LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — Loudoun County prosecutors dropped a gun charge Monday against a man who faces multiple murder counts in Alexandria, clearing the way for him to be tried on the more serious charges.
Charles Severance, 53, was transferred from Leesburg to Alexandria after Loudoun prosecutors dropped the gun charge against him during a hearing Monday morning.
Severance was indicted last week on three murder charges in Alexandria, one of which dates back to 2003.
Loudoun prosecutors declined to say why they dropped the charges. Severance’s lawyers had argued the gun charge was a sham to hold him while Alexandria police tried to build their murder case.
Severance, who was a fringe candidate for political office in Alexandria and has a history of erratic behavior there, was arrested in March in West Virginia on the gun charge. He was held in West Virginia and in Leesburg while the Alexandria murders remained under investigation.
Last week, Severance was charged with murder in the 2003 slaying of Nancy Dunning, wife of then-Sheriff James Dunning; the November 2013 shooting of transportation planner Ronald Kirby; and the February shooting of music teacher Ruthanne Lodato. The Lodato and Kirby slayings carry a potential death sentence, but prosecutors have indicated they won’t seek Severance’s execution.
Severance is scheduled to make an initial appearance by video hookup at the Alexandria courthouse on Tuesday.
