Pretrial hearing for Burns

In the final step before his trial begins, Brian Burns will appear in Saline County Court on Friday at 9 a.m. for his pretrial hearing.

Burns, 56, faces two counts of first degree murder, and one count of concealment of a body in connection with the death of his estranged wife Carla Burns. He is accused of shooting Burns to death and burning her remains to conceal the homicide.

Burns last appeared in court in April to waive his right to a preliminary hearing, which would have required the state to present enough evidence to Judge Walden Morris to prove probable cause against Burns.

In addition to waiving the preliminary hearing, Burns' last appearance in court saw Judge Walden Morris deny a motion previously filed by Burns' lawyer Nick Brown of Marion to lower Burns' bond to $100,000. Brown had argued that Burns was unable to raise the original amount of $1 million in bond, or $10 million in bail. Brown called the original amount, "the same as imprisonment."

Morris came to the decision to deny a change to Burns' bond after testimony from Illinois State Police Investigator Special Agent Stacy Kinter. Kinter, who had interrogated Burns multiple times after his arrest, testified that Burns had said "at many points" that he had enough money to flee to the Cayman Islands, and that nobody would be able to find him.

Kinter also testified that Burns said, after being read his Miranda rights, that if he had killed his wife, he had enough money to flee the country, and that he would. While on a trip to an island in the Caribbean, Kinter reported that Burns had talked to a local, where he had learned that the island he was on had no extradition policy with the United States. Before his arrest, Kinter said, Burns had also been interested in going to Mississippi and New Orleans to put up missing posters for Carla.

During that same day in court, Morris also ruled in favor of the state's motion to obtain DNA samples from Burns.

After his pretrial hearing on Friday morning, Burns will return to Saline County Court on Wednesday, July 6, for the first day of his trial.