JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Opening statements began Wednesday in the trial of a Jacksonville man accused of working with his mistress to hire someone to murder his wife in 2019.
Jerry Burns is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his wife Velvet Burns.
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On May 9, 2019, Velvet Burns was stabbed 39 times while she slept in the home she shared with Jerry Burns on Jacksonville’s Westside.
“This was an especially violent, heinous, atrocious, cruel, bloody scene,” Prosecutor Alan Mizrahi said during opening statements Wednesday morning.
Jerry Burns was not there at the time of his wife’s murder, but he was one of three people arrested and charged with Velvet Burns’ murder.
According to Mizrahi, Jerry Burns was the mastermind behind it all.
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Mizrahi said Jerry Burns paid Amanda Love, who he was having an affair with, to find his wife’s killer.
“It’s a murder-for-hire where a husband hires the woman he’s having an affair with, who happens to be a drug addict, to kill his wife because divorce is just too darn expensive,” Mizrahi said.
Jerry Burns paid Love $30,000 to find someone to kill Velvet Burns, but Mizrahi said that did not happen and she spent the money on other things instead.
According to Mizrahi, Jerry Burns then told her he would give her an extra $20,000 once the job was “done.”
Stephen Hand and Love were both convicted of killing Velvet Burns. Hand pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison in 2022.
“Amanda Love and Stephen Hand did what they were paid to do,” Mizrahi said.
Hand was among the witnesses who took the stand on Wednesday. He said Jerry Burns paid him to kill Velvet Burns.
Hand said he met Jerry Burns through Love, with whom he shared three children and had been in a “rocky” relationship with for about 13 years.
He said he was still in a relationship with Love at the same time she was in a relationship with Jerry Burns.
“Amanda was pretty much in a relationship with Mr. Burns, and he kind of financed [us] from November through May,” Hand said. “He was unaware that I was present the whole time.”
Love was arrested and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder two months after Velvet Burns’ death.
In April 2024, Love was sentenced to 40 years in prison and an additional 30 years for conspiracy to commit murder.
On Wednesday, the defense argued that while Jerry Burns was “guilty” of not being a faithful husband, that does not make him guilty of murdering his wife.
“He had a problem, and that problem he did bring on himself. And that’s Amanda Love,” defense attorney Michael Bossen said.
In addition to first-degree murder, Jerry Burns is also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony.
Love is expected to take the stand on Thursday.