Man allegedly told friend of plans for killing

A Spokane Valley man charged with first-degree murder reportedly told a friend how he planned to kill his pregnant wife: a power saw, dismemberment and molten metal.

But during a Dec. 30 argument, Anselmo Braffith III allegedly beat his 25-year-old wife, Jamie Braffith, to death, possibly with a bat, according to documents filed Friday in Spokane County Superior Court.

Braffith, 24, made his first court appearance Friday on the murder charge, after being transferred to Spokane from Tacoma where he turned himself into authorities last week. Braffith drove to his mother’s house in Tacoma on New Year’s Eve with his four children after finding his wife covered in a blood-soaked sheet in their basement. Family members convinced Braffith to turn himself in. He contacted a corrections officer at Pierce County Jail and stated: “I think I killed my wife,” according to a court document.

Friday was Braffith’s first appearance in a Spokane County court. He appeared subdued and withdrawn as he sat next to his court-appointed attorney. “No, sir” was his only comment to Judge Richard White when asked if he wanted to speak.

An affidavit supplied by the district court described the events that led to his wife’s death.

The downward spiral began on Dec. 30 when Braffith confronted his wife, accusing her of having an affair after discovering she had contracted chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease. The two argued, then Braffith left to go to a friend’s house.

After telling the couple’s mutual friend he was angry at her for not telling him about the affair, Braffith went to the Oasis Bar, according to the court document. The mutual friend later joined him. He drank two pitchers of beer. Then, when they were leaving the bar, he told her: “It’s going to be me or her. One of us is going to die. I’ll just kill her and take the kids to my parents’ house and turn over custody of them before I turn myself in.”

Braffith then asked the friend what the difference was between manslaughter and murder, according to the court document.

The mutual friend told Spokane Valley detectives Braffith had made several statements that he wanted to kill his wife. He told her that after killing his wife, he’d use his Sawzall, a power saw, to dismember her body, the court document said. He would then take it to Travis Pattern Foundry where he worked and place the body parts in molten metal.

Braffith returned home to the residence in the 4400 block of North Adams Road where he and his wife got in a physical confrontation, the court document said. Braffith told police he remembered that he hit his wife in the back once, but then he blacked out.

When he awoke the next morning, he found Jamie covered with the blood-soaked sheet at the foot of their basement stairs, officials said. He packed up the children and drove to Tacoma.

The couple’s three children, 7-year-old A.J., 2-year-old Jada and 7-month-old Josiah, and Jamie Braffith’s son from another marriage, 10-year-old Desmond, are now in Anselmo Braffith’s sister’s custody in Tacoma, the accused killer told Judge White on Friday.

Jamie Braffith died from a massive blow to the back of her head and her body was covered with bruises, according to Medical Examiner Sally Aiken. She was three months pregnant.