LEE – By Monday afternoon, Shane Michael Severance was one tired little guy.

Although hobbled by a slight cold – which he generously if innocently gave to several others – his first Christmas in Maine had been, to his 14-month-old eyes, a generally happy proliferation of hugs, feedings, naps and short trips around his grandfather’s Cobb Road home interspersed with more than a dozen new toys and clothes. By Monday afternoon, Shane was down for his usual nap sleeping with great serenity.

His grandfather Les’ holiday was almost as new, but layered with melancholy.

“We’re tickled that we have him here, but it’s quite short-lived. It’s very different because we have Shane but we don’t have Michael,” Les Severance said Monday. “You try to be happy for everyone around you because it’s Christmas and you’re opening presents, but you’re angry because Michael is not here. Or anywhere.”

San Angelo, Texas, veterinarian Wendi Davidson, Shane’s mother, was charged March 5 with tampering with evidence after she allegedly admitted to dumping the body of Air Force Staff Sgt. Michael Leslie Severance, 24, her husband and son of Les Severance, into a Texas pond on or about Jan. 15 because she feared members of her family had killed him.

A grand jury later indicted her on a murder charge and two counts of tampering with evidence after a coroner determined Severance’s body was poisoned with drugs commonly used by veterinarians to euthanize animals and stabbed 41 times to keep it from floating.

Davidson – who has declared her innocence, and, one of her attorneys has said, passed a polygraph exam showing that she didn’t kill Michael Severance – remains free on $150,000 total bail.

As part of a shared custody ruling by a Texas civil court judge, the Severance family had Shane for four days over Christmas ending today, when Les Severance returns him to the custody of Davidson’s parents, Judi and Lloyd Davidson.

The judge, Jay Weatherby, rejected the Maine man’s attempt to gain custody of Shane Michael from Dec. 1 until Davidson’s murder trial.

The murder case is quietly but relentlessly grinding toward trial. Davidson, 27, made a brief appearance in a Tom Green County courtroom on Dec. 14.

During her court appearance, San Angelo attorney Fred Brigman informed a district judge that he has stepped in as Davidson’s defense attorney, court officials said.

Police transferred the case to Assistant District Attorney Allison Palmer for trial preparation in early July.

According to courtroom sources, close to a dozen attorneys have been or were working on Davidson’s defense or the custody battle that is expected to follow the murder trial’s conclusion.

Jury selection for that trial begins March 20, 2006. Severance said he wants to see the case go to trial and would look very critically upon any attempt to plea-bargain it.

“Why should I want a plea bargain? If she’s guilty, she’s guilty,” said Severance, who plans to attend the trial.

Palmer could not be reached for comment Monday.

Having Shane in his home has brightened the holiday for the Severances, who take turns feeding him and changing his diapers.

“It’s just wonderful,” said Brinda Leighton, Les Severance’s girlfriend. More than a dozen people visited the Severances on Monday to see the boy.

“He hasn’t been feeling well, but he’s just been a trooper,” Les Severance said.

Since the Severances last saw the baby, he has learned to walk and has gotten taller, but not much bigger, Les said. When Shane first saw his grandfather at the airport, he reached out his hands to him.

“He smiles all the time,” said Karen Golden of Lee, a family friend who was visiting Monday.

Yet the melancholy sometimes returns, Les Severance said.

“The reason that he [Shane] is here is that his father’s not,” Les Severance said. “How do you balance that? There’s no answers. Michael didn’t die of a car accident. He didn’t have cancer. There’s no logical reason that he’s not here right now.”