LEE – A town man trying to wrest control of his grandson from the parents of the Texas woman who murdered his son believes the crime occurred so she could collect a $500,000 life insurance policy.

In a motion for a new civil-court custody trial that attorney Thomas M. Goff released Friday, Les Severance of Lee expresses dismay that the parents of convicted murderer Wendi Mae Davidson receive more than $2,000 monthly from an Air Force death benefit and Social Security to care for 3-year-old Shane Michael Severance and Shane’s half brother, Tristan Davidson, 7.

“It is shocking that the family of Wendi Mae Davidson will benefit financially from the murder of Shane Michael Severance’s father by his mother,” Goff wrote in the six-page motion.

“This fact alone,” Goff added, “should convince any trier of fact that it is not in the best interest of the child to be with and be in the custody of” Lloyd and Judi Davidson of San Angelo, Texas.

The elder Davidsons and their attorneys have refused comment since the custody case began more than a year ago. Davidson attorney Tim Edwards, however, has accused Severance of using Shane Michael for money and publicity, particularly in Maine, in a San Angelo newspaper.

Les Severance denied that claim. In an interview last week, he said he believes that an audiotape of Lloyd Davidson secretly recorded last year by Wendi shows that her father is an unfit parent for Shane – which she intended to prove with the recording.

“The tape against Lloyd should have been a sign that he’s not all there,” Severance said. “Shane should have been given a chance to live a better life here with us.”

San Angelo 340th Judicial District Judge Jay Weatherby disagreed. In a ruling released April 30, he rejected almost all claims in the appeal filed by Goff on Severance’s behalf.

Weatherby judged that the elder Davidsons had taken good care of the boy, of whom the Severances have partial custody.

Nor were any other Davidsons ever charged in connection with the murder of Michael Leslie Severance, 24, an Air Force staff sergeant. A Lee native, Severance’s body was found March 4, 2006, in a pond owned by Terrell Sheen, a Davidson family friend and influential San Angelo landlord.

Weatherby sided with a psychologist hired by the Davidson family, Dr. Johnny Burkhalter, who testified that separating Shane from Tristan would be detrimental to Shane’s health.

He disagreed with the counselor hired by the Severances, Dr. John Lorenz of Bangor, who said Burkhalter’s rationale defied common sense.

The recording begins, as Davidson admitted under oath during the October custody trial, with her visiting her parents’ San Angelo home, in violation of a court order barring her from being there when Shane was present, on a false pretense. Her real motive, she testified, was to record her father having a meltdown to use the tape to secure Shane’s custody for herself at a later date.

In the recording, Lloyd Davidson uses the word “hate” 29 times in one uninterrupted passage that runs two transcript pages. Davidson occasionally was speaking in the presence of his toddler grandson, Tristan Davidson. At one point, prompted by the elder Davidson’s monologue, Tristan asks, “Mama, did you kill someone?”

“Wendi hates Tristan. Wendi hates baby Shane. Wendi’s so full of hate,” Lloyd Davidson says on the tape.

Attorneys for the Davidsons and their daughter, who retained separate counsel for the custody trial, argued against the tape’s admission. They questioned its authenticity, suggesting it could have been altered because it had significant gaps.

Goff answered that he learned of the tape from Wendi Davidson during his deposition of her and received it from her attorneys. The attorney appointed to represent Shane’s interests also argued for the tape’s admission, saying that it was “disturbing.” The judge admitted the tape into evidence.

A former veterinarian, Wendi Davidson is serving a 25-year sentence at a Texas prison. She is appealing her conviction.

Under the existing custody arrangement, Shane Severance will visit his Maine grandparents for about six weeks starting next month.

No court response date for Goff’s custody appeal has been set.

nsambides@bangordailynews.net

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