March 29, 2024
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Woman begins murder appeal process

A Texas veterinarian who pleaded no contest in October to poisoning her husband, Lee native Michael Leslie Severance, in January 2005 proclaims her innocence in one of two letters she wrote to San Angelo judges that are part of her notice of appeal of her conviction, court officials said Friday.

Declaring that she is awaiting an expedited appeal “for charges I am absolutely innocent of,” Wendi Mae Davidson asked Judge Barbara Walther – and, in a second letter, Judge Tom Gossett – to stay in Tom Green County Jail in San Angelo to facilitate attending a custody trial involving her son Shane Michael Severance. The letters are dated Dec. 18.

“My attorneys have assured me that we should be hearing from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals within 1-7 months from now, and they are very confident that I will be exonerated at that time,” Davidson wrote to Walther. “This is the ‘safest’ and ‘quickest’ route they told me.”

Shane’s grandfather Leslie Severance of Lee will seek full custody of the 2-year-old boy from Davidson’s parents, Lloyd and Judi Davidson, during a civil court trial that is set to begin March 19, said Severance’s attorney, Thomas Goff of San Angelo.

Severance said he was surprised to hear of the letters and of Davidson’s protestations of innocence.

“As far as I know, everybody who goes to jail is innocent,” Severance said Friday. “At one point during the trial the judge said, ‘Wendi, do you understand what this means? Do you understand that this means that you will be convicted of murder?’ And she said, ‘Yes, I understand that.’

“So I presume when she said that, that she understood it,” Severance added.

Gossett presided over the murder trial that ended Oct. 18 when Davidson, 28, of San Angelo pleaded no contest and took a deal that will compel her to serve a total 25-year sentence on the murder charge and two concurrent 10-year sentences on two evidence-tampering charges.

The criminal court deal left an avenue for an appeal in the Texas 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. That court could overturn Gossett’s decision to admit evidence, which Davidson’s attorneys claimed came without proper authorization, and call for a new trial with all or most of the prosecution’s evidence disqualified, her attorneys said.

Davidson explained in both letters that her attorneys told her she would stay in the jail until her appeal was heard. She said she would not want to be sent to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility, fearing that she might not be able to attend custody trials involving Shane or another son she had with another man.

“Sir, my two small boys are the reason for my existence,” Davidson wrote. “I have to be in court when it concerns them.”

She also included with one of the letters a 14-stanza poem that she wrote called “Angels” in which she lamented the loss of custody of her sons.

“I know two angels/Here on this land. Sent from above/From God; Not a man. I am their mother/to protect and hold. My love for them is mighty and bold,” it begins.

In Gossett’s letter but not Walther’s, Davidson said that her attorneys assured her she would get an expedited hearing in three to nine months. She also states that she just learned that she is pregnant with a third child, and would fear for her safety in a Texas criminal facility.

Her attorneys, who could not be reached for comment Friday, filed on Nov. 9 a notice of an intent to appeal the conviction, Tom Green County court officials said Friday. Most criminal court appeals take as long as two years to be heard.

Davidson was convicted of poisoning her husband of four months Jan. 15, 2005, with drugs used to euthanize animals, weighing his body down with car parts and cinder blocks, and dumping it in a pond after stabbing the body 41 times to keep it under.

If her conviction is upheld, Davidson will be eligible for parole in about 13 years.

As part of the existing custody arrangement, Shane will be in Maine with his father’s family until Wednesday, Severance said. He was due to arrive at Bangor International Airport on Friday night.

“We’ve held Christmas off until tomorrow,” Severance said. “We haven’t opened [presents] yet.”

It will be good to see his grandson again, Severance said.

“It’s like when I go down there and see him on the weekends,” he said. “We spend a lot of time together and have some fun. Hopefully, we will get some snow and maybe go sliding with him, and if it’s too cold we will do like everybody else and stay in the house.”


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