Teacher convicted of stabbing his wife to death

A Los Angeles Unified School District teacher was convicted Monday of stabbing his wife and leaving her to die on the pavement outside a West Hills home, authorities said.

After deliberating for about 2-1/2 hours, a jury found Michael Kane, 48, guilty of first-degree murder, making criminal threats and violating a protective order, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

On the morning of June 15, 2013, prosecutors say Kane confronted his estranged wife, Michelle Kane, 43; chased her as she ran out of her friend’s home; and stabbed her several times.

Michelle Kane had filed for divorce and sought a restraining order months earlier after Michael Kane made death threats against her and harassed her as well as her daughter, 6, and son, 2.

The day before the killing, she had told police that she suspected her husband had broken windows in their home and violated a protective order. She took refuge in a friend’s West Hills home.

The next morning, Michael Kane showed up at the home and pushed his way inside, police said. He attacked his wife after she ran outside, police said.

Michael Kane, who was a teacher at L.A. Unified’s Nestle Avenue Charter Elementary School in Tarzana, fled the scene. He was arrested in Yucca Valley two days later, authorities said.

He’s scheduled to be sentenced April 20 and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty.

Kane has been on unpaid leave with the school district since June 2013, district spokesman Thomas Waldman said. District officials are "swiftly reviewing the case" and Kane's formal dismissal is expected to be taken up at the school board's next meeting in April, Waldman said.

-- Matt Hamilton

Photo: Michael Rodney Kane (seated in a wheelchair behind the door) made an appearance in a Van Nuys courtroom in June 2013, when he was charged with his wife's murder. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times