UPDATE: Sept. 15, 12:52 p.m. — Alexandria police report Charles Severance has arrived at the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center in Alexandria.
LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — Loudoun County prosecutors have dropped a gun charge against a man now facing multiple murder counts in Alexandria.
The dropped charge clears the way for authorities to transfer 53-year-old Charles Severance from Loudoun County to Alexandria, where he’s charged in three separate killings dating back to 2003.
Loudoun prosecutors formally dropped the gun charge Monday. They declined comment.
Severance’s lawyers had argued the gun charge was a sham to hold him while Alexandria police tried to build their murder case.
Severance was indicted last week in the 2003 killing of Nancy Dunning, wife of then-Sheriff James Dunning; the November 2013 shooting of transportation planner Ronald Kirby; and the February shooting of music teacher Ruthanne Lodato.
Severance was once a fringe candidate for mayor in Alexandria. He was arrested in March.
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