A Fairfax County Circuit Court jury on Monday convicted a Virginia man of fatally shooting three prominent Alexandria residents in their homes over the course of a decade.
After 12 hours of deliberation over two days, the jury found Charles Severance, 55, of Ashburn, guilty of 10 criminal counts, including the murders of Nancy Dunning, wife of then-Alexandria Sheriff James Dunning, in 2003; transportation planner Ron Kirby in 2013; and music teacher Ruthanne Lodato in 2014.
Severance, in a wheelchair with a bad ankle, stared straight ahead as the verdict was read, as he did for much of the trial, The Associated Press reported.
Following the announcement of the guilty verdicts, the case immediately headed into the sentencing phase.
Although Severance was convicted of two capital murder charges in the deaths of Kirby and Lodato, prosecutors opted not to pursue the death penalty. Under Virginia law, Severance will face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
After the verdict was handed down, relatives of the victims began to take to the stand in court to speak about their loved ones.
“She went out of her way to help me be happy. And she continued to do that for me and many others the rest of her life,” said Greg Giammittorio, brother of victim Ruthanne Lodato, according to WRC-TV. “It was unimaginable that someone would come to my sister’s house and shoot her.”
Severance previously had resided in Alexandria and was known about town for his history of erratic behavior and his two unsuccessful attempts to be elected into office.
Before and during the trial, prosecutors said that Severance harbored a grudge against what he perceived as Alexandria’s elite after he lost a custody battle for his infant son there.
Defense attorneys argued that Severance’s mental illness and violent writings gave authorities a pretext to scapegoat their client and assume his involvement in the unsolved murders.
A judge approved a defense motion to move the trial from Alexandria to Fairfax County due to the publicity and widespread fear the murders generated.
Severance’s conviction closed a chapter on a series of killings that frightened and flummoxed Alexandria residents, the AP reported. The death of Nancy Dunning went unsolved for more than a decade, frustrating police. For years, James Dunning was suspected but never charged. He died in 2012 with a cloud of suspicion still hanging over him.
Prosecutors obtained the conviction against Severance without forensic evidence linking him to the crime, but with what Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter called a mountain of circumstantial evidence.
Much of it came from Severance’s own hand, in the form of thousands of pages of violent journal writings justifying murder as revenge for the loss of his son, Levite. An Alexandria judge denied Severance custody of the child when the boy was a baby, and witnesses testified that Severance seethed about the case for more than a decade.
In one passage, titled “Parable of the Knocker,” Severance seemed to describe exactly the conduct in the killings, in which the three victims were shot in their homes in broad daylight: “Knock and the door will open. Knock. Talk. Enter. Kill. Exit. Murder. Wisdom.” In another passage, he wrote, “Received no satisfaction after revenge killing.”
When Alexandria detectives first tried to question Severance about the killings in March 2014, he went to the Russian Embassy seeking asylum, saying he was being persecuted by the city of Alexandria, the AP reported.
An eyewitness and shooting survivor testified that she recognized Severance as her attacker. Dorcas Franko, a caregiver in the Lodato home, was shot in the arm.
⦁ This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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