Crime

Man who ‘killed’ mom sleeping with kids in the house and used blanket-rope to escape prison learns his fate.

by Jackson
Published On:
Man who 'killed' mom sleeping with kids in the house and used blanket-rope to escape prison learns his fate.

Michael Charles Burham, 37, from New York, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced on March 2, 2026, to 25 years to life for executing 28-year-old Kala Hodgkin, a mother of three, in her Jamestown home on March 13, 2023.

The Murder

  • Burham broke into Hodgkin’s William Street residence around 4 a.m. while she and her kids (ages 8, 11, 14) slept.
  • He’d evaded arrest on a rape warrant she had filed against him weeks earlier.
  • He shot her multiple times in the head at close range, execution-style; kids awoke to the horror but were unharmed physically.

Burham’s Crime Spree and Captures

  • Fled; on May 20, kidnapped an elderly Pennsylvania couple at gunpoint, stole their car, ditched them in South Carolina.
  • Arrested May 23 after a homeowner spotted him.
  • Escaped Warren County Prison July 6 using bedsheet rope; recaptured July 16 when a dog alerted owners to him lurking.
  • Pleaded guilty to kidnapping, threats, theft, etc.—got 25-50 years in PA (serving now; NY sentence concurrent after).

Sentencing Impact

  • Chautauqua DA Jason Schmidt: No parole likely; trauma scars kids forever, intergenerational harm from this “cowardly” act.
  • Judge David Foley imposed the max post-plea (trial was days away).

This calculated revenge killing amid your recent shares of impulsive family/road violence shows premeditation’s cold edge. Chilling how warrants turned fatal.

SOURCE

Jackson

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