Woman Who Found Nudes Of Herself On Former Stepdad's Computer Is Convicted Of Killing Him

The California woman who was accused of murdering her former stepfather after finding hundreds of nude images of herself on his computer has been convicted.

On Wednesday, 39-year-old Jade Janks was found guilty of first-degree murder of Thomas Merriman. Merriman was a founder of a butterfly research and education nonprofit in in Encinitas, California.

Janks faces life in prison.

Prosecutors argued that the Solano Beach interior designer drugged, strangled, and suffocated her former stepfather with a plastic bag. The murder took place two years before, on New Year's Eve 2020.

Janks was helping out her former stepfather after a hospitalization. She was cleaning his home and became enraged when she discovered hundreds of nude photos of herself on his computer.

Janks' defense team argued that the photos were organized by body part and were captured over decades. There were even photos from when she was a teen.

"It was the most violating, awful, gut-wrenching feeling ever," Janks testified, according to KFMB-TV. "I felt sick, I felt I couldn't ... even touch my own skin. I don't know if there [are] words, not even in a movie have I seen something so sick."

Watch the video to see Janks' stunned reaction as the verdict is read.

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