Ray, a recent graduate of Edgewood High School, was arrested by Butler County deputies after they found Schmidt on the floor of the house suffering from the stab wound.
Sheriff’s deputies said Michael J. Ray told them he “did it, yes I did” when they arrived on the scene about 4:45 p.m. Sunday.
Ray was on the phone when emergency crews arrived. Schmidt was cradled on the floor by his wife, Bonnie Ray Schmidt.
All were covered in blood, according to deputies.
Ray said the knife, which deputies believe is the weapon used in the stabbing, was in his bedroom.
Schmidt died of a single stab wound to the chest, according to Butler County Coroner Lisa Mannix.
Ray was arraigned Monday in Hamilton Municipal Court, where bond was set at $500,000. He remains housed in the Butler County Jail. Because the case was already presented to the grand jury, the preliminary hearing in municipal court for Monday morning will not take place.
The case has been assigned to Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage, but an arraignment date for the indictment has not yet been set.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Office released a 911 call Tuesday from distraught woman who said, “My husband is hurt.” She screamed and cried, “Bryan, stay with me.”
But audio recordings of a call placed by dispatchers to the residence after the woman disconnected were not released at the direction of Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser after requests from the JournalNews.
On Friday, Gmoser filed a protective order in common pleas court to stop release of the call claiming it would prevent a fair trial for the defendant.
“... Unlike any other case in recent memory, the recording contains material that is so lawfully prejudicial to any theory of innocence of the defendant, its disclosure to the public will prohibit any expectation of obtaining a fair an uninfluenced or unbias jury in this venue — Butler County,” Gmoser wrote in the motion.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lauren.pack@coxinc.com
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