Lee man eager for trial in Texas 65 subpoenaed for murder case

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The Severance-Leighton family of Lee, a Texas town’s most prominent landlord and a receptionist who worked at the San Angelo, Texas, veterinary clinic where police say Lee native Michael Leslie Severance was drugged are among those expected to testify in the murder trial of Severance’s wife, documents acquired Monday show.

Prosecutors in Tom Green County, Texas, so far have subpoenaed 65 people to testify in the trial, which is due to begin with jury selection on April 17. Defense subpoenas and witness lists are not required to be filed with the court, county criminal division clerks said Monday. A pretrial conference is set for April 4.

Michael Severance’s father, Leslie Severance, wants to see the murder trial begin. He has been waiting for answers since the weekend of Jan. 15, 2005, when his son, a 24-year-old Air Force staff sergeant, disappeared.

“It’s a new chapter and a nightmare,” Severance said in a telephone interview from Texas, where he has been visiting his son’s only child, Shane Michael Severance, 18 months old. “We are going to just take it as it comes and hope for the best.

“We’re more concerned that because we’re on the witness list that we’re not going to be sitting in court every day. We wanted to see it [the trial],” he added.

A Texas grand jury indicted Michael Severance’s wife, veterinarian Wendi Mae Davidson, on May 25, 2005, on a charge of murder and two charges of evidence tampering. Police accused her of using drugs that normally euthanize animals to poison her husband and stabbing his body 41 times before dumping it in a San Angelo pond on Jan. 15, 2005.

Then, police said, she conspired to alter records to conceal the drugs’ use in the homicide.

Davidson filed for divorce a few days after reporting that her husband had deserted her and their son, Shane Michael Severance, because he didn’t want to be posted overseas. Davidson also told police and friends that her husband had been partying a lot, all claims the Severance family hotly disputes.

The 27-year-old veterinarian was arrested March 5, 2005, after telling her brother, Marshall Davidson, that she came home late Jan. 15, found her husband’s body in their San Angelo home, which also housed the clinic, and disposed of it because she feared other family members had killed him.

The body was found the day after Wendi Davidson was arrested. She withdrew the divorce claim within a few weeks.

Davidson, who is free on $100,000 bail, has pleaded innocent. One of her attorneys has said she passed a lie detector test that showed she didn’t murder Severance and doesn’t know who did.

No judge has been selected to preside over the trial, court clerks said Monday. Assistant District Attorney Allison Palmer, who will prosecute the case with her boss, District 51 District Attorney Stephen R. Lupton, did not return telephone calls Monday seeking comment.

According to court documents, Leslie Severance, his live-in girlfriend, Brinda Leighton, her daughter, Nicole Leighton, and Michael’s younger brother, Frank Severance, have been subpoenaed to testify. Among others who have been subpoenaed are:

. Wendi Davidson’s parents, Judi and Lloyd Davidson of San Angelo. During a deposition taken last summer for the ongoing civil court battle for custody of Shane, the Davidsons admitted that they disliked Michael Severance – Judi Davidson said she hated him – but they denied any knowledge of his murder.

. Wendi Davidson’s brother, Marshall Davidson, a former Texas game warden who now works as a deputy in the Zapata County Sheriff’s Department.

Marshall Davidson was fired from his job earlier this year because Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials erroneously believe he withheld information regarding the murder, the discovery of the body or other information pertinent to the investigation, said Rae Leifeste of San Angelo, Davidson’s attorney.

“They have a general feeling that Marshall was not forthright with all the information that he could have been,” Leifeste said Monday.

Leifeste said his client cooperated with investigators as fully as he could and that his appeal of his termination is pending.

Parks and Wildlife Department officials have refused to comment in detail about Davidson’s firing and refused a Freedom of Information Act request for documents concerning the termination and the murder investigation.

. Longtime Davidson family friend Terrell Sheen, a retired veterinarian who is among San Angelo’s wealthiest landlords. He owns the ranch where Michael Severance’s body was found; employs Wendi’s father, Lloyd, as a contractor; and hired Wendi as an assistant when she was in college. He also, Texas court officials say, is helping pay for the close to a dozen attorneys hired to defend her.

Sheen had stopped practicing veterinary medicine but bought and refurbished Wendi’s clinic, charged her $1,500 rent, and stood with her in large newspaper ads announcing the opening of her clinic in October 2004.

. Jamie Crouch, a part-time receptionist at the clinic who might have been working the weekend of Severance’s disappearance.

. Joel Bird and Jason Burdine, ex-boyfriends of Wendi Davidson’s.

. Tim Edwards, a San Angelo attorney who filed divorce papers on Wendi Davidson’s behalf and represented the Davidsons during their civil court battle with the Severances over custody of Shane Michael Severance.

. Shane Zubaty, a Florida man after whom Shane Michael Severance is named. Zubaty received a letter from Wendi Davidson in February 2005. In the letter, she hinted that the military might have had something to do with her husband’s appearance.

Leslie Severance said he hoped the trial would provide him with the answers he and his family have long sought. As many as 25 family members and friends will travel from Maine to Texas to attend all or part of the trial.

“Let’s get on with it. Let’s get it going and see what happens,” Severance said. “I know that two months from now, things will seem different. We’ll know more.”

For the Bangor Daily News series, “A Murder in Texas,” go to www.bangordailynews.com.