Burns Found Guilty

An eastern Iowa jury needed about 3 hours of deliberations on Monday to reach a guilty verdict in a 40-year-old murder case. The conviction of 66-year-old Jerry Burns from Manchester on a 1^st-degree murder charge means he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison without parole. The jury agreed with a prosecutors’ argument that Burns had killed 18-year-old Michelle Martinko in December 1979. Her body was discovered in a car at a Cedar Rapids mall. Investigators used DNA evidence from the crime scene to link Burns to the murder. His attorney tried to argue that the DNA sample was mishandled and potentially tainted. Burns can appeal his conviction within the next 45 days.