The man accused of raping and killing Jackie Hartman before dumping her body in a dry creek bed has a history of obsessively pursuing women and has been a suspect in two separate rape attempts, according to a police report released Sunday.
Four people told police that Jonathan Ian Burns, 26, had aggressively made advances toward either them or someone they knew, the report shows. And a Mesa woman told police that Burns had sexually assaulted her less than two weeks before Hartman, 19, was kidnapped on Jan 28.
Burns also was a suspect in an attempted rape when he was attending high school in Oregon. However, the case was dropped when the woman declined to press charges.
The report offers a closer look into Burns’ character based on interviews with acquaintances and a supervisor who characterized him as a hot-headed, troubled man who frequently cheated on his fiancée and relentlessly chased women. Burns’ boss at the construction company where he did electrical work told police the former convict did “stupid stuff” but was trying to turn his life around.
The report also reveals that Burns called the same boss and asked for advice the day after police believe he killed Hartman. He told his boss, who was also his friend, that he had taken a girl out on a date and then she disappeared. The boss, who didn’t know about the case, told his employee to stay calm and talk with Hartman’s family.
Burns’ fiancée Mandi Smith also expressed distrust in the man, the report shows. Smith gave two of her guns to Burns’ boss because she feared what her fiancé would do if the weapons were kept in the home. Also, she sent her 7-year-old daughter to live with the child’s father because she felt the girl would be safer there, the report shows.
Smith even wept to police, saying she should have warned Hartman about Burns’ behavior, but didn’t. Smith believed Burns was having an affair and found Hartman’s phone number. She called the teen three times during the night when police believe Burns was with her, but hung up when Hartman answered.
Still, the concerns weren’t enough to keep Smith away from Burns. After he was arrested, the two kept in regular communication.
Burns asked his fiancé if she would stick by him when things “get harder.”
“Things are gonna get a lot worse,” Burns said in a tape-recorded conversation with Smith. “If it gets any worse than this, I don’t know if I can deal with this.”
According to the police report, he then said there is nothing he or Smith could say to incriminate him and that he is used to being in jail.
“I’ve been there, done this,” he said. “They think me sittin’ in (jail) is doing something to me. I don’t give a (expletive). This is home.”
But Hartman didn’t know anything about Burns’ past, according to her family members.
The pair met at a gas station and Burns called Hartman frequently and pursued the teen for about two weeks, police wrote. He overwhelmed her with compliments.
Hours before meeting up with Hartman and her sister, Burns spent time with another woman, whom he had met at a bar he frequented. The pair picked up food at ate it at the woman’s house.
But when her roommate’s girlfriend sent a message to her cell phone that the man was “creepy,” she had her male roommate get Burns out of the home.
Burns later called Hartman and met up with her and the teen’s younger sister Randi.
Hartman and Burns were supposed to follow Randi to a party, but they left alone. Randi spent hours calling Jackie, who at first said she and Hartman were going to play pool and then said they were lost.
In Randi’s last conversation with her sister, Jackie sounded intoxicated and unable to make decisions, despite the fact that she had only consumed one beer that night, the report shows.
An autopsy report showed Hartman had alcohol and the date rape drug GHB in her system.
Burns is still awaiting trial and Smith was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for buying her boyfriend a firearm, even though he was barred from having them in his possession.
