Death penalty sought for Colorado teen,
boyfriend in elderly couple’s slaying
Send a link to a friend
[September 06, 2014]
By Keith Coffman
DENVER (Reuters) - A Colorado prosecutor
said on Friday she will seek the death penalty for a teenage woman and
her boyfriend charged with killing the man's grandparents to inherit
$20,000 and a house.
|
Logan County District Attorney Brittny Lewton said in a statement
that her office will pursue capital punishment for Cassandra Ann
Rieb, 18, and Brendan Lee Johnson, 20.
The pair was arrested in May and charged with first-degree murder
for the slayings that month of Charles and Shirley Severance, who
were both 70 and lived in Sterling, about 110 miles (177 km)
northeast of Denver.
Charles Severance was found dead in his home and Shirley Severance’s
dismembered remains were later discovered in two locations, with
some body parts near a reservoir in Colorado and others in a remote
area across the state line in Nebraska, according to a police
affidavit filed in court.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2014/Sep/06/images/ads/current/businesscardlookat.png)
The pair confessed to their roles in the couple's death under
questioning by police, the document said.
Johnson told detectives he plotted the killings for three weeks with
the goal of inheriting his grandparent’s home. Rieb told
investigators Johnson claimed he also stood to collect $20,000 from
his grandparents' checking account.
Johnson told investigators his grandfather died of a heart attack
when he was choking the man, and that he and Rieb stabbed and
strangled his grandmother.
Former Colorado prosecutor Bob Grant said he could not recall the
last time a prosecutor in the state sought the death penalty for a
woman, as Lewton has done in the case of Rieb.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/ads/current/richardson_lda_040113.png)
"Usually the thinking among prosecutors is that a jury will view a
woman as an accomplice rather than as a primary actor," said Grant,
who prosecuted the only inmate executed in Colorado in the last 47
years.
Rieb is set to return to court for a hearing later this month, and
Johnson has a separate hearing in October.
(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Robert Birsel)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2014/Sep/06/images/ads/current/graue_2014_Cruze_081814.png) |