Motions and delays continued in the ongoing pre-trial for Charles Severance, accused of three murders in Alexandria. Judge Jane Marum Roush granted a request from the defense to have until April 2 to review a report compiled on Severance’s competency to stand trial. After debate between the prosecution and the defense, Roush also authorized Severance’s defense team an additional $60,000 of paid investigator research.
“This is not a death case,” said James Entas, one of two associate attorney generals assigned to the prosecution by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, “Severance is not entitled to a perfect defense, he is entitled to an adequate defense.”
Roush acknowledged that while the prosecution was not seeking the death penalty, it was still a capital case that would result in a mandatory life sentence if convicted, though she also warned the defense that the constitutional standard in this regard isn’t a blank check from the state.
— Vernon Miles