Judge Says Severance Allowed to Try to Prove Former Alexandria Sheriff Responsible for Wife's Murder: Reports

Murder suspect Charles Severance, charged in the murders of three high-profile Alexandrians, will be allowed at his trial next month to try to prove that the late Alexandria sheriff, Jim Dunning, tried to kill his wife, Nancy Dunning, according to a WUSA-9 report from a pre-trial hearing Thursday.

Judge Randy I. Bellows apparently switched gears, after first agreeing with prosecutors that there wasn’t sufficient evidence. Bellows was appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court to the case last month after Judge Jane Roush, who previously presided over the case, was appointed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe to the state’s highest court.

Prosecutors objected, saying the defense theory wrongly drags Dunning’s name through the mud, the Associated Press reported.

Severance is charged in the murders of three prominent Alexandria residents: Ruthanne Lodato, Ron Kirby and Nancy Dunning. Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty. Lodato was the daughter of a retired Alexandria judge and Kirby as a transportation planner for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

Alexandria’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter has argued that the motives, ballistics and manner of the killings were too similar not to tie together in the murder trial. All were shot in their homes in the late morning.

Dunning was found shot dead in her home Dec. 5, 2003. She was the wife of then-Alexandria Sheriff Jim Dunning, who served as sheriff for two decades. He was elected in 1985. Nancy Dunning was a successful real estate agent and was known as the “Queen of Del Ray.”

The day she was found murdered at her home, Nancy Dunning was supposed to meet her husband and their son at Atlantis restaurant at Bradlee shopping center, but didn’t show up. She was last seen leaving the Potomac Yard Target store. Surveillance footage from that day, according to prosecutors, shows a man who looks “strikingly similar” to Severance following Dunning, NBC-4 reported.

After her death, the former sheriff moved to Hilton Head Island, S.C. He died there in July 2012 at age 62.