Supreme Court affirms Jerry Burns’ conviction in 1979 Michelle Martinko murder

The person convicted within the 39-year-old chilly case homicide of Michelle Martinko has misplaced his bid to overturn his conviction.

The Iowa Supreme Courtroom on Friday denied the enchantment of Jerry Lee Burns, now 69, who argued police violated his constitutional rights in acquiring the DNA pattern that finally tied him to blood discovered on the homicide scene.

In a 5-2 choice, the bulk discovered police adopted the regulation in acquiring Burns’ DNA from an deserted consuming straw, and didn’t violate his rights both beneath the federal or Iowa constitutions.

“After cautious consideration of the case earlier than us, we conclude that the Fourth Modification didn’t require police to acquire a warrant earlier than accumulating the straw or earlier than analyzing DNA on the straw to find out whether or not it matched DNA discovered on Martinko’s costume,” Justice David Might wrote for almost all.

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Burns’ lawyer Nick Curran mentioned in an e mail his shopper is “deeply dissatisfied” within the choice.

“The choice undermines a person’s affordable expectation of privateness of their genetic make-up, and topics each Iowa citizen’s DNA to assortment and evaluation by regulation enforcement with out possible trigger,” Curran wrote. “Mr. Burns asserts that he’s harmless of the homicide of Michelle Martinko, and he’ll proceed to battle in opposition to his unjust conviction.”

Who was Michelle Martinko?

For 4 a long time, the slaying of the 18-year-old Martinko haunted her household and the Cedar Rapids group.

Martinko, a senior at Kennedy Excessive Faculty who deliberate to attend Iowa State College, was final seen alive on the Westdale Mall after a college choir banquet on Dec. 19, 1979, the place she was purchasing for a brand new winter coat. At 4 a.m. on Dec. 20, her physique was present in her automotive within the mall parking zone, with quite a few stab wounds on her face and chest.

Full protection: The Michelle Martinko slaying, DNA proof and 2020 homicide trial of Jerry Lynn Burns

The killing sparked outrage and a whole lot of ideas poured in to police, who provided rewards and adopted “numerous” leads. Though police recognized greater than 80 potential suspects, the case ultimately went chilly.

Who’s Jerry Burns?

The break within the case got here through new advances in DNA know-how. In 2006, investigators had been in a position to determine a male DNA profile for the suspect, who they believed had minimize his hand and had left blood on Martinko’s clothes and in her automotive.

Evaluating that DNA profile to genealogical analysis databases narrowed the investigation to “a selected pool of suspects,” in keeping with court docket filings. One particular person on that record was Burns, who lived within the city of Manchester, about 45 minutes north of Cedar Rapids.

Burns, who would have been 25 on the time of Martinko’s dying, owned a powder-coating firm and had beforehand co-owned a truck cease. Though he’d been married, his spouse had died in 2008.

Soda straw gives essential proof

To substantiate their suspicious, investigators turned to a tactic that lies on the core of Burns’ enchantment. A Cedar Rapids investigator watched Burns consuming at a Pizza Ranch in 2018 and, after he left, retrieved the straw Burns had utilized in his drink. State analysts discovered DNA on the straw in keeping with the blood discovered on Martinko’s costume.

When questioned, Burns advised investigators he couldn’t provide a “believable rationalization” for why his DNA was discovered on the scene. He was arrested Dec. 19, 2018.

Investigators didn’t receive a warrant for the restaurant search of Burns’ DNA, arguing in subsequent court docket hearings that he had no proper to privateness in an merchandise he left behind to be thrown away.

Trial and sentencing in 2020

Burns denied any position in Martinko’s dying, and in 2020 went to trial on the Scott County Courthouse on the cost of first-degree homicide. The jury heard practically two weeks of testimony and deliberated lower than three hours earlier than returning the decision of responsible.

The conviction was greeted with tears and aid from Martinko’s household. Though her mother and father had each died a long time earlier than Burns’ arrest, her sister Janelle Stonebraker was within the entrance row along with her household when the decision was learn.

Burns, nonetheless sustaining his innocence, was sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole.

Attraction argues warrant wanted for DNA search

On enchantment, Burns’ attorneys raised a number of points the place they claimed investigators overstepped. Most notably, they argued, accumulating Burns’ DNA from the soda straw violated not simply his Fourth Modification rights, however these of greater than 100 different potential suspects whose DNA was surreptitiously examined.

“The style through which police invaded the privateness of numerous different people holds constitutional significance,” attorneys argued in Supreme Courtroom filings. “… Right here, regulation enforcement disregarded the Fourth Modification’s protections by surreptitiously acquiring and/or evaluating numerous people’ DNA profiles to the suspect profile with out making use of for any warrants.”

From 2020: Decide permits Jerry Burns’ DNA proof at trial, excludes ‘violent’ web search historical past

Plenty of civil liberties teams, together with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Digital Frontier Basis, filed a short supporting Burns’ enchantment. They argued that the trial court docket was unsuitable to rule Burns had no privateness rights within the discarded consuming straw, noting that folks consistently shed DNA all over the place they go and, by this commonplace, their DNA could possibly be collected and examined by police at any time, for any purpose.

Burns moreover argued in his enchantment the court docket erred in the way it instructed the jury concerning the credibility of a jailhouse informant who testified Burns had made incriminating statements in regards to the case whereas awaiting trial.

Majority finds no expectation of privateness in straw

Though Might’s choice notes there could also be some circumstances through which surreptitious surveillance and evaluation of DNA violates a suspect’s Fourth Modification “affordable expectation of privateness,” the court docket held that is not the case right here.

“Though it’s true that people distribute DNA regularly and unconsciously, the identical is true of latent fingerprints,” Might wrote. “… Nobody means that police would have wanted a warrant to gather fingerprints from the cup that Burns left behind on the Pizza Ranch — or to make use of these fingerprints to find out whether or not Burns wasin Martinko’s automotive on the night time of her homicide. We predict the identical is true of the DNA that Burns left on the straw — and that finally linked him with Martinko’s costume.”

The court docket individually analyzed state regulation and the Iowa Structure’s protections in opposition to warrantless searches, and located these restrictions too don’t apply to Burns’ case. A state regulation limiting how police can carry out DNA testing has an exception for checks “to determine a person in the midst of a felony investigation,” and the court docket additionally discovered the trial choose was not required to present a jury instruction, sought by the protection, advising the jury that Burns’ former cellmate is perhaps searching for a lowered sentence on his personal expenses in alternate for his testimony.

Dissenters: DNA searches implicate privateness

Justices Dana Oxley and Matthew McDermott wrote dissenting opinions, with Oxley additionally becoming a member of the vast majority of McDermott’s opinion. Each wrote that they discover stronger constitutional limits on DNA “involuntarily and unavoidably shed” by folks going about their every day lives, as Oxley put it.

From 2018: Iowa group tries to reconcile a chilly case arrest and its lengthy historical past with a neighbor

Oxley wrote that DNA incorporates much more details about an individual than easy id, and accumulating it ought to accordingly be handled as a considerable breach of privateness, no matter whether or not police truly search or take a look at for any of the opposite medical and familial information they could receive.

McDermott, in his dissent, argued that DNA, human genetic materials containing huge quantities of data, have to be included beneath the Fourth Modification’s “proper of the folks to be safe of their individuals (and) papers.” He famous that simply because the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has handled blood attracts for drunk drivers as extra intrusive than breath checks, so DNA evaluation must be thought of uniquely intrusive, and be regulated by the courts accordingly.

In a press release, ACLU of Iowa Authorized Director Rita Bettis Austen echoed McDermott and Oxley’s issues.

“No one consents to show over our full genetic code to the federal government simply because we involuntarily shed our DNA on objects we contact. Our DNA can reveal unbelievable particulars about us, from our proclivity to genetic illnesses, to our ancestry and paternity, to our look,” she mentioned. “Because the dissent factors out, the bulk opinion’s evaluation leaves Iowans susceptible to authorities assortment of their DNA upon a police officer’s merest whim. We predict this goes in opposition to the frequent sense and values of most Iowans.”

Prosecutor: ‘our hearts are with’ Martinko household

Linn County Lawyer Nick Maybanks referred to as the choice “an absolute aid” to residents and regulation enforcement. 

“This case has loomed over our group for over 43 years. This opinion confirms the ground-breaking and very good work of regulation enforcement and acknowledges the arduous work and dedication that generations of officers and this prosecuting staff put into this case,” Maybanks mentioned in an e mail. “Our hearts are with the surviving members of Michelle’s household and her pals as we speak as this stage of the case involves a detailed and justice was served as soon as once more.”

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He may be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.