Law And Crime
@LawAndCrime·7.5M subscribers·41.2K videos
Jerry Burns Trial Day 6 - Matthew Denlinger - Police Interview in Police Car Day of Arrest
Posted
February 19, 2020
Views
9,849
Likes
78
Comments
59
Engagement
February 19, 2020
9,849
78
59
1.39%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
1:06:59Now PlayingQUICK INFO:
Possible sentence: LWOP (no DP in Iowa)
Jury breakdown: 7 women, five men. Alts: 2 women, 1 man
Charges: Murder in the 1st degree
What is the Defense: Innocent
Iowa man Jerry Burns, 66, is on trial as the suspect in the 1979 stabbing murder of Michelle Martinko, an 18-year-old high school student. Jury selection began on Monday and continued into Tuesday.
Here’s what you need to know about the case.
Burns’s trial was moved from Linn County, Iowa to Scott County, Iowa given the high-profile nature of this case. Martinko’s brutal murder remained unsolved for decades. But then, on Oct. 29, 2018, police carried out an operation similar the one that California authorities used to track down the Golden State Killer suspect.
Burns left a straw on table at a Pizza Ranch establishment and authorities seized this discarded DNA evidence covertly. They compared it to a blood sample recovered at the crime scene that had been uploaded to a genealogy database and partially profiled.
Authorities determined that the discarded DNA evidence was a match to the blood found on Martinko’s dress. The judge has allowed the straw to be used as evidence at trial.
Martinko was “repeatedly” stabbed in the face and chest in her family’s car outside of the Westdale Mall on December 19, 1979. Evidence showed that she fought back. Martinko went to the mall that day to buy a winter coat, but never returned home. There was no evidence of a robbery or sexual assault.
Burns was arrested on December 19, 2018–39 years later.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Investigators say Burns “claimed he did not have any recollection of committing this crime,” but could not explain why his DNA showed up at the crime scene.
#JerryBurns #BurnsTrial
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
