Brandon Thoma, 32, pleaded guilty of felony child endangerment resulting in death and abuse of a corpse in Webster County District Court in July. On Friday, District Court Judge Kurt Stoebe sentenced Thoma to up to 50 years in prison for the endangerment charge and up to 10 years for the abuse of a corpse charge. He ordered that the two sentences be served concurrently, or at the same time. Thoma will be required to serve a minimum of 20 years before he can be eligible for release. He will also be required to pay $150,000 in victim restitution.

Thoma was arrested last December along with his then-girlfriend Taylor Blaha, 25, after an investigation into the death and disappearance of their newborn daughter. Both were charged with first-degree murder.

Last month, Blaha pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to up to 50 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 35 years before she can be eligible for release.

At her hearing, Blaha admitted that on Nov. 16, 2022, she gave birth to a baby girl in the bathroom of the apartment she shared with Thoma at 927 Central Ave. She said around the time of the birth, she had been using methamphetamine and that Thoma “convinced” her that if the Department of Human Services found out about her meth use, she would lose her older son and never see him again.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Kevin Blaha addresses Brandon Thoma while reading his victim impact statement during Thoma's sentencing hearing on Friday morning. Blaha is the father of Thoma's former girlfriend, Taylor Blaha, and the grandfather of the newborn that Thoma and Taylor Blaha are accused of killing last fall.

“He convinced me that the only way out of this was to drown the baby in the bathtub,” Blaha said at her hearing last month. “He told me what to do and how to do it.”

When Thoma pleaded guilty in July, he admitted that he “intentionally committed an act that resulted in the death of the child,” though he did not clarify what the act was. He also admitted to hiding the deceased infant’s remains in order to conceal a crime. He told the court that he put the remains in a trashcan a block from his residence, but an extensive search operation led by the Fort Dodge Police Department in late November and early December came up empty.

Kevin Blaha and Nancy Blaha, Taylor’s parents and the grandparents of the little girl, gave victim impact statements during Thoma’s sentencing hearing. Kevin Blaha recalled when, right after being sentenced to 50 years in prison, Taylor smiled at him from across the room.

“I asked her ‘Why are you smiling? You were just convicted, you were just given 50 years,'” Kevin Blaha said. “She said to me, ‘I’ll be in prison, Dad, and he can’t hurt me. Don’t worry, he won’t be able to beat me. He won’t be able to kick me. As long as he’s in prison, he can’t hurt (my son) anymore either.'”

Kevin Blaha said that Thoma had controlled and manipulated Taylor Blaha, making her do things she didn’t want to do and getting her addicted to meth.

“You are responsible for my daughter’s demise,” Nancy Blaha said to Thoma. “She is paying the ultimate price for your actions.”

Due to court rules, Abbagale Blaha, Taylor’s sister, was unable to read her victim impact statement during the hearing. However, she shared it with The Messenger.

“She lost her voice before she could even gain one,” she wrote, addressing Thoma. “You may be the biological father, but we all know I was her parent. A loving parent would not harm their child. She was loved so much and she would have had a loving and safe home to go to had she lived.”

Abbagale Blaha and her wife, Lacie, were planning to adopt Taylor’s baby once she was born. They had named her Everlee.*

“You had to hurt an innocent baby who I’m sure you got a good look at and who may have been looking up at you, yet you still did what you did,” Abbagale Blaha wrote. “I really hope that with however much time you get — which isn’t enough — that you sit everyday in prison remembering her little face looking hopelessly up at you… She would have been nine months and 16 days today.”

After the sentencing, Kevin Blaha said he felt some closure.

“Maybe we can get on with our lives,” he said.

And although his daughter will be spending the next three and a half decades behind bars, Kevin Blaha takes solace knowing that Thoma will be behind bars, too.

“There’s no doubt in my mind, he was the mastermind,” Kevin Blaha said. “He was just the one that concocted what to do. He convinced her this is what has to be done. And knowing him, I know that’s what happened.”

*An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the name Abbagale and Lacie Blaha had intended to name the baby upon adoption.