It lies in a 'deeply selfish, lifelong personal need. On June 19, 1980, police released a composite sketch, developed based on descriptions provided by two witnesses, of the man they believed stabbed Martinko. All rights reserved. In my case, it's used by the police to try to link me to a crime. It was scary. "She finally got justice. How at-home DNA tests helped solve this 30-year-old murder, Use of online DNA databases by law enforcement leads to backlash and website changes. The sample was put into a national computer database and was used to clear more than 70 of Martinkos acquaintances, according to NBC News. An analyst at the Iowa state crime lab found that DNA from the straw matched the blood found on Martinkos dress. The final nail in the coffin was when a witness gave his statement to the court. That decision essentially erases the genetic privacy of everyone else. 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. But Burns will 'forfeit his freedom forever and die alone. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette), Jerry Lynn Burns listens as First Assistant Linn County Attorney Nicholas Maybanks (not pictured) speaks at Burns' sentencing hearing at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Exactly 39 years after her death, police took a Manchester man into custody after matching his DNA to blood found at the crime scene. Police said in a statement that officers identified Burns as a suspect after DNA technology allowed them to create a composite sketch. KWQC I miss all her singing and her beautiful music. Defense attorney Leon Spies declined to comment immediately following the verdict. Burns was arrested and questioned when his DNA matched that of some found on Martinko's clothes at the time of her murder. District Associate Judge Casey D. Jones set Burns' bond at $5 million on Dec. 20, 2018. "I am thrilled for her sister, Janelle, and wish her parents were alive to see this," Laymon said. You can do a lot of credit card cancellations if things get into the wrong hands. In October 2018, DNA was covertly collected from an Iowa man, Jerry Lynn Burns, and was found to match the sample discovered on Martinko's clothing. Burns was arrested and, on February 24, 2020, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Martinko. On August 7, 2020, Burns was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Dateline: Unforgettable - How did the police find Jerry Lynn Burns after almost 40 years. He has been charged, but notconvicted. CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (CBS2/FOX28) It's the cold case murder that's haunted Cedar Rapids for 35 years. John Stonebraker said the three hours it took the jury to reach a verdict was indicative of the strength of the case. When it came crashing down was when they walked out of the room and the biggest state policeman that I have ever seen in my life came in with latex gloves and a cotton swab and said, I'm going to take your DNA now. Stonebrakersat in the front row of the courtroom, flanked by her husband, John, and oldest son, Robert. Jerman, Cedar Rapids' police chief, credited police and investigators who "showed tenacity and dedication" over the four decades it took to take the case to trial, and the Linn County Attorney's Office for its role in Burns' arrest and prosecution. Burns' DNA profile was developed from blood on Martinko's black dress. We all kind of found out through classes we were in. Archived Supreme Court Opinions Prior to 2017, Archived Court of Appeals Opinions from 1/10/2018 to 2/7/2018, Archived Court of Appeals Opinions from 2017 and Earlier, How to Become a Qualified Court Interpreter in Iowa, Information for Current Court Interpreters, State Court Administration Organizational Chart, Submission of CLE Programs by CLE Sponsors. He was born in 1953 and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. He also wished the Burns family well, saying they now have to pick up the pieces of their lives just like the Martinko family did. Burns maintained his innocence in pretrial hearings and throughout the trial, but the jury took only three hours to reach a verdict after hearing DNA evidence. After several trials and errors, the suspects were narrowed down to three brothers who had grown up in Manchester, Iowa. Burns, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, remains in jail on a $5 million, cash-only bail. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette), Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden listens from the gallery at a sentencing hearing for Jerry Lynn Burns at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Five years ago, Michael Usry Jr., largely because his father had done DNA testing, ended up in a police station in downtown New Orleans. It was in May 2017 when officers announced that a composite sketch could be made from the DNA recovered. pic.twitter.com/COPUDpaDMP, Cedar Rapids Police (@CR_Police) December 20, 2018. Years after Michael Usry Jr. was cleared, further genetic genealogy helped authorities identify the man they believe is Angie Dodge's real killer. View Others View Public Details & Court Records See Who's Searching for You See Sites with Your Personal Info Make Changes to What Other's See Lock Sections of Your Profile Request Personal Reviews & 'Shock, anguish and horror permeated the family them they first learned that 18-year-old Michelle Martinko was killed Dec. 19, 1979, John Stonebraker, her brother-in-law, said Friday in a videotaped victim impact statement. Police arrested Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, on Wednesday morning in the decades-old fatal stabbing. Support our award-winning, independent journalism with a subscription today. And, more importantly, the decisions that you make about your genomic privacy can be overridden by anybody, not only in your immediate family tree. Police questioned Burns at work in Manchester, Iowa where he denied killing Martinko. Judge Hoover, who had reviewed Spies' written arguments and Maybanks' resistance before the hearing, quickly denied the motion for a new trial. "I wish my parents could be here to see this. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette), Friends and family of Michelle Martinko react as Burns' motion for a new trial is denied at a sentencing hearing for Jerry Lynn Burns at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. The sketch indicated a white man in his late teens or early 20s, weighing between 165 and 175 pounds, and standing about 6 feet tall. If found guilty of his first-degree murder charges, he'll face life in prison. He waited for her at the mall and apprehended her in the parking lot, according to the theory. Please logout and login again. After genealogy websites proved helpful in the investigation of the Golden State Killer, Iowainvestigators asked Parabon-NanoLabs, which had access to hundreds of thousands of genetic samples people uploaded,to see if there was a match in its database. The state'suse of genetic testing to convict an Iowa man in a 40-year-old cold case was unconstitutional, according to a motion filed in Linn County court. ", Our first look at Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, of Manchester after he was arrested this morning for first-degree murder in the 1979 homicide case of Michelle Martinko.Burns will appear in Linn County District Court tomorrow morning. On December 19, 2018, exactly 39 years after Martinko's murder, the police confronted Burns and arrested him after his DNA matched the one found on Martinko's clothes. New York University's Erin Murphy, who studies genetics and the law, sees Usry's ordeal as a cautionary tale. Burns owns a powder-coating company, Advanced Coating Concepts, in Manchester. Hiscousin, Brian Burns,vanished Dec. 19, 2013 exactly 34 years after Martinko was killed. By William Brangham, Rhana Natour, Nsikan Akpan. Reporter covering state and federal courts. Although Burns' conviction and sentencing is clear and he is now in prison, his legal team has continued to assert his innocence and overturn the verdict. District Judge Fae Hoover on Dec. 9 agreed to move the trial to the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport. He rebutted some of the prosecution's factual claims, insisting that there wasn't substantial evidence that Burns' DNA was retrieved from his blood, noting previous testimony indicating it could have been saliva or even transferred skin cells and that the presence of DNA in itself could not implicate Burns. Nsikan Akpan, Rhana Natour Plus, he made these grisly, violent low-budget films. More:Iowa community tries to reconcile a cold case arrest and its long history with a neighbor. This is the moment of reckoning for him and the moment, long awaited, of resting peace for Michelle.. ", Elizabeth Laymon, who was high school friends with Martinko, said shevividly remembersthe day classmates sobbed after they learned of the stabbing. Authorities arrested 64-year-old Jerry Lynn Burns of Manchester this morning. 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. A pathologist said the fatal stab wound was to her heart and that she bled to death. 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. Jerry Lynn Burns faces a first degree murder charge in the killing of Michelle Martinko. William Brangham, Nsikan Akpan Where Is Jerry Lynn Burns Now? I don't know why this upsets people. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and is currently being held at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. There had been no signs to indicate the killing had been a sexual assault or robbery. 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. Police found Martinko's body in her parents' tan 1972 Buick at Cedar Rapids Westdale Mall parking lot around 4 a.m. on Dec. 20, 1979. We need those people to come forward and give us that information so we can bring closure to this case and to Michelles family., In announcing Burns arrest, Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman said, Last year, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Michelle Martinkos sister, Janelle, along with her husband, John Stonebraker. Burns, who was convicted in February of killing Michelle Martinko in 1979, was sentenced to life in prison. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. "For Michelles family and friends, we know that the pain of losing a daughter, sister or friend will never go away," Jermansaid. Then for a verdict. Police said that they then retrieved a covert sample from Burns which was matched to blood from the scene of Martinkos murder. A covert DNA sample was matched to blood found at the crime scene. Cedar Rapids police then used DNA genetic genealogical research to narrow the profile "down to a specific pool of suspects, which included Burns, according to a criminal complaint. He pointed out that Martinko's sister and brother-in-law said Martinko didn't take organ lessons; Carma Lou's House of Music wasn't in Westdale; and none of the many witnesses who testified at trial about seeing Martinko at the mall that night never mentioned it. Spies, in his motion, said evidence of a regularly scheduled music lesson gives credence to the possibility that her attacker was familiar with her routine. And then it takes a few days for it to upload and analyze, and I just kind of forgot about it. 2023 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved. All Rights Reserved. He was ensnared because his father had. Maybanks recapped Monday how witnesses in the two weeks prior outlined an extensive chain of custody of the evidence to ensure no new DNA could have been introduced into the packages containing Martinko's bloodied clothes and pieces of the car. In October 2006, DNA information that was retrieved from the crime scene was sent to the Combined DNA Index System, CODIS. In October 2018, an investigator was able to snag a straw used by one of the three brothers, Jerry Lynn Burns, and tested it against the sample, getting a match. Michigan School Teachers Admit to Being Porn Stars on the Side. YOUR DESCRIPTION HAS REACHED THE LIMIT OF CHARACTERS ALLOWED AND WAS CUT. "The community is in shock, his friends are in shock, his family is in shock. In October 2018, Jerry Lynn Burns was drinking a soda out of a plastic glass with a clear straw. William Brangham is a correspondent and producer for PBS NewsHour in Washington, D.C. The third brother was Jerry Lynn Burns (Burns), the defendant in this case. pic.twitter.com/Pm9mA8kccv, Matt Hammill (@Matt_Hammill) December 20, 2018. Cutting-edge DNA technology was used to solve the cold case. Her family shares the story you've never heard and pleads for your help. She wasn't crying so much as gasping, choking. 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 Michael Usry Jr. was cleared. After turning to GEDmatch, a commercial genetic genealogy site, investigators narrowed their suspects to three brothers, all in Iowa. The sisters' parents died more than 20 years ago,Albert Martinko in 1995and his wife, Janet, in 1998. Burns is being held at Linn County Jail. Jerry Lynn Burns of Manchester has been arrested and charged with 1st degree murder in the cold case murder of 18 yr old Michelle Martinko. Burns, who was convicted in February of killing Michelle Martinko in 1979, was sentenced to life in prison. Burns then turned toward his family, sitting in the courtroom, and thanked them for their support. I am very appreciative of the work of our investigators and their persistence with this case, including the use of the latest technology that can aid in the investigation regardless of how long ago the violent act occurred., READ NEXT: Michigan School Teachers Admit to Being Porn Stars on the Side, Jerry Lynn Burns: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Turns out the murderer was a distant, distant relative of Jennings. Spies wrote that the jury's verdict was "contrary" to the weight of evidence, and his client'sconstitutional rights were violated by the admission of his statements to investigators the day of his arrest and the use of hisand his family's DNA. Doug Larison to reexamine the file and find what he believed to be the killers DNA in blood found on Martinkos dress that was not her blood. According to KWWL, at the sentencing, Stonebaker said that Burns stole those 39 years and many more from a sweet smart, talented girl who never got her chance at college, a career, marriage, children and by now, even grandchildren.. So, you spend three or four weeks thinking, I'm a suspect in a brutal murder. During the original investigation, detectives compiled a list of more than 80 potential suspects. READ NEXT: Serial Killers Ex Thinks There Were More Victims, Parents of Murdered Teenager Did Not Live to See Her Killer Brought to Justice, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Jerry Lynn Burns, 66, was found guilty in Februaryof first-degree murderin the 1979 stabbing death of18-year-old Michelle Martinko in Cedar Rapids. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette), Cedar Rapids Police Investigator Matt Denlinger listens as First Assistant Linn County Attorney Nicholas Maybanks (out of frame) speaks at a sentencing hearing for Jerry Lynn Burns at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. In his statement, Stonebraker said he will never forget Janet Martinko calling them early Dec. 20, 1979, after she had identified the 'bloody, torn, broken body of her beautiful daughter. It was a case,Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman said, "that has haunted our community for decades. Considering Retiring From The Practice of Law? Laymon said she and Martinko were in a self-defense class together, but added that "no amount of self-defense could have saved her from that.". Leads in the case resulted in dead ends until investigatorsused a genetic genealogy website to connect Burns' DNA to the crime scene. Police said they were able to connect Burns to the case with DNA evidence. Although Martinko's case was eventually solved, the mystery outlived both of her parents, who died years before Burns was found guilty, and Killer Cases explains, the hope of finding her killer and figuring out what happened and why slowly dwindled throughout the years. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette), Jerry Lynn Burns makes a statement before his sentencing by Sixth Judicial District Judge Fae Hoover at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. The police then began procuring evidence secretly.
Role Of Teacher In Fostering Creativity Among Students,
Articles J