A 37-year-old Olathe, Kan., man was sentenced to 17.6 years for attempted first-degree murder and 12.9 years for rape on Thursday in Wyandotte County District Court.
Jibri Liu-Kinte Burnett was sentenced in a plea agreement. The sentences will run concurrently, according to the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s office. Burnett also was ordered to register as an offender for life.
A DNA match brought about the conclusion to the cold case.
According to the district attorney’s office, a victim was sleeping in her home in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Kansas City, Kan., on Aug. 17, 1999, when an unknown male intruder broke into her home, violently raped her, and stabbed her multiple times.
The victim crawled to her neighbor’s porch for help, and she was unrecognizable because of the severity and extent of her injuries, the district attorney’s office stated. The neighbor called 911, and the Kansas City, Kan., police and EMS responded. The victim was in critical condition and was taken to a hospital, where she underwent life-saving surgery. A sexual assault kit was performed and evidence was entered into a database.
A “John Doe” case was filed in 2001 using the unique DNA profile recovered from the sexual assault kit, prosecutors stated. The investigation was never closed, but there were times when no leads meant the investigation was inactive.
The case was examined again beginning in late 2014 by Wyandotte County assistant district attorneys and Kansas City, Kan., police detectives as part of the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s office unresolved major case initiative, a spokesman said.
During the review, it was discovered that a “hit” in the database later matched the DNA profile of Burnett. The discovery of the “hit” caused detectives to follow up on numerous newly developed leads. Detectives ultimately took Burnett into custody on May 27, 2015, and he confessed, the district attorney’s office stated.
The sentence was imposed by Judge Bill Klapper in Division 8 of the Wyandotte County District Court. The case was investigated by the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department and prosecuted by assistant district attorneys Kristiane Bryant and Jennifer Tatum.