A former Los Angeles Unified School District elementary school teacher who murdered his 43-year-old estranged wife was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Michael Rodney Kane, 48, was found guilty March 30 of first-degree murder for the June 15, 2013, stabbing death of his estranged spouse, and jurors found true the special circumstance allegation of lying in wait and convicted him of making criminal threats and disobeying a protective order.
Kane’s 43-year-old wife had gotten a restraining order against her husband in the midst of a bitter divorce and taken refuge at a friend’s home in West Hills.
Kane went to the friend’s home around 8 a.m. on June 15, 2013, and overpowered and wounded the friend, who tried to bar the door. The defendant then chased his wife outside and stabbed her 41 times. The couple’s two children were inside the house at the time.
Michelle Kane had gone to a police station twice the day before she was killed and made a follow-up call, telling officers her estranged husband was violating a restraining order and had vandalized the home they once shared in Canoga Park.
Her divorce attorney said at the time of her death that she had taken “all necessary precautions,” fearing “an imminent threat to her life and the lives of her children.”
During a previous court hearing, a police detective testified that the defendant had left a chilling voicemail message for his wife.
Paraphrasing, the detective said the message warned, “The beast is hungry. I need to feed the beast. I made my peace with God. Today may be your day. It may be a week from now. Basically, your time is coming.”
Kane was arrested two days after the killing, shortly after his abandoned vehicle was spotted by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies in the Joshua Tree area. He was found during a search of area motels.
Kane started as a substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1997, followed by three permanent teaching assignments, the last of which was at Nestle Avenue Charter Elementary in Tarzana.
— City News Service