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Kan. man ordered to stand trial in girlfriend’s beating death

Shawnee County
TOPEKA (AP) — A judge has found sufficient evidence for a man to stand trial in the beating death of his girlfriend in Topeka.

Thirty-four-year-old Luke Anthony Wabaunsee was bound over for trial Wednesday on a charge of premeditated first-degree murder. He was arrested one day after 42-year-old Michelle Stadler was found dead in October in a north Topeka apartment.

WIBW-TV reports that a detective testified at the preliminary hearing that Wabaunsee’s DNA was found on the handle of a bloody glass mug recovered from Stadler’s apartment.

Her neighbor, Shawn Cunningham, testified that Wabaunsee wanted her to quit using meth. Another neighbor, Marcia Paden, said she heard a man’s voice say he “wasn’t going to take it anymore.”

Wabaunsee is jailed on $1 million bond. His trial is scheduled to begin in April.

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