PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Michael Burham, 34, entered a plea on kidnapping charges Thursday in a Pennsylvania courtroom.
Burham pleaded guilty to kidnapping, escape, and various other charges in connection with his criminal activities in the Warren, Pa., area. The judge accepted the pleas, and Burham is expected back in Warren County for sentencing in early December.
He is currently being held at the Erie County prison in Pennsylvania.
Burham is accused of kidnapping an elderly Pennsylvania couple back in May at gunpoint and driving them to South Carolina. The woman he kidnapped previously told a judge that she saw Burham in her garage with a large pistol. She says he then forced her back into her house, where he changed into her husband's clothes before making them both drive 18 hours with him to South Carolina.
At the time of the Kidnapping, Burham was a suspect in the murder of Kala Hodgkin in Jamestown, New York. She was killed on May 11. He led state police and federal agents on a 13-day manhunt.
A woman who identified herself as an aunt of Hodgkin was also in court and told a reporter of Burham, "I hope he rots in hell."
One of the elderly victims of the kidnapping in May, in Warren, was in the courtroom. She seemingly had no emotion as she watched the activity in the room.
Burham entered his plea on the kidnapping charges in Warren County, Pa., Criminal court at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
In July, Burham escaped from the Warren County Jail. Investigators say he braided eight bed sheets together to climb down from the jail's roof. He led hundreds of law enforcement officers on a nine-day manhunt until federal Marshalls captured him in rural Pennsylvania.
According to the Pennsylvania State Attorney General's Office, Burham is expected to be sentenced Jan. 5.