RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - An appeals court has upheld capital murder convictions against a man who killed three people in Alexandria as part of a grudge against the city’s “ruling elite.”
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia ruled unanimously Tuesday to uphold the 2015 convictions of Charles Severance of Ashburn for three shooting deaths in the city stretching from 2003 to 2014. All three victims were killed in their homes in daytime, in an upscale neighborhood.
Defense attorneys argued unsuccessfully that it was unfair to prosecute all three slayings in a single trial, among other claims.
Prosecutors said Severance, who has a history of mental illness, wanted revenge against what he considered the city’s enforcement class after losing a child custody case there.
Severance is serving a life sentence.
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