Cortland Man Admits Murdering his Girlfriend

A Cortland man is looking at twenty years to life in prison for murdering his teenage girlfriend last May.

24-Year-old Michael Hammond II pleaded guilty to murder in the death of 16-year-old Amie Leland.

Police said Hammond fought with Leland May 8^th at their Lincoln Avenue home and hit her with a wooden stool, wood axe handle and aluminum baseball bat, then stabbed her in the neck, back and chest.

Hammond was arrested just hours after the murder after authorities received a call of a distraught man in Virgil.

Hammond had originally been charged with burglary and criminal possession of weapons in addition to the murder count.

Leland was a student at Cortland High School.