Burlington Man Charged With Beating His Wife to Death

A Burlington man is accused of bludgeoning his wife to death with a flashlight in front of their young children over the weekend.

Bal B. Khadka, 44, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday morning to second-degree murder for the killing of Lila Darjee Khadka. A judge ordered him held without bail pending a hearing later this month.

Police responded to the Bobbin Mill Apartments on South Champlain Street early Saturday morning after receiving reports of loud screams coming from their unit.

Officers spoke to two 10-year-old girls outside the building — the Khadkas’ daughter and her friend who was staying the night — who said they’d climbed out of a window when Bal Khadka began attacking his wife with a flashlight.

Inside the apartment, officers found him trying to put shoes on his 3-year-old daughter. “He said ‘hello’ in a low calm voice and seemed unfazed by police presence,” a police affidavit said.

Officers found Lila Khadka laying in bed, unresponsive and covered in blood. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead Sunday evening, about 36 hours after the attack.

The Khadkas’ 10-year-old daughter told detectives that she had witnessed her father try to hurt her mother numerous times in the past. The first incident that she could remember occurred when she was about 5 years old; her father was drunk, she said, and tried to stab her mother with a knife.

Not long after that, she and her mother went to her aunt’s house to get away from her father, the girl said. She said her father showed up, grabbed her mother by the throat and dragged her into the kitchen, where he tried to get a knife. She said her uncle eventually intervened.

In the most recent incident, the girl said her father appeared to be using drugs prior to the attack. She drew for detectives what looked like a crack pipe and said her father had been in and out of her parents’ bedroom all night, yelling at his wife.

The friend who was staying the night took an audio recording on her phone that captured the moments before and after the attack. On it, a girl can be heard screaming before what sounds like a struggle.

“This is followed by what sounded like someone being struck with a hard object at least 9 times,” the affidavit says. There is then a brief pause, before a final striking sound.

In a bedroom dresser, police found a flashlight with blood and hair on it.

More than a dozen family members attended Tuesday’s arraignment, which was briefly delayed so that the court could find a Nepalese interpreter to help Bal Khadka understand the proceedings. He appeared in a red jumpsuit with shackles around his wrists and ankles. In addition to murder, he faces three counts of cruelty to a child.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George pointed out that the attack occurred during the national Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

“It’s just another reminder of how much work we have to do in this country and globally to protect women from domestic partners,” she said. “Women are more likely to be killed by their domestic partners than anybody else, and we’re not doing enough to protect communities.”

George further noted that most fatal domestic violence incidents occur after a long history of abuse.

She confirmed that Khadka had been charged with domestic violence on at least one previous occasion. But the case was dismissed after Lila Khadka decided not to participate — a common outcome, George said. Most domestic violence prosecutions rely on victims to testify against their abusers, putting them in yet further danger, while forcing them to navigate numerous other issues, including where they might live.

“Rather than go through that, a lot of them will decide it’s not worth it,” George said. “That is on all of us — as a system and as a community — to do more to support victims.”

Calling the audio recording of the attack one of the worst things she has ever heard, George said she hoped that Khadka’s defense attorney won’t contest the state’s request to keep him in custody without bail.

Otherwise, prosecutors will likely need to play the recording aloud for a judge, George said, “so that the court really understands how callous and how horrific this was.”