Two charged in 2013 Valley Center shooting face arraignment in October

Two of four people accused of fatally shooting a Valley Center couple last November face arraignment on capital murder in October, according to Sedgwick County District Court records.

Anthony Bluml and Andrew Ellington are due in court for the hearing Oct. 2 in connection with the killing of Bluml’s adoptive parents, Roger and Melissa Bluml. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett, in an e-mailed response to questions, said the men are expected to enter formal pleas in their cases at that time.

Prosecutors also are expected to announce that day whether they plan to seek the death penalty against Anthony Bluml and Ellington, Bennett said. Both are 19.

One of the other defendants in the case, Anthony Bluml’s biological mother, 36-year-old Kisha Schaberg, also faces arraignment on capital murder, but that date was pending as of Thursday, Bennett’s spokesman, Dan Dillon, said via e-mail.

The fourth person charged with the killings, 19-year-old Braden Smith, struck a plea deal with prosecutors that reduced his capital murder charge to two counts of second-degree intentional murder. In exchange, Smith agreed to testify against the other three defendants.

The deal was announced in late July, moments before a joint preliminary hearing was held for Bluml, Schaberg and Ellington. Smith, the sole witness at the proceeding, waived his right to a preliminary hearing and then testified for about three hours that morning.

He will be scheduled for sentencing after he fulfills the terms of his plea agreement, Dillon said.

Roger and Melissa Bluml both were shot in the head as they sat in a car outside of their rural Valley Center home Nov. 15 in what Smith described in July as a plan to get life insurance money and because Anthony Bluml felt resentment over being kicked out of the family’s house for smoking marijuana.

Melissa Bluml, 53, died at a Wichita hospital the following day. Her husband, who was 48, succumbed to his injuries about five weeks later.

The defendants each face a total of seven criminal counts tied to the Nov. 15 shootings. Under Kansas law, the mandatory sentence for a capital murder conviction is death or life imprisonment without parole eligibility.

If Anthony Bluml, Schaberg and Ellington are not convicted of capital murder, they each could be convicted of two counts of premeditated first-degree murder. If that happens, each could face life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years on each of the two murder counts.

Prosecutors said in July that they plan to ask Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering to sentence Smith to 24 1/2 years in prison. The judge, however, is not required to abide by the plea deal.

Anthony Bluml, Schaberg, Ellington and Smith all remained in Sedgwick County Jail on Friday morning. Each is being held in lieu of $2 million bond, according to an online roster of jail inmates.

This story was originally published September 5, 2014 at 6:32 AM with the headline "Two charged in 2013 Valley Center shooting face arraignment in October."