DETROIT — The man accused of killing Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll said he came across Woll’s body while he was out checking door handles on cars Oct. 21 around downtown Detroit, but he denied having any involvement in her death.

Michael Jackson-Bolanos, 29, on trial for Woll's murder, testified on Wednesday that he saw a dark figure in the Lafayette Park area when he went to grab a backpack he had stolen and stashed earlier that night. When he approached the figure and realized it was a person lying with their back to him, he touched their neck to see if they were OK.

“They wasn’t OK,” Jackson-Bolanos said. “Once I realized I just touched a dead person, I grabbed the bag and I left. …I’m a Black guy out in the middle of the night breaking into cars and i found myself standing in front of a dead white woman. That doesn’t look good at all.”

Jackson-Bolanos is charged with first-degree murder and felony murder in connection with a home invasion. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Brian Brown, Jackson-Bolanos's attorney, has argued that it would've "virtually impossible" for his client to allegedly commit the murder in the two-minute window around 4:20 a.m. Oct. 21 prosecutors believe it happened in, and that Woll’s death was more of a crime of passion than a killing by a stranger.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, have focused their case largely on surveillance video that shows Jackson-Bolanos near Woll's home the night of the murder and a jacket he wore that night that had small amount of her blood on it, according to DNA analysis.

On the stand Wednesday, Jackson-Bolanos said his first reaction was to reach for his phone and call police, but once he realized he would have been incriminating himself for breaking into cars, he did not call.

“I had to consider where I was and what I was doing at the time. I didn’t feel like me personally, it would’ve been a good idea to call the police,” Jackson-Bolanos said.

After he fled the Lafayette Park area, Jackson-Bolanos said he realized he had Woll’s blood on his hands and panicked.

Asked by his attorney if he killed Woll, entered her home or stabbed her, he said "absolutely not" to each question.

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