District Attorney Jason Schmidt has announced that 37 year old Michael Burham has pled guilty to Murder in the First Degree arising from the shooting death of Kala Hodgkin on May 11, 2023.
Ms. Hodgkin accused Mr. Burham of forcibly raping her two months before her death and was shot dead in her home by him after he was charged but before he was arrested. Mr. Burham’s plea occurred yesterday, January 6th, during a final conference before jury selection was scheduled to begin on January 13th. After pleading to the top count in the indictment, Mr. Burham’s trial was canceled. Instead, he is now scheduled to be sentenced on March 2nd and is expected to receive an indeterminate prison 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 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. Our thoughts and prayers have been and remain with the children, including Mr. Burham’s daughter who was sleeping upstairs when he broke into Kala’s home at about 4:20 in the morning and committed this shockingly evil crime. His plea yesterday is the result of an iron-clad case put together through the collaborative efforts of Jamestown Police Department which led the investigation, my office, Chautauqua County Forensic Investigation Team, Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police, Pennsylvania State Police, Jamestown Fire Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Warren City Police and the Warren County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania, and the North Charleston and Summerville Police Departments in South Carolina. We owe a debt of gratitude to each and every agency and person who worked tirelessly to develop the evidence used to secure this conviction.”
Jamestown Police Department Lieutenant Adam McKinley said, “A guilty plea for Murder 1st and to avoid putting the family through a lengthy trial is a win. 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.”
