A California woman convicted in the fatal suffocation of her stepfather in 2020 did so after she discovered illicit photographs of herself on his computer, leaving her "disturbed to the core," according to prosecutors.
Janks discovered photos of herself on Merriman's laptop while cleaning his home earlier in December. Her defense team claimed the images were organized by body part.
"It was the most violating, awful, gut-wrenching feeling ever," Janks testified, according to KFMB. "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." https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/188680/daughter-murders-stepdad-photos-computer
If this post breaks any of NR's rules, please report it to the moderators for review.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I'll give it a pass.
I didn't see anything. In fact, she was at a event with me during that day. Sounds like the guy choked himself on his sleep. Could've been a cat that killed him.
I can vouch for this. The three of us were together all day and most of the night. Being new in town they were kind enough to show me around, and I gotta say the taco stand on 3rd that we stopped at was awesome.
I brought the wine and the cookies. And my family’s in the alcohol business, we’ve got the good stuff. The tacos were delicious, I liked shrimp the best!
Oh hi!
Didn't think I'd bump into you lot again, I was the one who took that group photo of you all in front of that land mark several hours drive away from that city the guy died in.
I recall that group! I happened to be enjoying some of the tacos and overhead them having a great time and making silly faces for the photos. That was very kind of you to take 400 photos of them, some very blurry but good attempt!
Oh what a coincidence! I was making the tacos and I remember clear as day seeing the group spend hours there enjoying the food, wine and company, right around the TOD!
I really have to say, those cookies were delicious! You have to give me the recipe next time!
That's so amazing!
See I enjoyed the chicken tacos but we totally should've had frozen margaritas
That's awesome.
Wasn't it the time yall video called me and gave me fomo?
Omg! I’m from that table of girls that was next to you! Remember how we all went for drinks and karaoke after? Great times!
Hey, were you the group that stopped at my taco stand that specific day? I’ll check my cameras…I’ll bet I still have time stamped footage! Too bad my cameras are lower resolution, and it might be hard to tell it was the 3 of you, but I’ll pinky swear that it was!
Absolutely. I served you the flautas, tacos de carnita (no cilantro), the burrito a pastor, and the vegetarian burrito for that other guy.
Then we sang to her favorite song on the radio station, and you guys all left together, having been there through the entire window the coroner determined was the time of death.
It was 2020, he obviously died from respiratory failure caused by COVID-19. This is a miscarriage of justice. I demand the release of this innocent woman!
And the Epstein files
Knowing the stepfather. He's probably on it.
I would vouch for the cat, too.
The guy clearly suffocated himself in his sleep. Justice for Fluffy!
I saw the cat. It ran that way 👉
The cat was with me commiting insurance fraud. He died by himself.
It was probably something he ate. Sometimes people die from natural causes and it looks like something else.
I would like to provide evidence exonerating the cat. The cat was at my house eating Churus and getting scritches.
Have we looked at what the stepdad was wearing though? Maybe he was asking for it.
Died by air. That's why some Asians (Japanese, Koreans mostly) won't use ceiling fans. "Fan Death".
TIL
Yeah and louigi mangioni was with us too!
Ah yes, I saw Fluffy McWhiskerton sneaking in the back window that night. He looked like he could be up to something
matter of fact, im blind in my left eye and 43% blind in my right eye
Damn cat.
He was into weird kinky shit so obviously Carradine'd himself
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExdHV1MjBsdm8weHE2eGs4cXMyMjV5N3ZnZHI2bmZ1eGU2ZmY1N3MxcSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/AgPt9udT567spxbSHf/giphy.gif
Was going to post
She did a public service so I'd add an award.
Wasn't the problem/reason for her conviction being that there was no proof that her side of the story was actually true? Not trying to excuse anything just trying to understand.
Right? 100% fucking deserved.
Justifiable homicide…
Ok, not an attorney here but I think time served I feel is accurate here. She only had one evil stepfather and now she is out of them so the likelihood of her doing this again is 0.00000%
You think temporary insanity works here? Like something so vile and heinous occurred and it broke her psyche for a brief period. It’s completely understandable that a situation occurred that is so unfathomable that she responded in a complete incongruent manner.
She discovered the photos "earlier in Decenber" but didn't kill him until New Year's Eve. This could be anywhere from days, to weeks, to almost an entire month in-between events.
I also think the part where she was texting the process to people made her seem sane and rational enough to make that plea not work so well.
Funny? Yes. Very. But also sane and rational. Also she asked some dude to help hide the body like immediately after.
I'm sympathetic to her even so. She was violated in a disgusting way by her stepfather.
Insanity like that can look very, very sane.
It's almost terrifying. I worked with people who were dangerously psychotic, and detained in mental health units that were closer to prisons, and they would calmly explain things so far detached from reality that you would genuinely feel gaslit just by talking to them.
I had one patient who'd driven a car into a house, trying to kill the people inside, and was arrested while trying to kick fhe door in/smash the windows, who would sit and explain that "i just wanted to see my kids, and they were keeping my kids from me. I didn't do anything wrong."
They had genuinely separated the serious assault, and using their vehicle to smash a house up, from their reality.
It was very entertaining when they finally realised what had actually happened. And by entertaining, I mean "sad and horrific".
Legal insanity != insane. Legal insanity means you do not have capacity to know what you've done is wrong, to simplify it.
Thats my point.
It can appear, to the uneducated observer, fhat the person has capacity; they don't, they're completely detached from reality.
It's a very difficult thing to explain and understand.
I fully agree. I’m just support staff but I work at a courthouse and its pretty common to encounter someone who seems perfectly normal, but after a bit of time you quickly realize they have way more going on in their brain than you first thought. The people who still speak eloquently despite their delusional state really make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up because sometimes you can’t even tell which in certain situations can be very dangerous. (And just putting a disclaimer that I know most mentally ill people are not a danger to others! Including me!)
It does seem like she understood, though, is part of my point. They mention her trying to hide the body and the crime.
That's what they're trying to explain to you. That there are times where someone is so wildly disconnected from reality that while they recognize what they're doing and may even recognize a need to prevent what they're doing from being discovered, they don't recognize that what they're doing is wrong because of their disconnect. A person can be mentally broken to the point where they can recognize that others may be unhappy about what they're doing, but still completely believe that what they're doing is right or justified.
Legal insanity is a complicated thing.
No offense but I'm guessing you do not have a legal background
I'm guessing you have no experience of severe mental health.
This is so fr, I was an ER nurse for 25+ years, and while some people are obviously in crisis, some can be millimetres away from being deemed fine to go home - then something will set them off, or they’ll say something that a functional sane mind couldn’t even dream up.
I was Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit staff, on a high-level unit (think like a prison, but with harsher restrictions and comfier clothing).
I met and worked with a LOT of people who you'd never realise weren't actually safe to leave. Including someone who very calmly and rationally explained that they beat their partner because they were the devil and trying to kill their children. In reality, their partner had been protecting their children from the patient; they'd suffered a severe psychotic break and suddenly believed that their partner was the literal embodiment of Satan.
They got stabilised, and went home to their family. Idk if they ever actually processed what they'd done, but it'll take a LOT of therapy. And their partner was an absolutely amazing human for accepting that the assault was as a result of their mental health, not because of anything else.
**NB; Details have been changed and muddled to protect anonymity.
I mean, still gotta go to jail, but I do understand
i don’t think she should
Read Grisham’s “The Jury”. Same premise
The website is down where I am so I can't check the facts and IANAL etc. but if the discovery and the murder happened at the same time, like if she was cleaning while he was home, discovered it, and in a fit of rage went and "questioned him". I think you could make the case that she reacted to what she perceived to be a threat on her life (not saying it actually was, but the level of trauma she must have went through in that moment can do extraordinary things to a person's perception and perspective) and her mind then concluded that the only way to be safe was to defend herself from the perpetrator. If on the other hand these things happened days/weeks apart I think you would have a much harder time making that case as it begins to look premeditated.
You would essentially have to make the case that she went through the emotional and psychic shock of being sexually assaulted in that moment, and then equate it to someone who was being sexually assaulted physically defending themselves by killing their assaulter in the moment of it happening which I think is an argument that could be made (not saying it would/wouldn't succeed, but from a layman's perspective I think you could convince me of that with the right experts).
48 Hours did an episode on this case. The situation is very complex but borders on premeditation.
Yeah that definitely complicates things and they would have to argue that she was experiencing a prolonged state of psychosis. With the texts she appears to have sent it definitely makes establishing mens rea much easier.
Or temporary restraint.
“Borders on premeditation”? She literally hatched a plan over the course of months to murder the dude. She was texting someone exactly what she was doing as she was doing it.
This is the sad truth. The law will absolutely destroy her, even if her reasoning and her excuse seemed good enough for her. The law isn't going to allow her to walk away from that. As much as I sympathise with her anger and her rage, I know that the judge isn't going to let her walk.
I was giving a little benefit of doubt based on what I remembered. I watched the episode a while ago and didn't remember the text messages.
You rock, thanks for the link.
Idk man as the survivor of sexual assault, one of the worst things about it is how it is always on your mind.
Could be thinking about making mashed potatoes and like... a sound or something sets a memory off. I've had lots of therapy so it doesn't always send me spiraling, but if I had just found out about the violation, idk how I'd cope.
I know early on in my recovery, I could not think of it without thinking of him and how I could harm him. The impulse was very strong but I was a child and acting on those feelings manifested as acting out rather than homicide.
If I had been an adult with access to tools of mayhem... wellllllll.....
Hey man, I anal too!
The trouble is that our legal system (or any legal system for that matter) doesn't consider a threat to your safety to be a sufficient defense in and of itself for homicide. Self-defense claims require imminence, which is to say that a reasonable person in the same situation would believe that they faced imminent injury or death if they didn't respond with violent force right then and there.
That's what you have to convince a jury of, not that there was a threat to her safety at some unknown point in the future, not that he might harm her tomorrow or next week, but that right then and there in that moment if she didn't respond with violence she would be immediately harmed or killed.
The fact that there was a gap of time between discovering the pictures and her killing him makes that very difficult to argue. And the fact that she took steps to conceal the murder means any insanity claim is pretty much dead in the water. Not guilty by reason of insanity does just mean you were delusional, you could have committed a crime whilst delusional and still be deemed legally sane. What you're claiming legally is that you're unfit to stand trial because you weren't capable of knowing that your actions were wrong, and typically one of the major ways they decide that is by whether or not you attempted to conceal the crime, if you attempt to conceal it that implies you understand you did something wrong. In which case you can be deemed responsible for your own actions and thus fit to stand trial.
There is a legal defense for heat of passion murders in situations like you just described, but from other comments it sounds like this took over longer periods of time
Temporary Insanity due to having a SEVERE psychological break considering the circumstances, absolutely.
[ Removed by Reddit ]
Not temporary insanity. There was a case in the US where a man murdered his abuser and the judge ruled they were no threat to society since the abuser was dead. It would be like that.
Agreed. I think I remember hearing about a father who killed someone who did something to his daughter (I forget exactly what, but I think it was rape and/or killed) and he got a suspended sentence from it since it was an understandable reaction and he’s likely not to do it again. She’s likely to not kill anyone again either so I think she should receive the same.
Wasn’t there a father who shot his son’s rapist/murderer as he left the courthouse? I believe people were overwhelmingly in support of him.
Gary Plauche
IANAL, but I would assume any attorney would be like "get this case in front of a jury and we'll go from there." I certainly wouldn't convict.
I feel that yes this should be taken to a jury vote.
For real, that sentence was way too long, wtf.
That is exactly what happened in the Gary Plauché case.
This is the guy who waited at an airport payphone for the cops to walk by with the perp who was molesting his son, and as soon as he walked past, put 2 in his head.
Judge gave him 7 years suspended with 5 years probation and 300 hours of community service, stating the reason for the sentence was that under the circumstances, there was virtually no risk of him committing another crime.
Similar circumstances would be hard to replicate, but the world isn’t exactly devoid of men who can go on to be the next evil stepfather. The fact that she’s done it once may even mean her threshold for acting is lowered, so the next one needn’t be as evil.
I mean. If society took care of these threats correctly it wouldn't be up to the victims to remove the threat themselves. Just saying. The ancient ways are still viable.
I agree completely. Prevention is preferable to retribution, and often cheaper when that matters.
& it doesnt get much cheaper than a nice, big rock! 😇
So you're saying she's the John Brown of sexual assault survivors?
Good for her.
With the way our world is, I would’ve done the same, not gonna lie. The justice system doesn’t do shit for victims of sexual violence or it’s just a tiny slap on the wrist.
The trick is to not bother trying to plan and conceal it. Just grab the nearest device of justice, do the deed, and go about your day. When the cops inevitably show up at your door, act shocked at what they're saying and go "No fucking way, I thought I was dreaming that." Temporary insanity plea initiated.
Internet footprint is going to go wild on June 23rd, 2026
Can you explain?
Jokingly implying that if this guy ever gets on trial for murder that this comment will come up in the trial
Slight correction, it depends on how wealthy the defendant is. You're still right tho.
You mean like that rapist Brock Allen Turner that now goes by Allen Turner?
You mean the Allen Turner that now has a whole FB group in the city he now lives in where local women can post sightings to warn other women? That Brock Allen Turner?
I was a teen, my stepdad had a psychotic break, me & my mom left, and I had found found nude pics of me buried in his sock drawer while pre-packing up to get out. I burned them the day we left. Ran in to him at a local fair later that summer & told him I found & burned them, and he replied, "Those were MINE!".
I never wanted to kill him, but my friend's parents did after I told them. My mom was, "shrug". Don't think she could have dealt with anything else at the time, but she was a narc, so...?
Cut contact, many years later found out that he killed himself. Self-inflicted karma, maybe?
Wow. "Those are mine!" He confessed to the crime, and basically got off. SMH.
Finding out my sexual abuser killed himself was like a gift. It's pretty great.
it’s a shame he didn’t turn himself into a vegetable instead
She knew.
So let me guess, she got a longer time than Diddy...
She was convicted of murder in 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in prison
Fuck me, that’s a lot of time
A few years back I was in an adult toy store and there was this guy talking to the employee (also a guy) about how he'd copied Naked pics of his step daughter off her phone when she left it in his car.
Creepy af. I hope this is that guy.
Wtf holy shit people are dark
No, not people. Men
Statistically, sure. But let’s not be sexist and pretend it’s only men
Doing it is bad. Abhorrent, even.
But feeling so little shame that you'd TELL YOUR COWORKERS ABOUT IT?!
The mind boggles.
It wasn't a coworker. This was a customer talking to the guy working. TBF the employee looked uncomfortable af, we were uncomfortable af and the one or two other customers that came in didn't stay long either.
Oh geez. Sounds like maybe that's part of his kink
noice. i wonder why she just shrugged and put his body on the curb with the trash though lol. a dead body is not exactly a sofa, ma'am. like i know bodies are extremely heavy but you gotta put a little more elbow grease into your pre-meditated murder.
"FREE"
probably symbolic lol. leaving the trash where it belongs i guess
She found the only way to stop a pedophile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
I say she should get this one on the house as a treat.
I don’t agree with what Janks did, though they definitely went nuclear on Merriman. It’s nice to see an actual, nuclear revenge story in here.
Yes some more murders would be nice
insane how many people in the comments suddenly wanna play lawyerball. "she wasn't a minor" "it was premeditated" "he was in her care"
does it matter? dude's a major creepazoid for having nudes of his own stepdaughter, as far as I know / care, he's lucky he didn't suffer
Yeah, the ultimate betrayal has nothing to do with her age; this is a parent that did this to her. Someone who is supposed to protect her from the ugliness of the world threw the worst kind of ugliness in her face.
The defense is claiming there were photos. Were they not entered into evidence? It sounds like she was prosecuted for murder with her only defense being "trust me, there were photos". At no point is it mentioned that the prosecution was given evidence that indicate cause on her part.
I wondered about this too. All the articles I saw mentioned that "she said" there were photos, but nothing definitive. That seemed odd.
The articles I read say her defense was that she didn't kill him. She claimed she found him already dead from an OD. She hid his body because she was afraid the cops would pin his death on her.
Her whole defense is full of holes. Knowledge of the photos only hurts her defense because it establishes motive. The case is very strange.
I'm reading a few sources, have no idea the credibility, that she destroyed the computer that day so they didn't even have photos as evidence. And that her lawyers didn't use the photos as a defense. Which is odd if true.
The news is careful to say teenager (13-19), rather than minor (which is 0-17 in my country), not sure if being 18/19 makes a difference in the US.
It’s gross either way though, I wonder how he got them all. How many do you need to have to organise them by body part? I wonder where the mum was in this.
The "organized by body part" is really strange for sure.
Probably because it wasn't directly relevant to the case, other than her explanation for why she did it. On trial they have to come to the conclusion of whether she is guilty of killing him or not. The existence of the photos don't make a difference in that regard.
It is relevant. It can determine what she is guilty of: murder 1, murder 2, manslaughter. And it may have a bearing on her sentence. Her lawyers should have included any evidence that would lend itself to a lesser charge or sentence.
Commutation now, Newsom
Yea the number of people in here defending a literal pedo is so fucking disturbing.
Tbf there is a difference between defending the father and saying that she should still be getting jail time. The father is obviously the worse person here and her actions are very understandable. I would probably have done the same. But the fact of the matter is still that she killed him (or at least that is the conclusion that the jury ended on), and vigilante murders are not legal.
I get where you're coming from because if the story is true then he was a real sicko and that was a huge violation. But there is no proof of the photos. She allegedly destroyed the computer they were on. So no one else was able to view the photos to prove they even existed.
Ummm, what?
So… teenage her, took photos of herself and she herself sent them to her former partners?
And her step dad had them on his computer years later?
What?! How does that even happen?
Can someone else who actually read the article please help me make sense of this?
I have a couple theories, but the one that holds the most water is that she (being pretty successful in her business) probably gave him an old phone or laptop, and she forgot to log out of her iCloud, and rather than do the right thing and protect his daughter, he violated her privacy, and their relationship.
I considered a lot of more complex things (a shared phone plan where he has back-end admin access, him installing spyware on her device, etc) but Occam’s Razor tells me it’s probably the simplest thing: she got a new device and gave the old one to her elderly stepfather.
I read a study from the University of Hertfordshire about the sheer amount of identifying data left on memory cards in second-hand devices, and the numbers are… Harrowing.
So this guy gets the old device, finds all her pics still on it, and becomes fascinated. He probably always had sick fantasies about her. He compulsively organizes the photos by body part because it’s about control, categorization, and fetishization. He dehumanizes her for his own pleasure rather than protect her.
She was definitely justified! There was no excuse for what he did!
Weirdest part of the story (unless I misread something).
Photos were sent consentually to someone THEN ended up on step father's computer? Who was the middleman and what was their part in this?
Dad probably snooped through her phone and sent them to himself
Her sentence is probably more than the stepdad would’ve gotten had he ever been prosecuted for having those photos. She got her own justice! If I was a person in a position to look the other way and let her go, I would.
There is a documentary on this (42min). It's an interesting story. https://youtu.be/rmXWb8ouzAY?si=89_23wtXyOv6kAIc
She was actually hanging out with some friends on the night he died so it couldn't have been been her
she didn't do it your honor we were at a paint and puff!
Did the guy ever tell her to stop suffocating him? If he didn’t want to be suffocated his body would have stopped it from happening.
“Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh! Cicero, Lipschitz! Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh! Cicero, Lipschitz! Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh! Cicero, Lipschitz! Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh! Cicero, Lipschitz!
He had it coming, he had it coming He only had himself to blame! If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it I betcha you would have done the same”
"He ran into my knife TEN TIMES."
He had it coming."
convicted? No... in no sane world would she be in trouble for this.
Oh. California. Corrupt Judge. That explains a lot.
Team exploited teen
Good work
OPEN THAT CELL LET THAT GIRL OUTTA JAIL🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥
Nah, she didn't do it. She was with me that day delivering food to the homeless
Self defense, plain and simple. Anybody killing their abuser should be considered self defense.
Not guilty.
Fair 👍
Title should be "Horrific male child predator asks for it through his actions while victim cancels his heinous crimes."
free her immediately
Hmmm.. shame ( yawns and files nails).
Protip: turn them in and let someone else take that action. Prison is not a nice place.
Yup, didn't see a thing. Proceed as normal…
Understandable. Have a good day ma'am.
free my homegirl
Was she not supposed to suffocate him? The alternative was that nothing happens and the legal system brushes it under the rug.
I could watch her suffocate him and still not see it.
Janks did nothing wrong.
Not guilty
I mean she's technically guilty but fully justified.
Definitely guilty (by definition of the word, assuming she did it). Whether the time was justified is a completely different discussion though.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, nuclear edition?
I'm interested. Not enough to go looking for myself, so I'll ask here;
What was his defense in court?
Edit: I misread "her defense team" as "his". In my mind, they went to trial over the images and she killed him post verdict. I see now how wrong I was.
He was dead, so I'm going to say he wasn't able to offer a defense.
You're asking how the murder victim tried to defend himself in court?
There was no defense in court. He was dead.
As I recall none of the photos were of her under 18.
As a result of him being a creep she extensively planned and carried out a murder.
And sadly for her, in spite of how she feels, the judge will never allow her to walk. Too many cases like this in Australia, where someone felt they were wronged or abused in some way, they attacked whoever it was they claimed was responsible for it, but they ended up serving time.
FREE HER
Two acts of evil don't make a right.
Vigilantes should receive consequences just as he should have.
She could have reported him and he would be suffering the consequences through the justice system. She had all the evidence right there!
Anyone that thinks differently is no different than some lunatic out on the street saying "dude cut me off in traffic so i rammed him off the side of the road"
IMHO, sometimes they do, because they prevent further wrongdoings in the case of the victim who has perpetrated horrible things against others, especially children...but the law doesn't see it that way, unfortunately, and prison is still a distinct possibility.
Because cutting someone off in traffic is the exact same as pedophilia
How is that nuclear revenge? Seems pretty reasonable to me
Janie's Got A Gun
25 years?! ive seen actual cold blooded hate crimes get less time what the fuck
Good
Justified.
Justifiable homicide
Let her go!
[ Removed by Reddit ]
Jury nullification
Valid crashout.
Valid crashout
Justified. If no one else saves you, you gotta save yourself.
Good riddance
Proud of her.
The sad thing is, whatever sentence she's getting is most likely longer than whatever sentence that the step-father would've gotten if she had turned him into the police. The police, and the justice system in general have a very unfortunate track record of letting predators off the hook (usually because a lot of the people that operate such a system, whether officers or judges are either rape apologists and/or actual predators themselves - definitely not helped by the fact that there is one currently sitting in the White House for the next 3 years).
Given how he was willing to keep inappropriate images of her, taken when she was a minor, who knows the extent of what he would've done. She may as well have killed a rapist in the making (a rapist who, again, would've likely gotten away with his crimes because of how bastardized this system is).
I'm at least glad that he never got to that extent and that she was able to make sure that he'd never hurt her again. I very much hope that her life gets better and that she's at least able to see this sentence through.
Let me guess, it's time for reddit to defend vigilante justice? Just like any other criminal, he deserved his day in court. Hopefully jail time for premeditated murder
I don’t see the problem here.
Free our girl Jade!
If it was a man that found pictures of himself on his stepmoms computer and murdered her, would you be saying the same thing?
Yes. Let him go.
Yeah