Main: Michael Burham in court for his sentencing hearing on March 2 (WGRZ). Inset: Authorities arresting Burham in South Carolina in May 2023 (Berkeley County Sheriff's Office).
A 37-year-old New York man will likely spend the rest of his days behind bars for executing a mother of three weeks after she accused him of rape.
Chautauqua County Judge David Foley on Monday ordered Michael Charles Burham to serve 25 years to life in a state correctional facility for the 2023 slaying of Kala Hodgkin, authorities announced.
Foley handed down the sentence after Burham in January pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder one week before jury selection in his trial was scheduled to begin.
"Two and one-half years after Kala was brutally executed in her home while she and her three kids slept during the early morning hours and not a single day has gone by that we haven't thought about her and the children, preparing for this trial which was to take place next week, waiting to finally hold this monster accountable for his heinous, cowardly actions," District Attorney Jason Schmidt said in a statement after Burham's plea. "Whether by trial or plea, Mr. Burham's judgment day was coming and we now look forward to sending him off to state prison where I hope he spends the rest of his life reliving what he did, murdering an innocent young mother, destroying a local family, and traumatizing Kala's surviving children."
As Law&Crime previously reported, Burham on March 13, 2023, broke into Hodgkin's home on William Street in Jamestown, New York, where she and her three children, ages 8, 11, and 14, were asleep.
At the time of the murder, a warrant had been issued for Burham's arrest in connection with raping Hodgkin, but he had not yet been taken into custody.
After a warrant was issued for his arrest in Hodgkin's murder, Burham on May 20, 2023, kidnapped an elderly couple in Warren County, Pennsylvania, at gunpoint, and drove their car to Charleston, South Carolina. Law enforcement authorities were able to locate the couple unharmed and took Burham into custody a few days later after a homeowner spotted him prowling around in their backyard.
However, while being detained at the Warren County Prison in Pennsylvania, Burham on July 6, 2023, used a rope made from several bedsheets tied together to escape the facility. He remained on the lam for 10 days until a couple's dog alerted them to a man in their backyard who turned out to be Burham.
He pleaded guilty in that case to kidnapping, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats, theft and burglary.
A Pennsylvania judge sentenced Burham to 25 to 50 years in a state prison for the kidnapping, which he is currently serving. When he finishes that sentence, Burham will be transferred to New York to continue serving his sentence for Hodgkin's murder.
Despite the kidnapping and murder sentences running concurrently, Schmidt said he did not see how Burham "would ever be paroled" after pleading to first-degree murder.
"The extensive amount of harm that has been caused that will last this family forever, and it probably will go on to the next generation, children that are still suffering because of the trauma they experienced inside that home," the DA said. "It's just overcoming for all of us with emotion that somebody could exact that level of harm against a family for reasons that still boggle the mind."
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