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Severson found guilty on all counts
A seven-man five-woman jury Wednesday found Larry Severson guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Mary, on Feb. 15, 2002, and guilty of the secondary charge of tampering with her diet pills by putting Drano in them.
The state had contended that Severson killed his wife by suffocating her after giving her an overdose of sleeping pills.
The case went to the jury Tuesday after five weeks of testimony. When the verdict was announced Mary Severson's family cried out in relief, many crying, while Severson himself showed no emotion as he stood before the judge and jury.
"Lust and greed, two of the seven deadly sins, were what killed Mary Severson," Elmore County Prosecutor Aron Bazzoli told the jury in his closing statements Monday afternoon.
But in his closing argument the attorney for the defense, Ed Frachiseur informed the jury that he would rely on their common sense to determine that while the prosecution's argument "made a good story, it was just a theory and would not hold up under the facts."
The final week of testimony last week began with the state calling Leanne Watkins, the mother of Severson's mistress, Jennifer Watkins, to the stand.
She testified that after Jennifer had broken off her relationship with Larry the first time, in August, he would sit outside her apartment until 3 a.m.
She said in her own conversations with Larry "he always told me he was divorced," and that when she expressed her concerns about why an older man would be dating her much younger daughter (she was 21) he told her "(she) made him feel like he was young and alive."
He told her he wanted to purchase a new car for Jennifer and would like to give Leanne the Stratus he had bought for Jennifer earlier, but she refused it.
She testified he was upset when, in December, Jennifer again, and finally, broke up with him. She said in January he had called her saying he was frustrated with his relationship with Jennifer, who had begun a new relationship with someone else. He said at that time that his wife had filed for divorce in Colorado and that he was "indeed divorced."
She also testified that Larry had called her again in January to tell her that his wife was dying and diet pills were involved and the FDA was investigating. She said he told her, "If Jennifer had been patient, things would have worked out for them."
Jennifer Watkins then took the stand, saying she had met Larry while working as an advertising salesperson for the Mountain Home News.
During a time in which they were flirting with each other, but had yet to begin dating, she said she noticed Mary's name on checks he wrote to pay for ads, but noticed also that he did not wear a wedding ring. When she asked him about his marital status he said he was divorced, she said.
In August he admitted to her that he was still married, that he was going to get a divorce but had to wait until January so that he would not lose the business, because everything was in Mary's name.
After they began their relationship and planned to be married they picked out a ring at Zale's Jewelers.
Shortly afterward she called the relationship off because Larry was still married, and said that continued to be a pattern in their relationship -- breaking up and getting back together again.
In September 2001 she said Mary Severson called her. "She called me a homewrecker and told me she wasn't leaving and I needed to."
Jennifer said Larry had purchased a Stratus for her but would take it back any time he was upset with her.
In November, she had her wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses ordered but they still had no wedding date because Larry was still married. She said that while Larry never moved in with her, he often stayed at her apartment. Sometimes, she said, he would stay at Severson's house on Poppy street, where they planned to live after the divorce, and she began redecorating the house. She also began working at Auto Works with office duties and errands. They had opened a joint checking account but Larry later closed it without her knowledge.
She said she called off the wedding around Thanksgiving and ended the relationship for good right before Christmas. At that time, she said, Larry presented her with an itemized list of expenses he wanted repaid. During the time they were together he had paid her rent and bills and given her cash from time to time, the largest amount $400.
When her relationship with Larry ended Mary was back in the house on Poppy and Larry with living with Mary there, but Larry told her he still intended to get a divorce.
Jennifer testified that during December and January Larry would park outside her apartment "at all hours" and once dropped off at her door toys for her one-year-old son.
He would phone and follow her and in early January he parked behind her car at Maverick to talk to her, telling her he had divorce papers, but when she asked to see them the envelope he gave her contained papers for a bankruptcy, not a divorce.
In January, he told her Mary was dying and was so sick that she couldn't leave the house any more.
Tracy Besler, who had worked at Fitness Plus where Larry worked out, said Larry told her that his wife, Mary, was depressed and he wanted out of the marriage, saying they were always arguing.
After Mary's death she began dating Larry and at one time, when he had come to her house to pick her up, he noticed some Hydroxycut capsules on her counter. He began pulling the pills apart and told her "these will kill you and you can fill them up. He said I shouldn't take them because they would kill me."
She said she had visited Severson's house on Poppy street several times and during one of the visits he asked her to put a ring of Mary's on, but she refused.
She said Larry also had a difficult time accepting it when she broke off her relationship with him.
With that testimony concluded, the state rested its case.
The defense then made a motion for summary dismissal of the charges, contending the state had not proven Severson's guilt on either of the charges of murder of attempting to poison his wife by tampering with the Hydroxycut diet pills. Such motions are normal.
But Judge Mike Wetherell said there was sufficient evidence to continue and the defense opened its case by playing a tape recording of a conversation between Mary and Larry that apparently had been made at Auto Works while the two worked together. Very little of the poor-quality tape could be easily discerned but at one point Mary could clearly be heard saying "you're the one that told me I could come back (and break the two of you up), so that's what I did."
Paul Langford, an anesthesiologist at Elmore Medical, who had performed the anesthesia when Mary had an endosopy to look at her stomach, testified that he had gone over her medical history with Mary and Larry present, to identify any potential problems. He said he always assumes patients are telling him the truth unless there is some evidence otherwise.
The report he filled out at the time contained a marginal notation that read "sleep apea?" But, he said, Mary did not fit the profile of people who normally suffered from the problem, which was why he questioned it. He said Larry was clearly "in control" during the conversation and often interrupted Mary to give him the information he was requesting, but he could not say who told him about the apnea.
Felisha Gartung, who had served Mary and Larry on Valentine's Day at Smokey Mountain Pizza, the evening before her death, said the pair appeared to be "just like a regular couple" and she did not see any problems between the two.
She also testified she did not notice that Mary had any trouble eating, nor did she see any bruises around Mary's mouth.
Jed Adamson, a state EMT instructor, testified that in his experience sometimes people do not respond well to emergencies and do not always call 911 right away, sometimes calling a family member or friend, instead. "When put under that kind of pressure, sometimes people do weird things," he said.
He also said that, based on the reports he had read of the case, the ambulance personnel had had problems incubating Mary when they arrived at the home the night of Feb. 15, and that "they apparently didn't do it properly" on their first attempt. He said the vomit they found in her airway could have come up as a normal reaction when a patient is dead or unconscious and the valve that prevent it from getting into the throat relaxes.
He also testified that a heart may show electrical activity even when it isn't beating, and that the presence of CO2 that was detected by the EMTs in the lungs could have been exhaled as a normal part of CPR work, and could have been there for some time.
Jerry Rost, a local funeral director who had handled Mary Severson's body, testified that he had often seen discoloration around the faces of bodies he worked on, which would show up a day or two later, indicating that such "bruising" was typical in cases where resuscitation equipment had been used.
Finally, Bernard "Red" Crayne, a friend of Mary and Larry, said that in early January 2002, he had gone to visit Larry at Auto Works and found him coughing up blood. At that time Larry told him he had been taking some of Mary's diet pills and showed him the Hydroxycut capsules he had there, observing that they were different colors when they pulled them apart.
He also testified that Larry had told him later that Mary was ill and having trouble sleeping, but didn't recall him ever saying that Mary was dying.
Dr. Welch, Mary's physician locally, was recalled to testify the that "metal flakes" others had observed in the endoscopy photos of Mary's stomach, were actually broken fiber optic bundles used by the equipment to take the stomach photos.
Final arguments were then presented by both sides to the jury.
"Larry Severson's lust killed her. Mary Severson didn't have any other reason to die," Bazzoli said as he reviewed the events that led to her death.
He showed a picture of the Seversons taken in August 1996 shortly after their marriage, noting the picture was of a "younger, slimmer Mary."
Bazzoli mentioned the fact that the Seversons took out "mirror" life insurance policies in 2000 with each other as beneficiaries, then moved ahead to August 2001 to examine the state of the Severson's relationship.
On Aug. 11, 2001. they met Mary's mother, Carole Diaz, in Salt Lake City, Utah for a visit. On Aug. 16, Mary's mother picked her up at the airport in Grand Junction, Colo., where Diaz lived. Diaz said Mary was crying and said she and Larry had separated. While she was staying with her mother, Mary went from depressed and crying about her relationship to a woman who was contented and productive, losing weight using Hydroxycut and "feeling like a new me" after taking Paxil prescribed by Dr. Kingston in Colorado.
Meanwhile, during the month of August, Larry Severson had met and was pursuing Jennifer Watkins a petite, 21-year-old single mother of a toddler.
Severson had at first told Jennifer and her mother he was divorced, but later apologized for lying, telling Jennifer he could not "get out of" the marriage at that time because all his assets were in Mary's name and he couldn't afford to lose everything. He was paying Watkins' bills and had purchased a car for her to use.
In November Mary returned to Mountain Home to work on her marriage. She confronted Watkins a number of times and telling her to leave Larry alone. Bazzoli pointed out that Mary had returned to her home to discover that Larry and what Bazzoli called "that 21-year-old tramp" had redecorated a bathroom in Mary's home to look like a bathroom at the hotel where Larry and Watkins had stayed during a trip to Utah.
By Thanksgiving, Watkins had broken up with Larry.
During that time, Mary was aware of Larry's affair and was collecting information, including bank records, that showed large withdrawals from the Severson account, including the purchase of a wedding and engagement ring for Watkins. Those records were found hidden under the mattress of Mary's bed. In October Mary had the beneficiary of her life insurance policy changed to her mother.
When Mary returned to Grand Junction for a visit in November, she told her mother that if Larry wanted a divorce Mary would ask for the house, cars, a share of the business and $3,000 a month.
It was in January,
Bazzoli said, that Larry Severson began to "paint two pictures." To many people he began to express concern for Mary's health, saying that it was terrible and that she was dying.
When Mary began experiencing severe stomach cramps and vomiting blood, she saw a doctor and eventually had a endoscopy, which showed a large ulcer in her stomach.
In January and February, Severson began telling conflicting stories about Mary's condition. He had the picture from the endoscopy in his shop along with tainted Hydroxycut capsules from one of two bottles Mary, Larry and Mike Severson purchased from GNC. To some people he said that the tainted pills were causing the ulcer in Mary's stomach, yet he told Steven Bock that Mary's doctor said she had cancer and would die soon.
He told Jennifer Watkins that Mary was so sick she could not go out so he had to sell Mary's car. He told Carole Diaz that Mary was seriously ill and too sick to fly or drive to Grand Junction. Yet at no time did he tell his son, Mike Severson or Mike's girlfriend, Nora, that Mary was dying.
During this time he talked a customer into getting tranquilizers for him. He told her Mary was having trouble sleeping and he was kept up worrying about her. He said the tranquilizers would help him sleep and that he only "needed enough for a few more nights."
In early February Mary told people she was feeling good. She was happy about a date she and Larry were to have on Valentine's Day and had made plans with a friend to do something in the near future.
Larry Severson had called for a prescription for more sleeping pills for Mary, telling the doctor they were working well and wanted more for her. He picked up Ambien at Walmart Feb. 14.
Bazzoli noted the inconsistency in the fact that Severson had been telling people that he was having trouble waking Mary up, that he would often have to shake her, that he thought she had sleep apnea, with the fact that he requested a sleeping aid for such a person.
Bazzoli suggested that since the Hydroxycut had not killed Mary, Severson set the scene for another plan; to kill Mary with an overdose of sleeping pills.
On the evening of Feb. 14, the Seversons went out to dinner and that was the last time anyone saw Mary alive. Larry Severson said that at 10 p.m. Mary went to sleep on the couch because she had been having trouble sleeping. Larry got up at 3 a.m. Feb. 15 to exercise and found Mary was not breathing.
His statements to people about what action he took are conflicting, Bazzoli said. He told some people he shook her and could not wake her and he panicked and called 911, when actually he called Mike and Nora. Mike attempted to administer CPR while Nora called 911 for help.
But Severson told Carole Diaz that he had had first found that Mary was cold and put a blanket over her then called for help. He told the medical staff at the emergency room that he had been concerned about Mary's health. He said during the last couple of weeks she would sometimes fall asleep while sitting up and would not remember conversations. But Mike Severson testified he had not noticed this.
Bazzoli noted that none of Mary's doctors mentioned that Mary had sleep apnea or that Mary had said anything about failing asleep often. Bazzoli said, "no one else saw it."
Bazzoli also mentioned that when Larry Severson returned from the emergency room he was alone in the house all day. The only thing that was cleaned and washed was an overturned bowl of chocolate pudding. The overturned table was still in place and had not been cleaned.
The prosecutor later noted that a brown substance had been found in Mary's stomach and that Mary crushed up pills into pudding to help her take her medication suggesting that it would be easy to crush an overdose into the pudding. He noted there were no pill fragments found in Mary's stomach.
To the motive of greed, Bazzoli reminded the jury that Severson had a lot of money going out of the business, that if he divorced Mary he would lose his home, his business, and several cars and other assets. With Mary dead, he believed he would gain all of that plus the $200,000 from her life insurance and a possible award from a suit against the manufacturer of Hydroxycut.
Frachiseur, in his closing arguments, noted that the many "witnesses called provided good background but could not testify to information they were not privy to." He said that not one person who testified, not expert, police, or friend "got on that stand and said that Larry Severson killed Mary Severson and here's how he did it." No one said, "Larry Severson packed pills with Drano and here's how he did it," Frachiseur argued.
He pointed out that this case was not a story, with events fitting in a neat sequence leading to a tidy ending. These were events that happened to real people, he said, about a marriage, a divorce and the mid-life crises of a man.
He admitted that yes, Larry had an affair, but insisted that he did not kill his wife.
Frachiseur questioned why Mary would have taken the tainted Hydroxycut more than one time and said that Larry stopped after having a bad reaction to them. He said, "Can you imagine what would happen if you took Drano? Common sense says nobody would take more than one of the pills."
He also noted that this would not be the first time someone had tampered with pills and then placed them on a store shelf. (Although Bazzoli noted in rebuttal that one of the examples of tampering was in a case where a man put arsenic in Tylanol to kill his wife and then placed a bottle of the tainted pills on the store shelf to reflect blame away from himself).
He again blamed the bruising on Mary's face on resuscitation efforts, citing the fact that EMTs are working very fast and are more concerned with saving a life more than being careful not to bruise.
He questioned why Larry didn't remove the evidence of sleeping pills from his hat and his cars if he had gone back to clean up evidence of overdosing Mary.
Frachiseur argued that the story the prosecution presented did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Larry Severson killed Mary or put Drano in the Hydroxycut pills.
He told the jury that they must be "morally certain" that Larry Severson was guilty and that "you have to be awfully certain of something to be morally certain."
The judge gave his instructions to the jury, and Tuesday morning the jury began its deliberations, with nearly 100 pieces of evidence and scores of witness testimony to sort through. It completed its deliberations by mid-day Wednesday.