News
Burke receives 25-year sentence for killing father
TBO.com
Published: December 14, 2012
BROOKSVILLE - Christopher Burke was sentenced to 25 years on Wednesday for killing his father and burying him behind the Hiawatha Boulevard address in Brooksville they shared.Published: December 14, 2012
Burke confessed to the murder in December 2011, and last month, Chief Circuit Judge Daniel Merritt Jr. accepted a plea deal and the accompanying sentence in exchange for Burke's guilty plea of second-degree murder. If the case went to trial, Burke might have received a life sentence.
On Oct. 13, 2011, the 41-year-old was arguing with his father, Raymond Burke, 61, at his property off Lake Lindsey Road. Burke struck his father on the head with a flashlight and strangled him. He then wrapped his father's lifeless body in a blanket and buried it behind the home, according to a sheriff's office report.
Shannon Atkinson, 42, was Burke's live-in girlfriend at the time of the murder. Burke, Atkinson and their son lived in a shack next to Raymond Burke's mobile home. Atkinson witnessed the event and cooperated with law enforcement. She was not charged with a crime.