An indictment first created in February has been unsealed in the case against Michael Burham, the Jamestown man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Kala Hodgkin, in Jamestown in May 2023.

He is also accused of setting a car on fire, fleeing to South Carolina and kidnapping an elderly couple in the process.

Burham was found in South Carolina two weeks after Hodgkin was killed and was then extradited to Pennsylvania while officials in Chautauqua County built their case.

Then last July, Burham escaped the Warren County jail, leading police on a more than a weeklong manhunt. Earlier this year he was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison on prison escape and kidnapping charges in Pennsylvania. 

In New York, he is now charged with murder in the first and second degrees, along with arson in the third degree.

Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt says Burham's long rap sheet began just weeks after Hodgkin accused him of rape. Authorities say she was shot and killed inside of her home on May 11, 2023, with her three children there to witness.

"My goal here is that any individual that would commit a crime such as this, any of us don't want to see that person again,” said Schmidt. “Our goal is to keep somebody incarcerated for the rest of their natural life."

Burham is being held in the Chautauqua County jail without bail.

A trial is expected to take place next summer.