News

Prosecutors won't seek death penalty in poison-murder case

Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel during her first court appearance in January.

By Amy McCraw, Published: February 26, 2026

A Hendersonville woman accused of using poison to murder one of her daughters and attempting to murder her other daughter will not face the death penalty.

The woman, 52-year-old Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel, is also charged with murder in the 2007 death of a Henderson County man and with the attempted murder of another man.
A few people sitting in Henderson County Superior Court on Thursday appeared to express relief when Assistant District Attorney Doug Mundy told Rutherford County Superior Court Judge J. Thomas Davis that the state would not seek the death penalty against Casper-Leinenkugel.
One of those people was Casper-Leinenkugel’s surviving daughter, Maija Lacey.
Lacey, while on her way out of the courtroom, said she attended the hearing to support her mother. She declined to say more about the charges her mother is facing.
Henderson County Sheriff’s Office investigators in January charged Casper-Leinenkugel with attempting to murder Lacey and Lacey’s boyfriend, Richard Evan Pegg, during a meal the Sunday after Thanksgiving at Casper-Leinenkugel’s home in the Big Willow community. Casper-Leinenkugel is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her other daughter, 32-year-old Leela Jean Livis. Livis, who attended the holiday meal with Lacey, Pegg and several other people, died the next day at her home in Cullowhee.
Casper-Leinenkugel is also charged with causing people to ingest a beverage that contained a poisonous substance. Investigators identified that substance as the solvent acetonitrile.
Prosecutors at a previous hearing said investigators believe Casper-Leinenkugel put the solvent in wine served during the meal. After Livis, Lacey and Pegg told Casper-Leinenkugel they fell ill after the meal at her home, she researched the substance on the internet, prosecutors said at the previous hearing.
Casper-Leinenkugel is also charged with first-degree murder in the 2007 death of Michael Schmidt in Henderson County. An autopsy in the months after Schmidt’s death determined he died from toxicity from the same chemical investigators believe was in the wine served at the Thanksgiving meal Lacey, Pegg and Livis attended.
District Attorney Andrew Murray declined on Thursday to discuss his office’s decision to not seek the death penalty against Casper-Leinenkugel.
One of Casper-Leinenkugel’s attorneys, Paul Louis Bidwell of Asheville, said after the hearing that he was pleased but not surprised by the state’s decision.
Bidwell said although he has not yet reviewed evidence in the case, he did meet with investigators about potential evidence.
“In that meeting, I didn’t hear anything that indicated guilt on behalf of my client,” he said. “I heard theories. I heard somebody talking about what they think their evidence is.”
Bidwell called the case, which has drawn local, regional and even national media attention, “highly unusual.”
He briefly addressed Lacey’s decision to come to court Thursday to support her mother.
“I have never been involved with a criminal case where the defendant is charged with attempting to murder a family member who appears in court in support,” he said.
Judge Davis set Casper-Leinenkugel’s next court date for April 30.