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Braden Smith

Defendant in Bluml murders enters plea
By David Dinell
Last Updated: September 17, 2015

Legal proceedings in the 2013 deaths of rural Valley Center residents Roger and Melissa Bluml are winding down.

The last of four defendants charged in the couple's murder, Braden Smith, 20, entered a plea of guilty to two charges of second-degree intentional murder Sept. 14 in Sedgwick County District Court.

Smith will be sentenced Oct. 29. The district attorney has requested a sentence of 24 1/2 years. While not at the scene of the murders, Smith provided two guns to be used at the crime scene and since the weapons were provided with the intent of committing the killings, he becomes part of the crime, said Marc Bennett, district attorney.

However, Smith made a deal with prosecutors in which he wouldn't be charged with capital murder and instead get the two counts of second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against the other three in the case.

The Blumls were shot on Nov. 15, 2013, outside their home as they were returning from dining out.

They both survived, but died later. Melissa Bluml, 53, died Nov. 26, 2013 and Roger Bluml, 48, died  a little more than a month later.

Three others were involved: Krisha Schaberg and her biological son, Anthony Bluml, who also was the adoptive son of the Blumls, and a friend of Anthony Bluml, Andrew Ellington. Like Ellington, Smith also was a friend of Bluml from their days at Valley Center High School.

Schaberg and Bluml pleaded no contest to capital murder charges and in exchange for their pleas, were saved from the death penalty. Both are serving life terms without parole.

Ellington entered a plea of no contest to his charges of first- and second-degree murder and recently was sentenced to almost 38 years in prison.

The murders were an attempt to get life insurance money from the Blumls' estate. The plan was conceived by Schaberg and her son.

The Sept. 14 hearing was brief and, unlike other legal proceedings in the complex case, fairly uncrowded.

About six family members filled part of a bench in District Judge Jeffrey Goering's courtroom as Smith was led in.

Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, he was shackled and expressionless. He didn't make eye contact with the family or courtroom gallery and remained subdued throughout the 16-minute hearing, answering the judge's series of questions in a monotone, "yes, sir," or "no, sir" reply.

Repeatedly, Goering asked Smith if he was entering the pleas voluntarily and if he realized he was giving up his constitutional right to a trial, and Smith said he was and made the decision on his own.

Upon release from prison, the judge informed Smith that he will have to register as a violent offender.

By entering the plea, virtually all of Smith's appeal avenues are now shut down, the judge told him.

As Smith was led out of the courtroom, he simply looked ahead and then down, again not viewing the courtroom audience.

As in the past, the Bluml family declined to make any public statement. Compared to other hearings, this was more businesslike and less emotional.

The family has one more court appointment, Smith's sentencing. However, even after that, as one member commented earlier, they feel the loss of their loved ones constantly, especially at gatherings and during the holidays.





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