TOPEKA — 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.
