The Chautauqua County District Attorney’s Office announced that 37-year-old Michael Burham has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Kala Hodgkin.
The plea occurred on Tuesday during a final conference before jury selection was scheduled to begin on January 13. After the plea, the trial was canceled.
The District Attorney’s office said Burham shot and killed Hodgkin inside her home on May 11, 2023. Burham was charged with raping Hodgkin and there was a warrant out for his arrest when the deadly shooting occurred.
After the murder, Burham led authorities on a manhunt, during which he kidnapped a Pennsylvania couple and forced them to drive him to South Carolina. The couple was located alive in a cemetery and told law enforcement they were kidnapped at gunpoint from their home in Sheffield, Pennsylvania.
Burham was later taken into custody in connection with the kidnapping and was being held in Warren County Prison to face charges.
Then, in July 2023, Burham escaped the prison. Officials said they believed he used exercise equipment to get onto the metal-gated roof of the prison and tied bed sheets to climb down from the roof to the ground.
Pennsylvania State Police took Burham back into custody on July 15, 2023, nine days after he escaped from the prison.
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General announced in January 2024 that Burham was sentenced to 3 1/2 years to 7 years in prison for his escape from Warren County Prison and sentenced to 21 years and 8 months to 43 years and 4 months in the kidnapping case.
He was ordered to serve an aggregate sentence of 25 years and 2 months to 50 years and 4 months.
Now, the Chautauqua County DA said Burham is scheduled to be sentenced in connection with the murder of Hodgkin on March 2. He is expected to receive an indeterminate sentence of 25 years to life.
“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,” said DA Jason Schmidt. “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."
“A guilty plea for Murder 1st and to avoid putting the family through a lengthy trial is a win," Jamestown Police Department Lieutenant Adam McKinley said. "Everyone involved did a thorough investigation which led to the guilty plea. We hope Michael Burham spends the rest of his life in prison for his actions.”
