Sheriff’s deputies escort Charles Severance from the City-County Building in Wheeling following a Wednesday hearing in Ohio County Circuit Court.
WHEELING – Ohio County Circuit Judge James Mazzone on Wednesday denied a motion by Prosecutor Scott Smith to hold Charles Severance without bond during extradition proceedings that would return him to Virginia.
Mazzone’s ruling came after Smith and Chief Public Defender Shayne Welling exchanged arguments as to whether the basis for a Virginia warrant naming Severance as a felon in possession of a firearm is a strong enough charge to hold him without bond or under $100,000 bond as initially set by Magistrate Joe Roxby.
Wheeling police arrested Severance, 53, of Alexandria, Va., last week at the Ohio County Public Library, in response to a tip from the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleging he is wanted on a fugitive warrant out of Virginia for a firearms violation.
On Monday, Mazzone granted Smith’s motion to hold Severance without bond until Wednesday’s hearing after Smith said Severance is being investigated by Alexandria authorities regarding three homicides in 2003, 2013 and February of this year. Welling argued the bond was excessive and the entire proceeding was pretextual because the only charge alleged in the fugitive warrant is felon in possession of a firearm.
Mazzone set Wednesday’s hearing to hear Smith’s evidence and potential witnesses to corroborate that Severance is a flight risk or a danger to society.
“We have a witness box here but there is nobody in it,” Welling told the judge.
