Hunter
04/01/23
The Iowa Supreme Court Friday upheld the first-degree murder conviction of a Manchester man in a cold case that was solved 40 years after the fact.
The Gazette reports that 68-year-old Jerry Burns fatally stabbed 18-year-old Michelle Martinko in 1979. Justice David May wrote in the 4-2 split decision that Burns had no “reasonable expectation to privacy” when he tossed his drinking straw at the Manchester Pizza Ranch in 2018 that contained his DNA in the trash and led to his arrest.
The court agreed with the prosecution’s argument that Burns voluntarily abandoned the straw. Burns said police violated his Fourth Amendment rights when they confiscated the straw, but the court said the amendment doesn’t protect voluntarily abandoned property.
Martinko’s body was found in her parents’ Buick at Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids on Dec. 19, 1979. The teen was stabbed 29 times.