Mark Douglas Burns was driving through Rock Springs on his way to North Carolina when he stopped to fuel his vehicle and find another victim.
He stalked a nearby apartment complex and found a home with a bedroom window open. Through that window was a 14-year-old girl, asleep.
When she awoke, Burns threatened her with his knife, promising to do harm to her family if she called for help. He then bound her with duct tape, committed his sexual assault of the girl and then returned to his vehicle and proceeded with his trip to North Carolina.
The assault happened in 1991 and until last year it was considered a cold case which finally saw closure Monday afternoon with seven guilty pleas by a man already serving multiple life sentences.
Burns, 70, of Utah, appeared in a change of plea and sentencing hearing before Third Judicial District Court Judge Richard Lavery, where he pleaded guilty to seven of the nine charges filed against him as part of a plea agreement. Burns, already serving consecutive life sentences for previous sexual assaults he committed in Northern Utah and the 2001 murder of an Evanston woman, was issued consecutive sentences amounting to between 229 and a half years and 255 years with 468 days credit for time already served. He pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, kidnapping, four counts of first-degree sexual assault and aggravated assault and battery.
“All of that occurred in a home in Sweetwater County,” Judge Lavery asked the defendant.
“Yes, your honor,” Burns replied.
The victim read an impact statement telling the court and Burns about what the crime had done to her family.
Burns claims he believed his victim to be 18 or 19 at the time, telling the court that the Rock Springs assault was his first involving a child. He was convicted in April of last year of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old Utah girl in 1992.
“I was 14-years-old and had no concept of sex,” the Rock Springs victim testified.
During the attack, the victim said her mother and younger sister were sleeping in nearby bedrooms and her father had fallen asleep watching television in the basement.
She said the pain of the experience was something she had never experienced and said she was able to free herself shortly after Burns left the home.
After waking her parents, they reported the crime and went to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County to have an examination. DNA samples retrieved would ultimately tie Burns to the crime. She expressed her gratitude to the Rock Springs Police Department and specifically mentioned retired Sgt. Tim Robinson for continuing to work what became a cold case.
She said the trauma from the night didn’t end with Burns leaving or the subsequent investigation. The victim said she felt like he was watching her for years following the assault and still wakes up in a terror at the same time Burns had entered her bedroom nearly 30 years ago. Her family’s relationships would change as well, saying both she and her father lost their faith after the assault. The family struggled to keep the event hidden from her younger sister until they felt she would be able to process the situation and her mother wouldn’t live to see the day Burns was arrested and brought to justice. When she had children of her own, she said she struggled with when she should tell them about what happened to her, all the while dealing with “a scary sort of depression.” Some evidence, such as a quilt her grandmother had made for her, was never returned to the family.
The victim recognizes that the crime is one where Burns sought power over her, but said she saved her family by enduring the assault and coping with the trauma and shame she experienced afterward.
“You do not have any power over me,” she said.
She also recognizes Burns has publicly sought the death penalty and understands he will never live out his sentences, but hopes the life sentences are upheld and he lives a long life with the guilt of the crimes he committed.
Burns committed a series of violent sexual assaults in Wyoming and Utah through the 1990s and into 2001, when he killed Evanston resident Sue Ellen Higgins in a botched armed robbery. According to the Uinta County Herald, Burns said he had gotten bored with sexual assault during a September 2020 court hearing where he confessed to the murder.
Burns said Monday the 2001 murder caused him to stop committing crimes because “killing’s no good.”
He became a truck driver and avoided police until 2019 when, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, a genetic genealogist used a public database to find a relative of Burns who uploaded their DNA profile online, which lead Utah police to him.
However, he also claimed to have murdered transgender hitchhiker he had picked up while driving a truck to Arizona. He attempted to justify that killing by saying the woman had promised sexual favors in return for the ride, but discovered the woman was biologically male and said he shot the her dead.
“But that person deserved it,” he said.
Burns said he wrote a letter to the FBI in 2019 confessing to a series of crimes after he was arrested in Utah. Burns has 17 convictions connected to two sexual assaults in Utah, as well as separate criminal convictions tied to the 2001 Evanston murder. Burns said he reported 10-12 sexual assaults to the FBI, saying one of the assaults took place in Laramie while others had occurred in eight states.
On Tuesday, Burns was transported to Albany County to face charges for his alleged Laramie sexual assault.
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