Final defendant in Bluml killings sentenced to nearly 25 years in prison

A Sedgwick County judge on Thursday ordered a 20-year-old man who took part in the fatal shootings of a Valley Center couple in 2013 to serve 24 1/2 years in prison.

Braden Smith is the last of the four people to be sentenced for the slayings of Roger and Melissa Bluml, who were the adoptive parents of one of his friends.

During the sentencing hearing Thursday morning, defense attorney Charles O’Hara urged the judge to follow Smith’s plea agreement, which recommended 294 months of incarceration, because Smith had cooperated with law enforcement and prosecutors handling the case.

Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree intentional murder in September.

He worked out the deal with prosecutors in exchange for testifying against the three other people involved in the Blumls’ killings: Kisha Schaberg, Anthony Bluml and Andrew Ellington.

Originally, Smith had been charged with capital murder, which is a death penalty-eligible offense; aggravated robbery; and other crimes.

Prosecutors say he provided two .25-caliber pistols he knew would be used on Nov. 15, 2013.

Melissa Bluml, 53, died at a Wichita hospital the following day. Her husband, 48, died about five weeks later.

“He’s (Smith) never been in trouble before. He’s obviously very young. This is a huge, traumatic thing that, in talking to him, he is extremely sorry for what he got into,” O’Hara told District Judge Jeffrey Goering, who imposed Smith’s sentence.

Smith, he continued, “realizes he should not have done that, he should not have been involved.

“And he is very sorry for the family.”

Smith, who was dressed in a green Sedgwick County Jail jumpsuit, refused a chance to address the court on his own behalf.

The family of the Blumls also chose to remain silent when they were given an opportunity to speak.

Marc Bennett, the Sedgwick County District Attorney, in court called Smith’s involvement “a key ingredient” in the Blumls’ deaths.

“This sentence, we believe, is one that Mr. Smith earned,” he said.

After the hearing was over, Bennett leaned over a bench in the courtroom gallery and quietly said “It’s done” to the Blumls’ family members.

They declined interview requests from reporters, but after the hearing Bennett said “collectively they’re relieved that it’s over with.”

At a preliminary hearing last summer – when Smith’s plea deal was first announced – Smith testified that Anthony Bluml and Schaberg had plotted to kill the Blumls because they hated them and wanted money from a will.

Anthony Bluml is one of the Blumls’ two adoptive sons. Schaberg is the boys’ biological mother.

The night of the shootings, Smith has testified, Anthony Bluml took his adoptive parents to dinner while Schaberg and Ellington drove to their house and lay in wait for their return. When the couple arrived home, Schaberg shot both in the head.

Initially, Smith had agreed not only to provide the guns used in the shootings but also to drive the car that night. But he backed out and recruited Ellington for the job.

Bennett, in an interview after Smith’s sentence was imposed, said he was “pleased with the result.”

Getting Smith to testify against the other three “was essentially the first domino that fell to resolve this entire case,” he said.

Schaberg, 37, and Anthony Bluml, 20, are serving life in prison without parole eligibility for capital murder and aggravated robbery.

Ellington, 20, will serve at least 37 years in prison for first-degree and second-degree murder.

All waived their appeal rights as part of their plea agreements.

“With the way the pleas were worked out and all the waiver of the rights to appeal, there should be finality to this,” Bennett said, adding: “And I think that’s been important” for the Blumls’ family.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 9:47 AM with the headline "Final defendant in Bluml killings sentenced to nearly 25 years in prison."