Severson indicted for murdering wife

Larry Severson, 48, of Mountain Home, was indicted Friday by a grand jury on charges that he killed his wife, Mary, on Feb. 15, by overdosing her with sleeping pills.

He was being held without bond at the Elmore County jail.

The grand jury also indicted Severson on charges that he had tampered with some fat-blocker medication she had been taking by putting Drano in the capsules during January of this year, although that was not the cause of her death.

Severson, the owner of Auto Works on American Legion Boulevard, was arrested at work a few hours after the grand jury returned its indictment.

Defense attorneys called the charges baseless and said Severson was being persecuted by law enforcement.

In the early morning hours of Feb. 15, ambulances and law-enforcement personnel, responding to a 911 call, arrived at the Severson home to find family members performing CPR on the 35-year-old woman who was not breathing. She was taken to Elmore Medical Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Authorities said they were suspicious of her death from the beginning.

"In any case, where you have a person that young dying for no apparent reasons, you start by assuming the worst case," said Capt. Mike Barclay of the Elmore County Sheriff's Office. "And in this case, that's what we wound up with."

The nine-month investigation involved scores of interviews, the work of several forensic pathology labs, the Ada County Coroners office and the federal Food and Drug Administration.

On Nov. 12, Ada County Prosecutor Aaron Bazzoli convened a rare grand jury in Elmore County, where he presented his evidence. Friday, that grand jury returned two indictments, one for first degree murder, alleging that he killed his wife by overdosing her with sleeping pills, and the second, a felony charge of poisoning food or medicine, specifically putting Drano in HydroxyCut tablets she had at her home, some time between Jan. 5 and Feb. 1, and giving them to her over a period of time.

Mary Severson apparently had quit taking those tablets, however, at about that same time, due to an ulcer problem she had, Barclay said.

Barclay and detective Cathy Wolfe were the lead investigators in the case.

The 16-member grand jury was unanimous in returning the two indictments. Severson will be arraigned in District Court on charges on Dec. 2, at which time a trial date is set. His defense attorneys, Jay Clark and Scot Summer, are expected to move for dismissal of the charges at that time. Severson's attorney's have been aware since Mary Severson's death that he was under suspicion and had already begun preliminary work to prepare a defense prior to Severson's arrest.

Severson was indicted by a grand jury on Nov. 12 for perjury in connection with a civil case arising out of the case. Carol Diaz, Mary Severson's mother, had filed a lawsuit against Severson contending he had not disposed of her ashes properly. Severson said he had, but authorities allegedly discovered he still had her cremains in his possession. The perjury case has not gone to trial yet.

Severson also is involved in another lawsuit with Carol Diaz. A few months before her death, Mary Severson apparently changed the beneficiary of her $200,000 life insurance policy from her husband to her mother. Severson sued, contending the money should have gone to him.

At the end of 2001, Severson and his wife had separated. She returned to her home near Grand Junction, Colo., and shortly afterward Severson began dating at least one other woman. That relationship was broken off when Mary Severson returned around the first of the year, and the couple resumed living together.

Defense attorney Jay Clark noted that witnesses would testify that on Feb. 14, only a few hours before her death, the couple had enjoyed a quiet, pleasant Valentine's Day dinner together at a local restaurant.

In an unusual reversal of normal procedure, the prosecution in the case was being tight-lipped about what evidence they intended to present at trial, while the defense was more than willing to talk.

Bazzoli said he could not discuss key aspects of the case, such as motive or the mechanism by which he believes Severson overdosed his wife, saying that information was part of the sealed grand jury transcripts.

Because the charges were brought by a grand jury, the prosecution was not required to file an "information" outlining the basic facts of their case, as is normally done when the more common procedure of a preliminary hearing is held to determine if a person should be bound over to trial.

"Those things will come out at the trial," Bazzoli said. And while he refused to specify a motive, when asked about the motive he simply referred reporters to the court records, where the civil lawsuit between Severson and Diaz over the insurance money was on file.

But if Bazzoli was playing his cards close to the vest, Clark and Summer were more than willing to talk.

"We want everything in the open," Clark said. "We have nothing to hide. They're hiding everything because they have no case."

"This is just an amazing situation. Rarely is someone so innocent, the victim of so much persecution," Clark said, indicating "Barclay and Wolfe better watch out, because we'll be going for them. Their reputations aren't the best." Bazolli objected to that, saying both were "very good" and ethical detectives.

"We think this is pure harassment," Clark said, "and just a ploy to help Mrs. Diaz get the life insurance." Bazzoli dismissed that allegation as "ridiculous."

Clark contended the first report of product tampering actually came from Severson, prior to his wife's death, who had taken some pills he thought were suspicious to a local pharmacist, who then discovered the Drano in them. "The police did nothing to help out," he said, adding that Severson had been concerned about his wife's health for some time.

He added that the autopsy "didn't say there were lethal doses of anything" in her system.

A copy of the autopsy report, provided by Clark to the Mountain Home News, showed forensic pathologist Dr. Glen Groben of the Ada County Coroner's Office had written in his conclusions that blood tests "did reveal potentially lethal levels of Doxylamine and toxic levels of Zolpidem, but due to circumstances surrounding the case, the cause of death will be left undetermined."

Clark said their own expert witnesses would testify that the levels of those drugs, found in sleeping pills, were not at toxic levels.

Clark also charged that Bazzoli had used the grand jury method to return the indictments, because a potential defendent is not allowed to cross-examine witnesses, as they can do in a preliminary hearing.

"It's all one-sided. With the method they used, they could indict the Pope."

Clark said he did not expect that Severson would be granted bail prior to his trial.

Bazzoli said he believed the case merited the death penalty. He has 30 days from the time of Severson's arrest to file a notice of intent to seek the death penalty, but said he was waiting to find out if it appeared likely the legislature would re-instate the death penalty in Idaho when it meets in January. A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidated Idaho's death penalty because under Idaho law only judges can impose a sentence of death. The Supreme Court said only a jury should have that right.

Both sides of the case said they did not expect the trial to begin for a least three months.

Mary Severson is survived by two children, currently living in Colorado, whom she had brought into her marriage with Larry Severson.