A serial killer out to terrorize a community, or a wrongly accused man?
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Version 0 of 1. Charles Severance hated Alexandria so much after losing custody of his child in its courts, he hatched a campaign to terrorize the city by shooting three of its prominent residents in their own doorways, a prosecutor told a jury Wednesday. The killings, carried out over roughly a decade, were nothing short of “political assassinations.” “Introduce murder into a safe and secure neighborhood,” Alexandria Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney David Lord quoted from Severance’s writings. “It shudders with horror. Do it again and again and again.” Lord laid out that central argument of the state’s case against Severance on Wednesday, as both the prosecutors and the defense offered closing arguments in the triple murder trial in Fairfax County. The statements capped more than three weeks of testimony that featured more than 100 witnesses, hundreds of exhibits and more than 2,000 pages of Severance’s writings. The defense argued that authorities have focused on the wrong man. Severance, 55, a former candidate for mayor in Alexandria and other offices, is accused in the February 2014 slaying of music teacher Ruthanne Lodato, the November 2013 fatal shooting of regional transportation planner Ronald Kirby and the 2003 killing of real estate agent Nancy Dunning. He is facing two capital murder charges and a first-degree murder charge, among 10 counts. If convicted of the most serious charges, Severance faces life in prison. The death penalty is not an option in the case. Jurors began deliberating shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday but quickly suspended their work for the night. They are scheduled to resume deliberations Thursday. Lord and Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter spent their closing arguments carefully fitting together a puzzle of largely circumstantial evidence. They highlighted witnesses who placed Severance near the scenes of two killings, ballistics evidence, surveillance video that showed a car that might have been Severance’s near the scene of Lodato’s killing, and Severance’s own bizarre and sometimes chilling writings. [The evidence against Charles Severance] Defense attorney Megan Thomas meticulously tried to cast doubt on that case, saying that prosecutors and police had “jumped to conclusions” and that there were innocent explanations for much that prosecutors cast in a sinister light. Thomas said her client, who suffered from mental illness, was an “easy target” for authorities trying to close high-profile murders. “Did he have anger? Did he have disappointment? Did he have paranoia? Absolutely,” Thomas said. “Did he act on it? No.” [Family members describe Charles Severance’s unusual behavior] The marathon closings lasted for much of the day. Lord began the proceedings by flashing photos of the three victims on TV monitors in the courtroom and then discussed how they epitomized Alexandria’s prominent residents, whom Severance blamed after losing the custody battle for his son in 2000. Lord then ticked off the similarities of the killings. They occurred in the same neighborhood, roughly a mile from each other. The victims were shot at or near their front doors in the middle of the day. He added that the ammunition was the same in each case and was fired from similar weapons. He questioned whether it made sense that three separate individuals would have carried out crimes with such hallmarks in a relatively low-crime area. “It is more likely that there is one individual who bore a grudge against this community,” Lord told the jury. Lord then touched on what is the prosecution’s strongest evidence in any of the three cases. A caregiver for Lodato’s mother identified Severance as the attacker who had come to the family’s home on Feb. 6, 2014. Janet Dorcas Franko had testified that she was in another room when someone rang the doorbell, which was followed by a loud boom. She ran to see what happened and said Severance shot her and fled. Lord also said he believed that Severance did not leave forensic evidence at the scene of any of the killings because he wore gloves. He pointed out that ballistics experts said it was exceedingly rare for a killing to be carried out with the type of .22-caliber ammunition used in each case and added that Severance displayed guilty behavior by fleeing to the Russian Embassy in the District after police initially contacted him about Lodato’s killing. Lord said that Severance’s writings held the key to a motive. Severance discussed taking revenge for his son’s case, writing at one point: “Can you murder someone for kidnapping your son?” Thomas began her own closing by also quoting Severance. The line came from a postcard Severance sent to a friend: “Everyone is suspicious of the middle aged man with no place to call home.” The theme pervaded Thomas’s statements to the jury as she attempted to show that authorities had settled on Severance as the killer and then shaded the facts to bolster their case. She said the stories of witnesses that placed Severance near the scenes of the Lodato and Kirby killings had “evolved” over time. Thomas told the jury that the timeline of a video that prosecutors purported showed Severance’s car near Lodato’s home did not match the timeline of the killing. She also said that Severance fled after he was contacted by police in the Lodato killing because he suffered from paranoia caused by mental illness. And if Severance had a “burning hatred” of Alexandria, as prosecutors contend, Thomas questioned why there was a roughly 10-year gap between Dunning’s killing and the other two crimes. The Dunning case was tacked on to the others, she said, and the circumstances of the killing were somewhat different. Thomas said that what investigators did not find was telling. Severance never mentioned any of the victims in his writings, she said, and crucial evidence that would have tied him to the scenes was nonexistent. “There is absolutely no forensic evidence linking Mr. Severance to any of these crimes,” Thomas told the jury. |