wife was deter mined to be a distant cousi n to many of the Subject's more . He then contacted a member of a third branch, and a DNA test determined that they were first cousins with the killer. He lived in Manchester at the time of his arrest in 2020 and owned a powder coating business in the city. But by 2 a.m., her father called the police because she had not returned home. Through his research, he discovered that a woman named Brandy Jennings had uploaded her DNA to a website service to trace her own family history. Burns, charged with first-degree murder in the cold case stabbing of Martinko, is asking the court to toss out DNA and other evidence because they were obtained without a warrant and represented violations of privacy and other rights. Could Jerry Burns have committed murders other than Michelle Martinko's? The defense also requested the trial be moved out of Linn County based on the amount of attention the case had received over the past four decades, as well as "pervasive and prejudicial pretrial publicity". Her mother, Janet, died in 1998. Burns also built himself a new home on his parents' land and opened a gas station and convenience store nearby. At the time of her death, police had found Martinko stabbed to death in her car in a local mall parking lot. Jerry Burns. The DNA was uploaded to the law enforcement database called Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, but investigators never found a match, police said. He stated that Burns' DNA could have been at the scene due to secondary transfer (such as skin cells transferring to an article of clothing when someone brushes up against another person), although he clarified that it was not his opinion that this was the case with Burns' DNA. On August 7, 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jerry was married to his second wife at the time of his arrest. Some thought that Martinko had received harassing phone calls before her death, but police stated that they did not think so. 'As far as I know, I wasn't there.. Jerry Burns enters the courtroom in 2020 (Image via We Are Iowa) Burns was born in Manchester, Iowa in 1953 and graduated from West . Investigators say Martinko was murdered on December 19th, 1979 and her body found the next day in a family car in the Westdale Mall parking lot. She had goals for herself, things she wanted to do with her life, and she would write them down and achieve them., I dont know if Ill ever get over this, Mrs. Martinko added. She was unsure her information would be of any use because she had read that the murder happened between 10p.m. and midnight, and it was 2a.m. when she drove by. "I did not see this day coming," Franzman said on a broadcast this week. JERRY M. LYNN "Bear" Crown Point, Indiana Jerry M. "Bear" Lynn, age 59, of Crown Point, IN passed away on April 4, 2010. [15], On the evening of December 19, 1979, Martinko attended a banquet for the Kennedy Concert Choir at the Sheraton Inn in Cedar Rapids. Burns is accused of murdering Michelle Martinko in 1979. The murder was closely followed within her community, and the police received more than 200 tips in the weeks following her killing. ABC News' Matt Foster and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report. "It's always the boyfriend, the girlfriend, the husband someone really close to the person. Wednesday, March 1, 2023: Today on General Hospital, Obrecht is furious with both Liz and Scott, Finn offers to stand by Liz, and Sonny and Dex bond over a meal. The wait ended Monday, when a jury convicted Jerry Lynn Burns of first-degree murder in the 1979 stabbing death of 18-year-old Martinko. They . The defense requested the case be declared a mistrial as a result, but the judge denied the request and asked the prosecutor to rephrase the question. See Photos. Investigators placed the three brothers under surveillance in an attempt to covertly collect their DNA, according to The Gazette. Subsequently he interviewed Jerry Burns, who denied knowing or ever meeting Michelle Martinko. It was a cold case until 2018, when familial DNA identified a suspect 39 years after the crime who was charged, tried and convicted of her murder.[2]. Police looked at numerous suspects during the initial investigation, including a man who raped a woman at knifepoint and later died while in prison for that crime, but DNA testing ruled him out. But Denlinger did get consent from Janice Burns, Burns' first cousin, and collected her DNA for testing, he said. The 55 year-old Delaware County man was last seen on December 19, 2013 - 34 years to the day of Martinko's murder. [1][5] Iowan law mandates a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first degree murder. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? This technology helped the FBI arrest notorious serial killer, serial rapist, and burglar Joseph James DeAngelo (nicknamed Golden State Killer) in 2018. [11], In the mid-1980s, Martinko's father filed a lawsuit against the owners of the Westdale Mall and claimed negligence in not providing "reasonable security" on the night of the murder. Through the use of advanced technologies, DNA samples from the offender were obtained. On the eve of December 19, 1979, an 18-year-old high school student named Michelle Martinko was discovered dead in her family's car outside a mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jerry Lynn Burns, 65, is set to face a jury in February, bringing momentum to a case that was left cold for years. Jerry Burns is still behind bars on a $5 million cash bond, charged with first-degree murder in the 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko. What we know about Jerry Burns and the woman he's accused of killing 40 years earlier Dec 19, 2019/ updated Feb 17, 2020 Four decades ago, 18-year-old Michelle Marie Martinko was found stabbed to death in the family's car in the parking lot of a Cedar Rapids mall. Jerry Burns on Trial AP Jerry Burns of Manchester, Iowa, is led into the courtroom during closing arguments for his trial at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport, Iowa on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. Police said they were able to connect Burns to the case with DNA evidence. He was born in 1953 and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. Burns seemed to have a 'fetish for these violent, sexual themes, Cedar Rapids police Investigator Jeff Holst testified. However, the case gradually grew cold as the investigation stretched on. Police had searched his computer after arresting him, and found a history of searches pertaining to nefarious subjects including the murder of blonde women, and pornographic matter involving blonde women. What began to turn the case around was the emergence of DNA as a forensic tool for crime fighting in the late 1990s. Denlinger had found the needle in the haystack. This narrowed down the possible suspects to three brothers - Ken, Don, and Jerry Burns. [14] Burns's cousin, Brian Burns, went missing on December 19, 2013 and has not been found. KWQC Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, of Manchester, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday, nearly 40 years after the brutal murder of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko in the parking lot of Westdale Mall on December 19, 1979. At the department, Burns sked for a lawyer. The primary evidence police had to go on was blood on Michelle's dress and on the car's gearshift that in 2005 was finally identified as male DNA. Unfortunately, Martinkos parents did not survive to see her killer brought to justice. Jerry Lynn Burns will be in prison for the rest of his days. Investigators also showed Burns two renderings DNA labs had supplied them of possible suspects; he questioned their likeness to him. May 12, 2021 at 04:20 PM. In December 1979, Martinko, a high school senior who was on the twirling squad at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, went to the recently opened Westdale Mall after her choir banquet at school to buy a new winter coat. You will begin to receive our Daily Courts & Public Safety updates. [30] The doctor who performed Martinko's autopsy and investigators in the original case, all now retired, took the stand to testify to how the investigation was conducted, and to Martinko's cause of death. Almost 40 years later, with the help of DNA Technology, the culprit was nabbed and justice was finally served to Martinko and her grieving family. Be the first one to comment on this story. "I cried a lot and I looked out windows all hours of the night," Martinko's mother, Janet Martinko, told Cedar Rapids' CBS station in 1987. Staggering snowfall in California mountains leaves residents trapped for days, SpaceX launches new crew on flight to space station, Garland testifies before Senate panel amid ongoing special counsel probes, Colon cancer rates rising in younger age group, study finds, Firefighter dies battling blaze in downtown Buffalo, mayor says, Several hospitalized after Lufthansa flight diverted to Dulles due to turbulence, Explosive found in checked luggage at Pennsylvania airport, feds say, Prosecution wraps its case at Alex Murdaugh murder trial, Top McCarthy aide, House Oversight chair each met with Ashli Babbitt's mother, Sneak peek: Murder at the Mall: The Michelle Martinko Case, Michelle Martinko, left, and Jodi Huisentruit. On February 24, 2020, after three hours of deliberation, the jury found Jerry Lynn Burns guilty of first-degree murder. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette). See if it is.. This evidence was inadmissible at trial but was the subject of a public suppression hearing. He previously co-owned a truck shop and worked for John Deere. Lives in Brentwood, Arkansas. Court is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.. [1][5][6], Michelle Marie Martinko (October 6, 1961 December 19, 1979) was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT, a group of 41 people. Jerry Burns' mugshot and a family photo of Michelle Martinko. Then in 2018, DNA phenotyping company GEDmatch, a public genealogy website that famously helped catch the Golden State Killer, started creating a family tree based on the killers DNA. Burns repeatedly said he didn't know how his DNA was found at the crime scene. Jerry Lynn Burns will raise two . KWQC Jerry Burns' mugshot and a family photo of Michelle Martinko. The final nail in the coffin was when a witness gave his statement to the court. 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