Final defendant in shooting death of Valley Center couple pleads guilty to murder

The last of four people who executed a plan to kill a Valley Center couple over money and hatred admitted in court Monday morning that he provided two guns he knew would be used in the 2013 slayings.

Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and with his defense attorney at his side, 20-year-old Braden Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree intentional murder in the fatal shootings of Roger and Melissa Bluml. The couple were the adoptive parents of one of his high school friends, Anthony Bluml, who along with his biological mother, Kisha Schaberg, devised the robbery-shooting plot that culminated in their deaths.

Smith, in entering his guilty plea, acknowledged to Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering that he knew two .25-caliber pistols that he secured in the days before Nov. 15, 2013, would be taken to the Blumls’ rural Valley Center home and used in the plot.

Initially, Smith was supposed to have driven Schaberg to the Blumls’ house and lay in wait for their return on the night of the shootings. But he backed out and instead recruited another high school friend, Andrew Ellington, to do the job.

Schaberg pulled the trigger.

A plea deal he struck with prosecutors last year reduced a charge of capital murder to two counts of second-degree murder. He agreed to testify against his accomplices in exchange. The deal also dropped counts of first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, burglary and theft.

Smith gazed ahead while the judge went over his rights and the details of the four-page plea agreement in court Monday morning.

He wore shackles at his wrists and ankles, short-cropped hair, a beard and a mustache.

Defense attorney Charlie O’Hara stood to his left. A few members of the Blumls’ family sat at his back in the courtroom gallery.

Among a series of questions asked of Smith by the judge was: “Do you think pleading guilty and taking advantage of this plea agreement is in your best interest?”

“Yes, sir,” was the reply.

“Other than what’s been promised in the plea agreement, has anyone promised you anything or threatened you with anything to get you to plead guilty today?” Goering asked.

“No, sir,” Smith said.

Prosecutors plan to ask Goering to send Smith to prison for 24 1/2 years when he is sentenced Oct. 29.

The judge, however, isn’t bound by the recommendation. He could impose a prison term of up to 108 years, 10 months.

After the hearing, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett told news reporters that the plea “was very much expected.”

“Today was simply the culmination of an agreement that was reached a year and a half ago,” he said.

Previous testimony

At a preliminary hearing last summer – when the plea deal was first announced – Smith testified about the weeks and days leading up to the shootings and how the robbery-murder plan played out. He said Anthony Bluml resented his adoptive parents because they had kicked him out of their house after he graduated from Valley Center High School for smoking marijuana. Schaberg hated the couple because she believed they were keeping her away from her two sons, who were adopted by Roger and Melissa when the boys were young.

Smith last summer testified that after reuniting in California, Anthony Bluml and Schaberg decided to kill the Blumls to get money from their will and set the date for Nov. 15, 2013. That night, Anthony Bluml met his parents for dinner at a south Wichita restaurant to give Schaberg and Ellington time to arrive at the house, rummage for valuables and position themselves for the Blumls’ return.

When the couple arrived home, Ellington held Roger Bluml at gunpoint while Schaberg fired a bullet into Melissa Bluml’s head.

She then turned her weapon on Roger Bluml and pulled the trigger.

Melissa Bluml, 53, died the next day at a Wichita hospital.

Her husband, 48, died about five weeks later.

Authorities arrested and jailed all four accomplices in the week after the shootings. Each originally was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, burglary and theft. The homicide counts were upped to capital murder in December 2013 after Roger Bluml succumb to his injuries.

Bennett, after Monday’s hearing, said Smith’s testimony at the preliminary hearing helped bring a “positive resolution” to the case.

If Smith is ordered to serve 24 1/2 years in prison when he is sentenced in October, the penalty would be the least severe imposed on any of the four people implicated in the killings.

Schaberg, 37, and Anthony Bluml, 20, each are serving a life sentence with no parole eligibility after pleading no contest to capital murder in May.

Ellington, also 20, will serve at least 37 years in prison. He was convicted of first-degree and second-degree murder after pleading no contest in June.

Smith cannot appeal his sentence. He gave up that right as part of his plea agreement.

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 9:47 AM with the headline "Final defendant in shooting death of Valley Center couple pleads guilty to murder."