Leah Jean Severt, 39, who had been a nurse at Dayton Children’s Medical Center, tearfully pleaded guilty Wednesday in Greene County Common Pleas Court to two counts of second-degree felonious assault and one count of third-degree felony abduction for shooting her husband Sept. 14, 2010, at her residence at 3692 E. Patterson Road in Beavercreek. Sentencing parameters have not been set.
Former Dayton and Miamisburg police officer Mark Adam Roysdon, 46, was indicted Feb. 22 with complicity to felonious assault and inciting to violence. He has not yet been arraigned.
“We believe (Roysdon) provided her with a weapon,” Greene County Prosecutor Stephen K. Haller said. “It’s the state’s theory that Mr. Roysdon, who was a friend of Leah Severt’s, encouraged her, helped her in the commission of the shooting.”
Roysdon was arrested at 4 p.m. Monday in Franklin. He was booked and released on $10,000 bond.
There is a motion pending in Judge Michael Buckwalter’s court to increase bond to $25,000 and to eliminate any communication from Roysdon to either Ed Severt or Leah Severt.
“There was no conspiracy,” Roysdon told the Dayton Daily News on Wednesday. “There was no premeditation of this whatsoever.
“(Ed Severt) is not the innocent victim.”
The Severts have been involved in several legal issues, including on-again, off-again divorce proceedings that included two reconciliation requests after the shooting.
The Severts have three children, one of whom Ed said gave birth Tuesday night to their first grandchild. One of the couple’s children is a minor who is at the center of a custody battle.
Ed Severt had a default judgment issued against him March 24 by FINRA, an independent regulator for securities firms. He also is being sued in Hamilton County Court for breach of contract.
Leah Severt filed for divorce Oct. 29, 2009, and had a domestic violence charge against her husband get dismissed.
Ed Severt said they have faced foreclosure proceedings on a home.
Ed Severt and Roysdon have had civil stalking protection orders filed against each other in Warren and Greene counties.
On Sept. 14, 2010, Leah Severt fired two shots that hit her husband’s ear and shoulder. She called 911 and sounded upset when she told dispatchers that she shot her husband.
One bullet is still lodged in Ed Severt’s chest. He said he’s lost full use of his left shoulder and arm.
“She pulled the trigger, I know that. But she was definitely coerced into doing it by him,” Ed Severt said of Roysdon, who met Leah Severt when he was a security supervisor at Children’s.
“I hope it’s a short sentence for her. ... I hope he gets everything he gets.”
Leah Severt originally had been indicted on attempted murder, felonious assault, kidnapping and abduction, all with a firearm specification that carries a three-year mandatory imprisonment.
Haller and Leah Severt’s attorney, Scott Calaway, said if she were found guilty on those charges, the total sentence would have been at least six years and could’ve been as long as 23 years.
With the plea to reduced charges, Judge Buckwalter said the maximum sentence Leah Severt could face would be 13 years, with no minimum.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or mgokavi@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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