not Jade
prosecutors Jorge Del Portillo and Teresa fam were worried the jury might feel that Jade herself was the victim
she's a sympathetic defendant she is I mean she found naked photos of herself on her stepdad's
computer called J Js Jade takes the stand to tell the jury what happened in her own words my name is Jade JS Jade
says that ever since she met Tom when she was a teenager they maintained a strong bond it's hard to come by
somebody you just feel that you can trust completely and I did feel that way I referred to him as my father and he
could call me his daughter and then which is why Jade tells the jury it was so devastating to find those photos on
December 23rd while Tom was in the hospital and she was cleaning his apartment I bumped the mouse on his
desktop computer and it it shook the screen awake and I looked and there's a picture of female
breast on the screen and I look I those those are my press I I just I couldn't believe it I I
was in complete shock Jade describes finding even more on Tom's computer after that there was a rolling
screen like it's SL show of pictures of me that I've taken over the years what type of pictures were they um they were
naked photos do you did you ever give naked photos to uh to your stepfather no did you ever show him make get photos of
yourself no how did he get these photos Jade doesn't know these were photos that
Jade had taken of herself Jade and boy various boyfriends have you ever made any uh sexual toward your stepfather no
no did you tell him that you had uh nude photos of yourself no and you never showed him anything similar to that
corre no he was my dad Tom was still in the hospital but Jade says she didn't feel safe and you were afraid that he
was going to come back and find out that you had found the photos yes yes and you were worried
about how he might react toward you yes right and he lived next door to you yes and that's why Jade says she got in
touch with Alan roach who worked in security the day she found those photos so why did you think that you needed
somebody like alen Rach I I was I was scared I mean when I first saw the photos I I couldn't even use the bathroom I
just felt so disgusting I couldn't show her either um I was just I I was scared I was scared of being you know nude and
vulnerable and um I just I wanted somebody to just look out for me and make sure that you know I
was safe over the next few days Tom was moved from the hospital to a rehab center and Jade felt she had to
act I can't continue just living next door to him and not feeling safe or feeling like there I me I have to do
something when you say I needed to do something I mean you did you need to kill him no I wanted Tom to just go away
and leave me alone according to Jade Allan was planning to come over after she brought Tom home to help her
confront him I wanted Ellen to basically you know explain to him this this is not
okay or I can explain it but Ellen just be there just in case your plan was to Jade says that on December 31st in spite
of her feelings she was doing everything she could to help Tom who she says seemed preoccupied with finding medic
he started calling at about 6:45 in the morning and he's asking me to get him Codine which I don't really understand
he says that he hasn't nothing slept and he wants to rest Jade took Tom out of the rehab at a little after 11:00 a.m.
he had a bag of medication with him including ambian and remember the autopsy says Ambien is what killed him
Jade says almost as soon as Tom got into her car he also helped himself to her prescription medicines he kept saying
like did you have any pain colors like is this it oh here and then he just kind of took it Jade says Tom seemed fine
when she stopped at this shopping plaza and texted Alan roach to come meet her she went into a couple of stores while
she waited to hear back I was just getting started on um a house project so I just went to go figure get supplies
and kind of shop around Jade bought gloves towels and a nylon cord and some spray paint she says these items were
for a painting project typically I lay plastic down and kind of enclose it so that I'm not getting pains
on all the the foliage Jade still hadn't heard back from Allan and took Tom home
she says Tom was now too groggy to walk on his own and she couldn't get him out of her car I parked in the parking lot
but she says she was worried about him and drove him back to the rehab for help I just explained you know my dad's just
been released and something's wrong you need to bring him back um they wouldn't they wouldn't let me inside though
they're pretty adamant with Co I couldn't go inside Jade returned home with Tom but says she was still not able
to get him out of her car Allan had finally texted back to say he couldn't make it over after all but sent his
friend a man named Brian Solomon to help her get Tom inside have you ever met Brian Solomon before no Jade says Brian
wouldn't help her with Tom and left right away so Jade reached out to her friend Adam zlac and asked him to come
over Adam arrived later that evening I had just said um I mean I I was just in tears I had said that you know I I want
to get him into my house or into his house Jade says Adam quickly got upset and left without helping her and this is
where Jade's story doesn't line up with Adam's remember Adam was the person who called police on New Year's Day
she said that she had possibly killed her stepdad Jade says she didn't confess to anything she says Adam was distressed
by how sick Tom looked and that's why he wouldn't help her after he left Jade says she didn't know what else to do and
tried to get Tom situated in her car for the night so he could sleep off whatever
he had taken I made sure he was comfortable yeah he had pillows and I'm trying to
remember yeah I mean he had a blank in the next morning in The Cold Light of New Year's Day Jade says Tom was still
still in her car when she realized the worst had happened did you touch Mr marman
yes what did you feel I I tried to pull his leg and his pajama pant lifted and his leg was
cold Jinx did you did you think Tom marman was dead at that point I knew he was how do you think Tom died chat now on
Facebook and X after Jade told the jury how she found Tom's body her own attorney challenged
her did you think about calling 911 um I was scared too why were you scared I don't want to get bled I mean I
just I was someing that picked him up and I didn't want to get blamed for for killing
him and she tried to explain what she did with his body I continued to to fall out I still wanted to get him into his
house I I mean I didn't I didn't know what else to do Bic so I put the blanket over room and I got um empty boxes and
just kind of stacked it made it look like just like a pile of debris Jade may have left Tom's body in
the driveway but she says she never meant him harm I mean did you want your stepfather
dead shank did you grab him with your own two hands and did you strangle him would you would you ever done that to
Tom I do and then the prosecutors told their version of the story We lied to the
police about where Tom was I didn't I just asked for an attorney and I kept asking for one you didn't want the
police to know that Tom died in your car I wasn't trying to hide it but I didn't
want to go alone and tell them that prosecutors said Jade was lying to cover up her plan the plan was to drug
him suffocate him and steg it to look like an overdose Del Portillo says after she picked Tom up from the rehab Jade
used his own prescription sleeping pills to knock him out and he says he has proof Jade's DNA is on those packs of
pills the package of zulam which is the ambient sleeping pills that had the defendant's DNA on it but not Tom's and
I think it's a important that the jury heard that that it was Jay jinx's DNA on that Z impack and according to
prosecutors there's much more evidence too Jade they say left a realtime trail of clues that day remember her cell
phone the one they called a gold mine turns out it was packed with texts messages that they say outlined her plan
to kill we're talking 11 12 minutes after being discharged she sends a text message to Allan the fixer saying I just
dosed the hell out of him if someone says I dose the hell out of them you would agree with me that
that means someone gave another person a whole lot of drugs right I guess it's a
poor phrasing Del portio thinks Jade's explanation is nonsense he says first she drugged Tom and then she needed to
St for a bit and her texts even say that stopping at Dixie Land to stall so she was stalling for the drugs to really
kick in and make him asleep and unaware of what she was about to do she's stalling to see if this guy Allan roach
can come by and help her commit the murder and remember those supplies Jade said she'd picked up for a painting
project according to the prosecutors they were actually Jade's murder kit she go goes to the store and buys this
murder kit zip ties gloves rope and towels prosecutors say up to that point Jade's plan was on track but by a little
after noon things started to go wrong you could see from the text messages that she was in a panic she
writes he's waking up Jade's texting her so-called fixer Alan roach and she adds
can you come over but the fixer is not responding this plot was a total mess and it fell apart right away finally the
fixer texts her back he says he can't come but he's sending someone he knows that guy named Brian
Solomon okay so the plan is Brian will bring Tom into the house Brian Solomon later told us that
when he went over to help Jade that she told him something that he'll never forget I want you to bring him inside
strangle him and I'll take care of the rest Brian Solomon quickly left the house without doing anything and soon
Jade is back texting the missing fixer again at 300 p.m. you texted Allan he's waking up and I'm not sure how much
longer I could control my temper that right yes us to Allan you texted Allan he's waking up and getting way more
aggressive so it's way more real true true I think again I was just panicking and trying to urge Alan to come over you
would agree with me that this looks very suspicious this text message oh yeah Jade texts Allan again I can't keep
a kicking body in my truck now that we know Tom was found dead in his driveway under a pile
of trash that you put together that this text message looks very suspicious you'd
agree with me right I mean no yes it's now around 400 p.m. Allan has disappeared at 4:08 p.m. you texted Alan
he's up I guess I'm on my own true true how do you think she killed Tom we believe that the evidence shows that she
put a bag over his head when the bag's not working fast enough she has to strangle him and she has no other choice
it's too late to back out now investigators even found a plastic bag in Jade's car it had her DNA on the
outside and Tom's on the inside but there's a huge problem with the prosecution's case and that's the
autopsy the autopsy never said Tom was strangled there weren't any marks on his neck so what happened how could Jade
possibly have strangled him to death that presented a big difficulty for us strategically of going forward in trial
right so you have this supposed confession of her saying she she strangled him but no evidence of
strangulation right right turns out the prosecutors had an answer for that they say it's totally possible to strangle
someone to death without leaving marks if the victim is already knocked out I think that is part of the plan is to
dose him just enough to where he incapacitated so if you're unconscious your breathing is already depressed when
someone is already unconscious it does not require that much pressure and would not leave bruising it would not leave
breakage of the cartilage that's inside the throat we will not leave physical evidence it only takes 4 lbs of pressure
to kill to cut off the blood supply to your head and when you and I shook hands earlier today that was about 11 lbs of
pressure pressure so it's less than a handshake to kill after she murdered Tom prosecutors say she left his body in her
car overnight and the next morning Jade had to do something about it in a story full of strange twists this may be the
oddest prosecutors say Tom's body was still in Jade's car and she wanted to make his death look like an accident
like he'd overdosed on his own medicine but she couldn't get his 180 lb body out
of her car and into his apartment and no one would help her so they say she drove
to a hospital with Tom dead in the back of her car picked up a wheelchair put it
in her car and drove back to Tom's Place how'd you get the wheelchair in your car if Tom was still in there um
it's it's big U the trunk was uh Tom was kind of you know his legs were a Kimbo when he was laying down and I kind of
hoisted it up into the back window of the Forerunner can roll down when you were doing this at this point did you
know Tom was dead I did but I didn't want to know it yet so you suspected Tom was dead and you're at scrips
hospital and you don't tell anyone at the hospital that Tom might need some help and there was just one more thing
on the day the cops came by looking for Tom they didn't know anything yet just that Tom might be missing Jade jumped
into her car 4:30 when she was pulling out of her driveway when they were getting ready to do the welfare check
she was pulling out of her driveway and she was getting detained after being pulled over the very last text message
on her cell phone was to Alan roach saying lose my number what does that say to you get rid of the
evidence what do you make of Jade's text messages see more evidence from the case
at 48 hours hour.com that was the biggest hurdle in our case we feel was the jury might
dislike Tom irman so much that they would vote to either acquit or reduce the murder to something else as Jade's
trial is drawing to a close prosecutor Jorge Del Portillo wants to make sure the jury's attention is on what Jade
jenss has done and not on Tom Tom was not on trial this wasn't his trial he didn't get a trial she was his judge
jury and executioner and so it all comes back to Jad Mr Carlos you wish make in his closing argument to the jury Mark
Carlos emphasizes what he says are the weaknesses of the prosecution's case what type of evidence do we have we have
a lot of speculation it's speculation upon speculation upon speculation he argues Adam cac's story that Jade
confessed is a lie mrl no credibility he wants to get out of something that he thinks might have happened and he says
Brian Soloman who also claimed Jade confessed to him that day can't be telling the truth he claims that
immediately and this was his testimony immediately upon entering she says he's in the car go strangle him this is
somebody that JS had never met before neither Adam zlac Brian Solomon nor Alan roach was charged with any crime in this
case and Mar Carlos urges the jury to stick to what he calls the truth and the truth is they have zero zero evidence to
support a murder her DNA was on the blister P but Jorge Del Portillo gets to make the last argument the jury will
hear it starts with I just dose the hell out of him the plan is starting and with
Allen it ends with lose my number I'm getting pulled over and buried in between all of those text messages is a
murder plot finder guilty of murder because the evidence proves it the law requires it
and Justice demands it the jury went out that afternoon and was back the next morning to continue their
deliberations jury comes in at 9:00 a.m. we get the call at 9:30 a.m. we have a verdict we were shocked we were a little
bit nervous the quickest verdict I've ever had was 15 minutes and it was a not guilty so I don't put a lot of stock in
quick verdicts Tom's business partner Pat Flanigan got a text about it I was very anxious my hands were sweating I
was nervous we have your own we the jury in the above entitled cause find the defendant Jade Sasha Jinx guilty of the
crime of murder in violation of Penal Code SE guilty of first deegree murder subsection a a felony as Char Jade
appears J number one yes number two yes number three yes number four yes number five yes number six yes number seven yes
number eight yes it was a huge relief Rel it was an absolute relief and when you heard that word
guilty um it it it felt right guilty of the crime Pat Flanigan says he saw Jade's
reaction to the verdict later online I still go back and watch that sometimes why cuz I feel bad for Tom he died
buried in trash now she gets to feel a little of that pain that we've all been feeling for years but there's still the
matter of those photos Jade said that she found nude photos of herself on Tom's computer do you believe that I I
can't disprove it I find it I I don't want to believe it it's interesting you say you don't want to
believe it yeah Tom's hard drive was not recovered after his body was found but prosecutors who spent two years
investigating this case believe Jade is telling the truth at least about this did you have any doubt that these photos
actually existed we talked about that but we had no doubt we found that photo on Tom's
laptop showing that it had been used used as a wallpaper showing that it had been on his laptop since August of 2019
so we had no doubt that these photos existed in March of 2023 3 months after she was convicted of Tom's murder Jade
was in court for her sentencing and listened as a local Pastor shared his memories of Tom and the Butterfly farm I
still remember Tom and wish I could drop by for a smile to ask a question about plants or
butter flies or just to recharge those batteries that keep seeming to to wear down as I get
older I believe my Life is Richer because I knew Tom Steven DRS Jade's biological father who had not spoken
publicly since she was charged put the focus back on Tom's betrayal firstly I can only imagine what she went through
when she found out that Tom her stepfather a person she trusted that she called Dad was a sick perverted
individual all I can say is this fight is not over I truly believe that an injustice has taken place Jay JS spoke
that day too t came into my life when I was just a little girl and exerted influence during that early stage of
development when I was still figuring things out unfortunately that influence manifested itself into appropriate touch
coercion Reckless Behavior and complete violation of what I now realize is years
of psychological manipulation all of this came crashing down on me when I found hundreds of naked photos of
myself and his computer felt chattered Jade did not tell this story during trial and we can't verify it Jade still
insists she didn't kill Tom and only admits to covering up his dead body I'm still picking up the pieces and it's my
sincere fa that over the next few years I can put the pieces back and heal from this trauma I'm sorry I didn't act the
way I was supposed to that day I think about it every day then she will be committed to the Department Corrections
the judge sentenced Jade to serve 25 years to life and as the prosecution looks back
on a difficult and emotional case they say it could have easily turned out very differently she could have gone away
with murder had she carried out her plan and the police did a welfare check and found Tom laying in his in his bed she
would have got away with murder [Music] CBS next Saturday 48 Hours brings you back-to-back episodes all summer long
next week murder off campus there's evidence that a missing college student is a victim of Foul Play The Killer took
four lives in a matter of minutes 48 Hours Crime Time double feature next Saturday on CBS and streaming on
Paramount Plus [Music] welcome to 48 Hours postmortem I'm CBS news anchor and 48 Hours correspondent
an marie green and it's time to answer your biggest questions from our latest episode about stepdaughter turned
murderer J Janks joining me today are 48 Hours correspondent Tracy Smith and producer Sarah PRI who reported on and
produced this episode hi thanks for having us Amar we have a lot to discuss but first here's a quick refresher on
the case it was New Year's Day 2021 when a strange call came into the San Diego Sheriff's Department the caller said his
friend had confessed to Murder She said that she had possibly killed her stepdad
the accused woman was Jade jenss an interior decorator she lived next door to the alleged victim Tom maramman her
stepfather assistant district attorney Jorge Del Portillo said detectives learned more from the caller he told
sheriff's deputies she confessed to drugging him suffocating him and strangling him to death maran's dead
body was found and Janks was arrested and charged with his murder she said she was innocent and in December 2022 when
the case went to trial there was a surprise it turns out that just 10 days before maran's death jenss had
discovered hundreds of her private explicit photos on his computer it was the most violating just awful
gut-wrenching feeling ever jenss still insisted she didn't kill maramman but prosecutors said they
discovered textt messages that revealed a plot a plot to murder okay so we're going to discuss
the crime scene that pile of trash the so-called fixer who didn't fix didn't show up um we're going to talk about
Jade and Tom and of course those those nude photos those naked photos but I want to ask you what was the most asked
question that you got about this episode Tracy how do you strangle someone and leave no marks yeah the way that Jorge
the prosecutor explained it to me is hey I just shook your hand that 11 pound of
pressure to strangle someone you only need pound of pressure it's that light yeah that was a great sort of moment in
the piece that really sort of indicated how easy it is for someone to be strangled to death and I thought a drug
overdose could be reasonable but can people overdose on Ambien there was some dispute about that um and I don't think
even any of the states Witnesses were confident that you could really die from ambient
um you know it certainly can be toxic like a lot of drugs but it it's actually kind of hard to kill someone um whether
it's drugs or otherwise so that was I think the reason we were so stuck on this idea of a gentle strangling because
we've Tracy and I I think have both done stories where you really get emphasized
with how difficult it is to take someone's life right the body wants to stay alive it does it does and so I
think what what they explained to us in the interview is that it was one mechanism it wasn't just that she
lightly you know strangled him he was not doing so well because of all the drugs in his system Ambien was the
predominant one but there were others a number of others in varying you know degrees and so it was the combination so
we know from the episode that Tom is Jade's stepfather but they're unusually close to me what more can you guys tell
us about their relationship what did you learn yeah it's interesting Tom calls Jade his daughter um and she moved in
next door to him so they had this really close but clearly complicated relationship one of the things she
talked about in her testimony was when they came to know each other obviously Jade's mother was married to Tom
maramman that's how he became her stepfather and she became his stepdaughter she was 14 or 15 and Tom
and Jade's mom had a baby together around that time so Jade is a teenager there is now a baby in the house and
this marriage does not last so the Mom leaves I think Tom left the mom that's how Jade told it we don't know for sure
but they formed a bond then and Jade sort of became you know stepmom to her half brother and helped raise him so
that's something she talked about in her testimony that they sort of went through
this experience together and formed a bond there so then I guess I can imagine just how shocking it must have been for
Jade to then knock his computer and see a nude photo of herself as his screen saver
can you imagine right your dad essentially right she thought of him as as her father right to find that yeah um
and she's so horrified that it almost sort of shifts the way she views the world in a way so Tom kept these photos
in a couple of places on his uh his computer desktop and on his laptop but Jay destroyed the desktop hard drive
that's right yeah so he had two different computers um her story is that she bumped the mouse on his desktop
while she was cleaning when he was out in the you know sick in the hospital um and then her story is also that she
destroyed that hard drive she took pictures of the Monitor and documented what she found and so police police
never found that hard drive and in those pictures you can see the desktop and the
photos exactly you see the monitor you see the folder names you see the pictures now I am characterizing what I
understand happened at trial we never saw these they were shown in court and a redacted version and not released
publicly because obviously these you know compromised J privacy yeah they are I mean I know it's not their job as a
prosecution to figure out how he got access to these but did anybody kind of dig into
that well one thing to clarify is that Tom didn't take these photos these were photos taken by Jade or by her you know
old boyfriends or her old Partners consensually taken photographs yeah that Tom got a hold of exactly and the
defense the defense says that he blew up these pictures he had files of these pictures according to her body parts uh
it's incredibly disturbing I mean she was rocked by this she said that she was vomiting she said you know she couldn't
shower because she had those images in her head she devised this plan where she would actually sleep on a tarp so that
if someone stepped into the room in the middle of the night stepped on that tarp
it would wake her up the noise of it would wake her up uh you know it it it clearly rocked her world let us talk
about the crime scene now uh Tom Tom's remains they're found in a pile of trash Tracy you were actually in the
neighborhood we saw you there you're walking around you're on the driveway can you kind of describe the area sure
it's an idic little place this is a beautiful the driveway kind of goes back through these trees into this little
open spot the neighbor has this gorgeous little garden back there it's just a pristine little spot and that's why it's
shocking that in the middle of this there was a pile of trash that the police didn't notice because it wasn't
like this place was you know overrun with junk and trash it was very beautifully manicured and kept and the
other thing was when I looked at that pile of trash you know the shopping bags and I thought to myself this looks like
me like a bad day at the mall when I come home and I just like dump a bunch of stuff at the front door how is a
whole body in there that no one notices when the undercover detective she you know is off camera when she testifies
but when she noticed this pile of garbage and said did anyone check this let me look she picks up literally one
item and then she can tell it wasn't it it's an entire human body is not so small he's a grown man yeah in their
defense it was it was night um it was dark um they were looking inside the house initially in you know looking for
blood you know those things that you would typically look for if someone's missing um so I think it didn't it
didn't necessarily cross their radar until the sun came up and when the sun came up
then she discovered it so you know Tom's remains are found out out in the open obviously you know something's gone
terribly wrong here I couldn't help but to think that if Jade was able to get Tom back in that bed which is what she
was you know trying to do she didn't really plan it out all that well perhaps she could have gotten away with murder
the prosecutors in the hour say yeah if he had gotten in that bed the assumption
would have been like oh he fell asleep he had a bad reaction and that would have been it remember he was just
released from the medical facility the day prior yeah or that day um depending yeah and then I guess with no physical
proof of any sort of strangulation if she had never even mentioned strangulation and was successful in
moving him that might have been sort of Case Closed Tracy oh yeah they would chances are they would have seen it as
an overdose and she almost I mean even think about where he was in where he where his body was in the driveway there
I mean she got him to that point she just couldn't get him past that point and I think she covered him up thinking
she could maybe come back and move him you know I don't think the plan was to leave him in the driveway I think the
plan was still to get him in the house so according to Jade's ex-boyfriend Adam she calls him to help her move Tom's
body and then he calls 9911 take a listen Sheriff's communication dispatcher 5538 well I've got a
situation Last Night A friend of mine asked me to come over she said that she had possibly killed
her stepdad I don't know if she really did this what exactly are you trying to reports it sounds like she killed this
guy so he is me like when I listen to to this call he sounds genuinely frightened
but also a little uncertain you know sometimes people second guess whether they should be calling the police or not
but none of this and you can hear all of that coming out in his voice and he actually starts the ball rolling because
I don't even think you know no one would have been looking for him if if the ex-boyfriend did not call was this kind
of one of the strongest bits of evidence oh you're so right and think about you were just saying she could have gotten
away with murder if Adam didn't make that call that brought on the welfare check mhm she could have gotten away
with it and he's the one that sort of I don't think we played this but he he's the one that says listen she
confessed yeah it's not all in the 911 call he then goes and talks to police and comes to testify at trial but um
that's his story yeah yeah exactly that she had told him everything or enough that he you know felt compelled and you
know this remember this was New Year's Eve that he saw Jade of 2020 so it's you know the evening after dark he'd been
getting a tattoo all day and he goes over um hears this story and then he doesn't call police until the next
morning and so he was sitting with this you know kind of tossing and turning you
know uh talking to his friend talking to you know other people before he makes a
decision to call I'm just curious because he sounded so authentically concerned earned in that 9911 call um
you could but and it didn't even sound like officers were really taking him all that seriously it took a minute for it
to escalate because he calls at let's say 9 maybe it's 9:30 on the morning of New Year's Day and the police um are
calling around trying to figure out if Tom maran's alive where he may be they go to his house eventually by the
afternoon to find him and they don't and they don't get the warrant to investigate um I think until midnight so
it's it's quite a bit of time passes you know really that whole day of New Year's
Day and do we know anything about the nature of the relationship that he had with Jade I mean she felt confident
enough to call him there was a bit in a trial about a jealous girlfriend that he
had after he and Jade he and Jade were Exes from a long time past and then I think he had a more recent relationship
and there was a lot of jealousy and so Jade was not actively in his life until you know pretty close to the time of Tom
maran's death and I think it to her desperation that she's just trying to get someone to help her move Tom to help
her continue this plan carry out this plan so it seems like Jade was very close to getting away with the murder of
her stepfather but when it came to actually executing her plan just everything sort of fell
apart when we get back we're going to talk about Jade's side of the story when she takes the stand in her defense
[Music] [Music] all right welcome back everyone so Jade's plan was unraveling she couldn't
move Tom's body she called her ex-boyfriend and then the guy prosecutors have called the fixer and I
got it in like quotation marks who is the fixer Tracy okay so if you're a fan of Quenton Tarantino as I
am uh in the movie Pulp Fiction there's the fixer played by Harvey kitel and he's kind of the guy who comes in and
cleans up the messes fixes your problems so that's why I think the prosecutors dubbed this guy Allan roach the fixer um
he was going to come in and fix Jade's problem now Jade will tell you that the problem was simply that she wanted to
keep Tom at Bay she wanted a big guy to protect her and to help her confront Tom
with these naked photos that she' discovered uh of course course the prosecutors say that the fixer was there
for another purpose I mean fixers don't typically you know list themselves on the internet how did she even meet this
guy through Facebook some friend of hers I think from high school and so the first couple of messages actually
between Alan roach and Jay jenx are on Facebook and I think that's where he says if you have a problem I can fix it
for you um so it was yeah he sort of almost named himself so she meets him through a friend of a friend y i isumi
doesn't come with references how does she know she can trust this guy or why does she trust this guy she doesn't I
mean she doesn't know that she can trust him yeah and she's desperate she's desperate and remember we talked about
her state of mind after finding these photos you know this drove her a little bit around the bend um so she's I think
she's just trying to figure out what to do next um but then you know she says listen as you guys point out I just
needed someone to protect myself from Tom um but there's a series of text messages that suggest otherwise and they
become really important evidence I want to play some of the sound from the hour at 300 p.m. you texted Alan he's
waking up and I'm not sure how much longer I could control my temper that right yes L to Allan you texted Allan
he's waking up and getting way more aggressive so it's way more real true true I think again I was just
panicking and trying to urge Alan to come over you would agree with me that this looks very suspicious this text
message oh yeah so she says oh yeah like pretty casually right so what is her side of the story Jade's story is that
she's totally innocent um that she you know all of these texts were innocent they were taken out of context she says
you know Tom was you know incapacitated she tried to get him home she couldn't do it she let him sleep it off overnight
in her car she goes goes there on New Year's Day morning and finds his body she can't quite accept the truth she
realizes he's probably dead and when she does in fact you know come to that understanding she panics that's her
story that she absolutely panicked and covered him up thinking she would be blamed cuz she'd been the one who picked
him up the day before so the fixer Alan roach never came to help Jade but did he
ever come to trial did he ever testify he did not no Alan roach he was I think what the prosecutors told us was that
they the jury heard that he was legally unavailable did you guys try to get in contact with him our best information
showed him in Mexico and I actually sent him a text through Facebook just like how Jade met him and he just said I
don't want to talk about it I only knew her for a week which is accurate she was
introduced to him on December 23rd on that first Facebook exchange and Tom marman died on December 31st so so who
does show up though is the second guy the the fixer friend or the fixer fixer so so to speak he that person goes to
trial uh Solomon Brian Solomon Y and I just want to point out that Alan roach and Brian Solomon were never charged in
connection with Tom's murder but what does Brian Solomon say at trial his story is basically that he shows up and
Jade says help me strangle this dude and he's like I don't know you and I'll be right back I have to make a phone call
and he is not right back he is gone mhm and his girlfriend came to testify and corroborated that story she dropped him
off at salana beach she drove it's a block literally from the ocean it's such a lovely space she basically gets to the
water and has to turn back around and get him so he he goes right out completely freaked out of course by what
is just transpired right and remember these two guys don't know each other right going back to the ex-boyfriend
Adam yeah so that same term comes from Brian Solomon who only knows Alan roach who doesn't know Jade and Adam zlac who
does Jade and is there at a totally different time and yet they have similar stories you know she wanted me to
strangle him she told me she strangled him so how does that happen as I was watching it periodically I would say but
this is a secondhand confession why would they pin so much to this but I guess if you hear it over and over again
well at least twice then it starts to peque your interest if you're a prosecutor well and I think you know my
impression of the prosecutors you know it's they will often tell you this we've met many prosecutors over the years that
their mission is to find the truth whatever it is I think they believe this is really what happened MH I think it is
a complicated and not ideal story for them but I think they thought it was true yeah so you guys you're talking a
little bit about uh the prosecutors they had kind of an interesting dynamic between the two of them what was it like
talking to them oh wow they they really did they they really uh played to each other's strengths and knew each other
really well I mean so much so that um Jorge kind of said you know know I'm a little aggressive at times and Teresa
has to reain me in and she jumped in and said well actually what I do is I I pass
him Post-it notes and say hey tone it down or hey move on uh when he starts to get a little OV excited to the point
where he can get a little um physical he gets a little fidgety when he gets really excited about something and they
did not want him to be that way when he was uh talking to Jade on the stand and so the detective and and Teresa sat on
either side of Jorge and kind of pinned him in they they called it boxing him in
so that he couldn't get too fidgety and too aggressive with her and clearly it worked because they didn't want to make
her look like more of a victim because the weird thing about this case is both are victims in some way or another ex
yeah they said outright they said she's a sympathetic defendant you know they understood that about Jade about her
situation and and it's really when you go into into a courtroom it's about a story and the jury is getting impression
of people and a story you know so if they see a story where Jade's the victim that that goes against their conclusion
which they want a conviction you know and I don't think again they told us straight out they believe that Tom had
these pictures so they they understand that and they have some sympathy for Jade too but I think they also believed
she murdered Tom marman so talk about a sympathetic character I wondered if that
was part of the reason her defense attorney put her on the stand this sort of a shocking decision yeah although she
had to explain those texts she the prosecutor said they weren't surprised at all that she took the stand because
she had to explain those texts and I think you're right I think he was he was looking to make her sympathetic and
maybe that's why her own attorney was so tough on her that that was his strategy
was that would somehow make her look more sympathetic but it seemed like he was on her than the prosecutor was on
her okay because there were times as I'm watching the hour and because of the way
the video is set up you don't actually see who's asking her the question that I had to rewind because I wasn't sure if
she was being grilled by the prosecution or asked a question by the defense and you're right it seemed like her own
attorney was much harder on her and she was falling apart on the on the stand under his questioning yeah we tried to
leave Clues when we were putting together the broadcast for exactly that reason cuz we had that impression too
like he you know he's like did you kill him and she's like no you know that's that's her attorney he does need to ask
her that question right so that I mean I think as a defense attorney it makes sense to me better to say that that he
would ask her that question so it would come from you know friendly fire but it was it was aggressive and the other
thing that I observed maybe no one else observed this you know we see all these like gorgeous pictures of her she's
beautiful but in court she looks nothing like that that she sort of like you know came from a cell and she was
going back to a cell I don't know did anybody else observe that it's just she was not in jail at the time of trial
right she was out on bond until she was convicted but she did have kind of a wretched demeanor I think that's a word
that came to mind as you were talking and I was remembering that the tape of her testimony see I didn't even know she
was I assumed that she had been behind bars because she just looks so much different in her sort of social media
posts did you guys try to talk to Jade we AB how did that go we did not have success now she has appealed the verdict
you know um and probably wants to protect that legal process um everyone is free to decline but we worked so hard
to talk to her or friends family members you know we had a lot of casual conversations and in the end weren't
able to get anyone uh well yeah that's not fair uh we had a friend of hers who did talk to us but you know there were a
lot of people in court supporting her but wouldn't talk to 48 you know they might have had their reasons um that
they didn't share with us it's always you always want to talk to everyone um you know because I think you know part
of this conversation I think what we're bringing out about this case and it's true of many of them is that the truth
is just multifaceted you know there's not one right and wrong um it's there's a lot of layers to it and there's a a
lot more to Jade and her life that I think we would be really curious about and to hear from her just period to hear
from her and that kind of comes to almost sort of the Crux of this case and we talked about this earlier that we
have two victims and two perpetrators sort of neither of them are easy to like once you hear about their behavior um
they're easy to like sort of on the surface you know this beautiful girl successful creative he raised is
butterflies I mean who couldn't like that and then this underbelly this other behavior that makes them unlikable um
that's got to be a challenge when it comes to storytelling yeah it's true I mean when you hear about those photos
finding those naked photos on on his computer how could you not sympathize with her I mean of course we all put
ourselves in her shoes and say oh my goodness that would be horrifying uh yeah yes so she she is a
victim you feel for her but as the prosecutor said to us no matter what Tom did Jade can't be the judge jury and
executioner yeah yeah you don't get to do that right so and yeah Tom's friend talked to Tracy about this Tom was
buried under garbage I think that stings you know that's you know there is there is sympathy for Tom I think you
know we all felt it at the same time no one has disputed what he did um with those pictures and to his family member
so it's it's a complicated case hey you know just you guess you just said that I
want to Circle back to Tom's friends Tracy I want to play a clip from your conversation with Tom's friend Pat
Flanigan Jade said that she found nude photos of herself on Tom's computer do you believe that I I can't disprove it I
find it I I don't want to believe it it's interesting you say you don't want to believe it yeah Pat really kind of
refuses to believe it at this point he just yeah he can't reconcile at least that's what he seemed when we spoke with
him perhaps he's changed his mind since then but he just couldn't couldn't he was in denial about that actually being
a fact I think he we're talking about complications Pat Flanigan is grieving the loss of his friend and business
partner he had to shut down the Butterfly farm um but at the same time you know he's got this set of facts
about Tom's actions that I think are really hard to reconcile and maybe he just can't yeah um you do so many of
these was there anything that was a takeaway from this episode you know I I think the thing that comes up you know
every set of facts is different but at the end I think what the viewers are responding to and the reason that I'm so
interested and engaged with my job is it's The Human Condition and it's not a simple story of this innocent person and
you know this guilty one it's we want that I think we all as humans want nice binary right and wrong and and we also
know as grown-ups it's not true for me it just this is something where the the justice system could have worked so well
if she just would have reached out to the to the right people gone to the police you know talked to somebody about
this instead of trying to take action you know take it into her own hands I mean it's just it it's this is vigilante
justice I guess you could say at its worse and it just shows you that you know you can't take it into your own
hands like this is how it works out you know no matter what this guy did no one deserves to be murdered and thrown away
like crash uh Tracy Sarah this has been great so glad you guys made time to talk to us
about this uh hour another spectacular hour of 48 hours thank you so much thanks for having us thank
you be sure to join us next Tuesday for another postmortem watch 48 hours Saturdays 109 Central on CBS and
streaming on Paramount plus and be sure to follow 48 Hours wherever you get your
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A woman discovers photos of herself on her stepfather’s computer and soon after he’s found dead. Jade is a likely suspect, but did she do it?

Watch "Jade Janks and the Secret Photos" and then catch up with "48 Hours" correspondent Tracy Smith and producer Sarah Prior on "Post Mortem" as they discuss the hundreds of nude photos of Jade found on her stepfather’s computer, the so-called “fixer” Jade reached out to for help, and the text messages from Jade that tell a bizarre story about what might’ve actually happened to Tom.

00:01 Jade Janks and the Secret Photos 42:02 Listen to a post-mortem on the episode

Listen to "Post Mortem" wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/yT8cfVF2?sid=YT

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Jade Janks was convicted of murdering her stepfather Tom Maramman after a series of disturbing events and revelations about nude photos on his computer.

Key points

Jade's Confession. Jade's friend reports her confession of murder to the police.
Discovery of the Body. Tom's body is found buried under trash in the driveway.
The Fixer's Role. Jade connects with a man she calls 'the fixer' for help with Tom.
Jade's Defense. Jade maintains her innocence, claiming the death was an accident due to Tom's health.
The Confession. Jade confesses to drugging and suffocating her stepfather, Tom.
The Verdict. Jade is found guilty of first-degree murder after a swift jury deliberation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I was scared to death.

Jade's fear after the phone call about the murder.

4:04WatchAug 30, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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