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Murder defendant wears 'Crime Pays' shirt to court

Jeremiah Jakson, prosecutors say, strangled Laura Araujo - a graduate of the Art Institute of Philadelphia who had rented a room in the same West Philadelphia boardinghouse as Jakson - for her laptop, camcorder, and ATM card.

Police have charged Jeremiah Jackson with murder and related charges in the death of Laura Araujo, a 23-year-old Art Institute graduate whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag.
Police have charged Jeremiah Jackson with murder and related charges in the death of Laura Araujo, a 23-year-old Art Institute graduate whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag.Read more

Jeremiah Jakson, prosecutors say, strangled Laura Araujo - a graduate of the Art Institute of Philadelphia who had rented a room in the same West Philadelphia boardinghouse as Jakson - for her laptop, camcorder, and ATM card.

Then, they say, Jakson shoved the 23-year-old's body into a duffel bag and dumped it and her belongings in an abandoned lot, and then accidentally set his arms on fire while trying to torch Araujo's sport-utility vehicle.

On Wednesday, Jakson, 22, having been held without bail on murder and arson charges since the July killing, showed up for his preliminary hearing wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with pink palm trees and the words, "Crime Pays."

"That's a very interesting choice of shirt," Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni said angrily.

Jakson, tall and thick-shouldered, shrugged. He didn't have any other clothes when he went to prison, so "they gave me this shirt," he said. He hadn't thought to turn it inside out, he said.

Araujo's father, Lorenzo, a psychiatrist who traveled from his home in Oklahoma for the hearing, and her cousin Clara Garcia, who served in Afghanistan with the Navy and attends college in New Jersey, sat in the first row of the otherwise empty court gallery.

Lorenzo Araujo, a reserved man with a salt and pepper beard and a soft smile, sat in dignified composure. He wore a suit and tie and held his hat in his lap. Garcia sat straight-backed in her uniform. The T-shirt, they later said in the court hallway, was just another indignity of a tragedy they struggle to comprehend.

"We are holding on," Lorenzo Araujo said in a quiet voice.

His daughter was a person of faith, he said, as he is. A warm and trusting young woman who had a degree in fashion marketing, she volunteered at Christian organizations and taught English as a Second Language. She took a room in the boardinghouse while she looked for full-time work.

In court, Assistant District Attorney Gail Fairman read from a medical examiner's report.

Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Gary Collins said Araujo's body had been stuffed in a duffel bag. There was a plastic bag over her head. Her wrists, legs, torso, and neck had been bound with cord. She had been beaten.

Fire Marshal Donald Bradley testified that there was an empty red gasoline container next to Araujo's 2011 silver Toyota Rav4, found torched in a South Philadelphia alley, hours before Araujo's body was discovered in the North Philadelphia lot. He also found a white Samsung cellphone that police later traced to Jakson.

After setting fire to the car, police said, Jakson called paramedics from his mother's South Philadelphia home, claiming to have been burned by a Molotov cocktail in a street fight.

Homicide Detective James Pitts read a summary of Jakson's confession.

Araujo had moved into the room next to Jakson's about a week earlier, Jakson told police. He said a woman named Shaneka, who also stayed in the house, killed Araujo during a robbery in a laundry room.

He had been there, too, but Shaneka beat Araujo with a fire extinguisher and then strangled her, he told police.

He told detectives that it was Shaneka who bought the container of gasoline, withdrawing $100 with Araujo's ATM card.

Pitts said detectives viewed security-camera footage from the gas station. Jakson was alone, he said.

"We don't know that a Shaneka exists," Pitts testified.

Before ruling, Carr Deni instructed Jakson's attorney to find out if someone at the prison had actually given Jakson the T-shirt. Then she sent Jakson back to jail to await trial.