Jackson, CA…Jackson resident Jerry Lee Adams, 46, was sentenced today to 25 years to Life in State Prison. Adams had pled guilty to First Degree Murder on August 31, 2022. In July of 2020, Adams’ son, Issac, was found hanging from a tree at the end of a driveway of a home occupied by Savana Burger, the victim, in what was ruled by the Amador County Sheriff’s Office as a suicide. Despite the coroner’s and his own expert’s concurrence as to his son’s cause of death, Adams wrongfully maintained that those present in Savana’s home at the time of his death were responsible for killing him.

On October 23, 2020, Savana was reported by her mother as missing. Investigation revealed that Adams had communicated with Savana on October 22, 2020 using Issac’s Facebook Messenger account requesting that she accompany him to his son’s gravesite, stating that he would pick her up in his mother’s car. Savana’s cell phone records and data showed that she went to West Point Cemetery for one hour, after which her movement continued up Winton Road in West Point. Surveillance footage showed Adams in KC’s Korner in West Point at the same time as Savana’s cell phone. A fake fingernail containing Savana’s DNA was found in Adams’ mother’s car. Lead after lead was tracked down. Finally, on January 16, 2021, the Amador County Sheriff’s Office and members of the search and rescue team found human bones, including a skull and skin determined by DNA analysis to be Savana. An autopsy revealed that the skull had a bullet hole in it. Adams was arrested for Savana’s murder.

At the sentencing hearing, Savana’s family and friends spoke of fond memories they had of Savana and how she will be remembered as a beautiful and kind person, who would help anyone, including, ironically, Adams, whom she was consoling over the loss of his son. Family members were particularly saddened that Savana’s murder deprives her 3 young children from ever again feeling their mother’s warm embrace. At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge J.S. Hermanson ordered that Adams be sentenced to 25 years to Life in State Prison.

The Amador County District Attorney’s Office would like to thank the Amador County Sheriff’s Office for a very thorough investigation, Deputy District Attorney Lindsey Dell’Orto for guiding this case to a successful resolution, and Victim-Witness staff for their compassion and comfort rendered to Savana’s family.