Police capture Michael Burham on Saturday, July 15, 2023
Michael Burham has been sentenced to decades in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping a Pennsylvania couple and escaping from the Warren County Jail.
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General announced that Burham was sentenced to 3 1/2 years to 7 years in prison for his escape from Warren County Jail in July 2023 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.
Burham was arrested in May after kidnapping a couple in Pennsylvania and driving them to South Carolina before letting them go unharmed. He was being held in the Warren County Jail to face charges in connection to that kidnapping when he escaped in July. He is believed to have 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, nine days after he escaped from the prison.
Burham pleaded guilty to charges in both cases in November.
He faces additional charges in New York in connection to a separate case. In early May, Jamestown Police announced Burham was a suspect in the homicide of 34-year-old Kala Hodgkin and offered a reward for information leading to his arrest.
The Chautauqua County District Attorney’s office has previously said it would pursue charges in the Hodgkin case after the escape and kidnapping cases were complete.
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