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Roxanne
SEVERCOOL
Classification: Homicide
Characteristics:
Juvenile
(17)
Number of victims: 3
Date of murders:
August 19-20, 1980
Date of arrest:
Several weeks later
Date of birth:
October 1962
Victims profile: Lester Severcool, 43 (her father);
Mary Severcool, 38 (her mother); and Ted Severcool, 10
(her brother)
Method of murder:
Shooting (.22-caliber
rifle)
Location: Springville
Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, USA
Status:
Sentenced to life in prison without parole in February 1982
Severcool sentencing now in September
By
Staci Wilson - IndependentWeekender.com
July 18, 2012
Roxanne Severcool, the woman convicted of
killing her parents and one brother in Springville Twp., 32 years
ago, will have to wait until at least September before she is
re-sentenced for her crimes.
Severcool is scheduled to be re-sentenced for
the murders after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared
mandatory life in prison without parole sentences imposed on
juvenile offenders in homicide cases is unconstitutional.
Severcool was about two months shy of her 18th
birthday when she, along with her then boyfriend Robert Fadden,
killed Lester Severcool, 43; Mary Severcool, 38; and Ted Severcool,
10, on August 19-20, 1980 by shooting them in their home with a
.22-caliber rifle. Another son, James, was also shot but survived.
Severcool, now age 49, was sentenced in
February 1982 to life in prison without parole after she was
convicted on three counts of first degree murder.
Fadden, who was 24 at the time of crime and the
shooter, was sentenced, also in Feb. 1982, to serve three
consecutive life terms following a jury conviction.
Severcool had filed a post-sentence relief (PCRA)
petition in 2010, which was put on hold at the county court level,
pending a decision on a case that was, at the time, waiting to be
decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (Commonwealth vs. Batts).
The Batts case was stayed by the court until
the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Miller
v.Alabama, which it did in June.
A sentencing hearing for Severcool had been
scheduled to be held in the Susquehanna County Court of Common
Pleas for Tuesday, July 17 but was continued to Sept. 14.
District Attorney Jason Legg said the defense
attorney requested the continuance. He said he agreed to the
motion because of “uncertainties that continue to swirl around (theU.S.Supreme
Court) decision.”
Legg said there is a question as to whether
Miller v.Alabamashould be applied retroactively. “Both the
Commonwealth and the defense are researching that issue. In the
interim, there may be some other courts making decisions on the
retroactivity issue that could provide some additional guidance,”
Legg said.
He continued, “Second, in the event that Miller
v. Alabama is applied retroactively, the defense needed additional
time to obtain Ms. Severcool’s correctional records, evaluations
and history for purposes of demonstrating her efforts toward
rehabilitation during her incarceration over the past 30 years. ”
Since her arrest, Severcool has been
incarcerated – first in the juvenile system and then the adult
state prison system.
According to court documents, Severcool has
been held since June 28 in the Susquehanna County Correctional
Facility awaiting her sentencing hearing.
Deaths rekindle thoughts of
Severcools
By Michael J. Rudolph -
Wcexaminer.com
July 9, 2008
It was in August 1980, when Lester and Mary
Severcool and their 10-year-old son Ted were found shot to death,
and their 15-year-old son, James, was seriously injured.
The murders came at the hands of daughter
Roxanne Severcool and her boyfriend, Robert Fadden. The two were
convicted in separate trials in 1981.
The four victims were discovered at their home
on August 23, 1980. Police believed Lester, Mary and Ted Severcool
had been dead for several days before they were found.
James Severcool, who had been shot in the head,
survived. When he regained consciousness, he managed to crawl
outside to the front lawn, where he was spotted by a mail carrier.
Police immediately suspected Fadden and Roxanne
Severcool, and issued a nationwide alert. They were eventually
found several weeks later in North Carolina, where the had fled
with their two-month-old son, Eric.
Fadden was charged immediately with multiple
homicide counts. Roxanne Severcool had charges filed against her a
week later.
The two were convicted in separate trials in
1981 of multiple counts of first-degree murder. Both are serving
life sentences. Fadden is incarcerated at the state prison in
Somerset, Somerset County, while Roxanne Severcool is at the state
prison at Cambridge Springs, Crawford County.
