State nears wrapping up case against Severson

Prosecutors began moving toward the issue of motive as the trial of Larry Severson, charged with first degree murder in the death of his wife, Mary, entered its four week testimony last week.

Attorney Jay Clark was called to the stand to testify that he had first been hired by Mary Severson in April of 2000 to help correct discrepancies on her credit report. Larry's previous wife had the same name and almost the same social security number.

In September 2001 she saw him again to discuss a potential divorce, but did not engage him as an attorney for that purpose at that time. On Sept. 28, he said, he talked to Larry who told him that he and Mary were both agreeable to a divorce and that Clark could act as facilitator to the divorce since there were no contentious issues.

In January of 2002, Clark said, Larry had contacted him about the possibility of filing a product liability lawsuit over the hydroxycut capsules that had been tampered with. He said he took the case on contingency and with only an oral contract. He examined the pills in Larry's office and then the ones they had opened were thrown in the trash can, while others they hadn't opened he took to his office. When FDA investigator Banks had shown up at Larry's office and asked to take the bottles of pills Larry had stored there, it was Clark who told him to "come to my office first so I could talk to him."

On the morning of Feb. 15, the day Mary had died, Clark said he went to the Severson home on Poppy Street and discussed life insurance matters with Larry's son, Mike, and Nora Law (who would later marry Mike). Clark said Larry did not participate in the conversations.

Because of scheduling problems with expert witnesses, the defense was allowed to present out of order Dr. Peter Stout, a forensic toxicologist, who testified that the amount of sleeping pills found in Mary's system was "at the low lethal range," and that the combination of the two sleeping pills "could have caused her death." He calculated that Mary had taken approximately six 25mg tablets, a number considerably less than the 12-18 tables prosecution experts had estimated.

Walmart pharmacist Jay Cresto testified that on the morning of Feb. 14, Larry had picked up a prescription for Mary of the sleeping pill Ambien.

Chris Christiansen, who had owned the property where Auto Works was located, said Larry had negotiated to buy the property for $30,000 down and a five-year lease with $2,400 per month in payments, but since Larry could not raise the $30,000 in cash he agreed to cover that amount with improvements to the property, including repaving the front of the property. Christiansen said he never talked to Mary, although she signed all the documents.

He said he met Larry once at Wal-Mart with a young girl he assumed was Larry's daughter, but Larry told him it was his fiancee.

Steve Bock, a loan officer for Trinity Mortgage, said Mary had talked to him about a loan to purchase a house on Poppy Street, and that Mary was the sole buyer of the house in all the records.

He said Larry had asked him later about refinancing the home so Larry could buy an engine for a funny car. He could buy the car and engine separately at a low price, put the engine in the car and sell it for a large profit.

Bock said Mary was supportive of the venture.

Bock also testified that due to a poor credit report on Larry, Mary's name was listed as the sole owner of both the house and Auto Works.

Bock said that in October 2001 he went to Auto Works and a young girl Larry described as his girlfriend (Watkins) was there and "appeared to be running the place."

Then, on Feb. 14, the day before Mary's death, Bock said he took his car to Auto Works and Larry told him that "Mary's dying." He said Larry showed him a picture of Mary's stomach and told Bock the doctor said Mary had cancer and that the doctor told him Mary should not be told. Previous testimony from the doctor who took the endoscopy pictures of Mary's stomach said he had diagnosed an ulcer, and that he had never mentioned cancer to anyone, and except in rare cases, always made sure the patient would have been told of any cancer diagnosis.

Bock said Larry told him "Mary was going to die in a couple of days."

Bock also said that in earlier conversations with Larry he had mentioned he suffered from sleep apnea, and that Larry was "very interested" in the discussion and took a brochure about it.

Mary Bledsoe, the store manager at Zales in the Boise mall, testified that Severson and Jennifer Watkins had purchased a wedding band and engagement ring costing $1,612.80, and that Larry paid for it using Mary's credit card.

Dr. Todd Grey, the chief medical examiner for the state of Utah, another defense expert witness allowed to testify in the middle of the state's case, said that his examination of the autopsy report caused him to conclude that the bruising on Mary's face showed a pattern consistant with a mask over the mouth (such as that used by paramedics). He testified that, based on the reports he had read, Mary had died from an overdose of sleeping pills, probably accidentally, taken over a period of time that evening. He said that the medication could cause sleepiness and confusion and people have forgotten they had taken pills previously or took more because the first dose hadn't worked fast enough.

He said the best explanation of how Mary died was that her nervous system was suppressed and she stopped breathing.

Under cross examination by county prosecutor Aaron Bazzoli, Grey said he had read only the autopsy report, not the police report, although in his own work he routinely does so because the circumstances surround a death is likely to be important.

When Bazzoli asked if it would take much effort to smother someone asleep, Grey replied, "no."

Terry Bucholtz, a friend of the Seversons, said he thought the couple had "a great relationship," and so was shocked in August of 2001 when Larry told him he had just put Mary on a plane and she was going home to her mother. But, he said, Larry told him quickly that "he was just kidding."

Later, he learned the couple was having problems and went to Larry to talk to him about it. Larry, he said, told him that he and Mary's son, Zach, were having problems, and "it just wasn't working."

Larry told Bucholtz then that he had a girlfriend, Jennifer Watkins, and that "she made him feel good. He was happy," and it didn't seem like he was ready to resume his relationship with Mary.

In October, he said, Larry told him that Mary had come back but he "didn't want to break things off with Jennifer."

And then in December, he said, Larry told him Mary had come back and that the two "had a lot of history, and he was going to try and make it work."

He also said that in January Larry told him about the hydroxycut capsules, which he said had made Mary sick, but that she was feeling better. At the same time, he said, Larry told him that Mary was having trouble sleeping and that sometimes she would quit breathing and he'd have to shake her to wake her up. He said he was having trouble sleeping, himself, trying to keep an eye on her. He told Bucholtz that he had taken some sleeping pills from her truck when she had dropped it off for work, and they had helped him, and asked for some more. She gave them to him.

Larry's son, Mike (Severson) Rutherford then testified that the business had been put originally in Mary's name, but in the fall of 2001, as the business was growing, it became a limited liability corporation called Horsepower, LLC, doing business as Auto Works, with he and his dad as the owners. He said Mary had approved of the transfer of the ownership.

He described arriving at the Severson home the night of Feb. 15 to find his father kneeling over Mary on the couch, and how he performed CPR on her until the ambulance personnel arrived, saying that he did not notice any bruising on her face at that time.

He then described his actions for the rest of the day as he closed the shop and returned to the Severson house on Poppy Street to console his father, who was crying when he arrived.

He said during that time Carol Diaz, Mary's mother, had called to ask about the insurance policies.

He also testified that when he, his wife, Nora (then his girlfriend), and Larry and Mary had gone to the Mall in early January they had purchased some hydroxycut bottles at the GNC store in the mall. He had bought one, and they had bought two. He said when Larry became suspicious of the tablets he had told him to make sure Mary quit taking them, and the two of them had opened some of the tablets at Larry's office, confirming they were of two different colors, then thrown them in the trash. Although he said the trash had been emptied several times since then, it had not been cleaned. He described his efforts to contact the distributor of the pills, to lodge a complaint, but said he got nowhere, so he called the FDA.

He said his father had told him about Mary's sleep apnea, but said he hadn't talked with Mary about it. "It was hard to talk to Mary about whether she was sick or not. She was always a strong one."

He said his father had met Jennifer Watkins when she worked as an ad salesperson for the Mountain Home News. When he found out through a third party that his father and Watkins were dating, he talked to his father who told him "he was going to do what he wanted to do."

He said his father told him he was worried about getting a divorce from Mary because all of the assets were in her name.

But after his father's relationship with Jennifer ended, he said that Larry had told him that he and Mary were trying to make their marriage work.

Wells Fargo's Mountain Home bank branch manager Mike Miller then testified to the status of the Auto Works bank records, noting that beginning in September of 2001 the running balance began continuously decreasing, dropping from an average of $24,000 a month to about $4,000 a month in the business account at Wells Fargo.

Daniel Bertraud, a former employee at U.S. Bank in Mountain Home, said that in October 2001 Larry and his son had opened an account under Horsepower, LLC, with both having the power to write checks on the account, and deposited $25,000 in the account. On Oct. 26, Larry had Mike's name removed from the account.

A debit card was issued to Mary Severson, but in Larry's name, on Jan. 10, 2002, allowing the card to be used to draw funds on the business account. Because of Larry's prior bankruptcy, he could not have gotten a card issued in his own name.

Between the time it was opened and the end of February 2002, the running balance in the business account was slowly cut in half.

Also on Oct. 4, 2001, Larry and Jennifer Watkins had opened a joint checking and savings account. On Nov. 23, the account was closed.

Nora Rutherford was recalled to the stand and testified that when she learned about Watkins she was not happy and confronted Larry about the matter.

She said that during a conversation in either October or November of 2001 Larry told her he wanted to get a divorce, but couldn't afford to because "the business was in her name, the house was in her name, and the vehicles were in her name."

Randy Valley, a financial advisor for Waddell and Reed, testified that in August of 2000 Larry and Mary had taken out $200,000 insurance policies on each other. Larry's policy was later increased to $500,000.

After Mary died, Valley said he told Larry not to let the policy lapse, and then informed him that a death claim had been filed and the beneficiary on Mary's policy had been changed, prior to her death, to make Mary's mother, Carol Diaz, the beneficiary.

The trial continued this week with Jennifer Watkins expected to take the stand Monday. The prosecution is expected to rest its case that day or early Wednesday, and the defense will them begin its case.

The trail is expected to last at least until the end of next week before going to the jury.