Burns Files Petition for Postconviction Relief for 2020 Murder Conviction

A Manchester man who was convicted of murder has filed a petition for Postconviction Relief.

Jerry Burns was found guilty in 2020 of First Degree Murder in the 1979 stabbing death of 18-year old Michelle Martinko of Cedar Rapids. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

In December 1979, Martinko was found dead in her parents’ car in the parking lot of Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids. The case had been cold for 40 years until police grabbed a straw Burns used at the Pizza Ranch in Manchester. The DNA on the straw matched DNA found on Martinko’s dress and car. 

Burns appealed his conviction, but the Iowa Supreme Court denied it in 2023. 

In late April, Burns filed a Petition for Postconviction Relief. Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks tells KMCH it’s not really an appeal, as a Postconviction Relief doesn’t revisit the issues of the trial directly. Maybanks says it’s the defendant’s opportunity to argue that their trial attorney was ineffective for doing or not doing certain things – or if applicable, to argue that newly discovered evidence mandates a new trial. 

In the filing, Burns argues that he was denied effective counsel – noting specifically that defense counsel opened the door to improper expert testimony concerning the source of the male DNA found at the murder scene, that a witness falsely testified to receive reduced prison time, and that his attorney failed to introduce evidence and argue that Martinko’s boyfriend, Andy Seidel, was the perpetrator.

archived photo from 2020