Prison term to stand for Illinois woman

The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld the court decision that sent Helen Severs of Ullin, Ill., to prison for conspiring to kill her granddaughter's husband.

Severs, 66, was sentenced to five years in prison; the jury recommended five years with suspended imposition of sentence.

Severs challenged the sentence arguing that the jury's verdict was inconsistent and that the court erred by accepting it. She did not challenge sufficiency of the evidence against her.

The appeals court stated that it found no error.

Severs was tried in April 2003 for her involvement in supplying $75 for her daughter to buy a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun from an undercover officer the previous August. She gave the money to her daughter, Linda Myers, 51, of Jonesboro, Ill., for Myers to kill her daughter's husband, Michael Ravellette, 30, also of Jonesboro. Severs and Myers wanted to kill Ravellette because the women believed he molested his daughter, then 3. The two planned to shoot him and then dump his body in the Mississippi River. Ravellette was not harmed.

Myers is serving a six-year prison term.

Both were tried before Circuit Court Judge John Heisserer in the 32nd Judicial District in Cape Girardeau Circuit Court.