JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The mistress of a person charged with homicide within the stabbing dying of his spouse in 2019 is about to testify Thursday to her position in what prosecutors are calling a murder-for-hire plot.
Jerry Burns is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife Velvet Burns, who was stabbed 39 instances whereas she slept on Might 9, 2019, within the house she shared with Jerry Burns on Jacksonville’s Westside.
“This was an particularly violent, heinous, atrocious, merciless, bloody scene,” Prosecutor Alan Mizrahi mentioned throughout opening statements Wednesday morning.
In response to prosecutors, Jerry Burns labored along with his mistress, Amanda Love, to hire someone to murder his wife. That somebody occurred to be Love’s longtime on-again, off-again associate, Stephen Hand.
Hand and Love shared three kids and had been in a “rocky” relationship for about 13 years.
Hand testified in court docket Wednesday that he was nonetheless in a relationship with Love when she was having an affair with Jerry Burns.
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“Amanda was just about in a relationship with Mr. Burns, and he form of financed [us] from November via Might,” Hand mentioned. “He was unaware that I used to be current the entire time.”
Jerry Burns is accused of paying Love $30,000 to search out his spouse’s killer. However Mizrahi mentioned that didn’t occur and he or she spent the cash on different issues as a substitute.
“It’s a murder-for-hire the place a husband hires the lady he’s having an affair with, who occurs to be a drug addict, to kill his spouse as a result of divorce is simply too darn costly,” Mizrahi mentioned.
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In response to Mizrahi, Jerry Burns then instructed Love he would give her an additional $20,000 as soon as the job was “carried out.”
All three — Jerry Burns, Love and Hand — have been arrested and charged with Velvet Burns’ homicide, however Mizrahi mentioned Jerry Burns was the mastermind behind all of it.
Hand pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide and was sentenced to life in jail in 2022.
Love pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide two months after Velvet Burns’ dying and was sentenced to 40 years in prison and an extra 30 years for conspiracy to commit homicide in April of this 12 months.
“Amanda Love and Stephen Hand did what they have been paid to do,” Mizrahi mentioned.
On Wednesday, the protection argued that whereas Jerry Burns was “responsible” of not being a trustworthy husband, that doesn’t make him responsible of murdering his spouse.
“He had an issue, and that downside he did deliver on himself. And that’s Amanda Love,” protection legal professional Michael Bossen mentioned.
Along with first-degree homicide, Jerry Burns can be charged with conspiracy to commit homicide and solicitation to commit a capital felony.
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