News

Defense motion asks judge to sever one murder count from other charges in poison-murder case

By Amy McCraw, Published: August 14, 2026

The attorneys representing a Henderson County woman accused of poisoning multiple people, including her daughters, is asking a court to separate one of the murder counts she faces from other charges in the case.

A grand jury handed down a seven-count indictment in January charging Gudrun Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel with first-degree murder in the 2007 death of Michael Schmidt, also known as Mischa August Schmidt, and with first-degree murder in the 2025 death of her daughter, Leela Livis.
Other counts in the indictment charge Casper-Leinenkugel with attempted first-degree murder of her other daughter, Mia Lacey, and Lacey’s boyfriend, Evan Pegg.
The indictment also charges Casper-Leinenkugel with poisoning her daughters and Pegg by putting the chemical acetonitrile in wine they drank during Thanksgiving gathering at her home in 2025.
An investigation at the time of Schmidt’s death listed the cause of his death as “acute acetonitrile toxicity (probably huffing)” and at the time categorized the manner of death as accidental.
Casper-Leinenkugel, 53, was charged with Schmidt’s death after detectives with Henderson County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the case involving her daughters and Pegg.
A motion filed in Superior Court this week by Casper-Leinenkugel’s attorneys asks that a judge sever the first-degree murder charge she faces in Schmidt’s death from the other charges in the indictment and argues that the case involving Schmidt should be tried separately.
The motion argues that the murder charge in Schmidt’s 2007 death should not be joined with the 2025 cases because they lack a connection.
“They are separated by approximately eighteen years. They involve entirely different alleged victims Mischa Schmidt in 2007, and Leela Livis, Mia Lacey, and Richard Pegg in 2025 with no overlap between them. They arise from entirely distinct factual circumstances: the 2007 death occurred in a camper and was investigated and closed without any finding of homicide, while the 2025 incident concerns wine allegedly adulterated at a family gathering,” the motion said.
The only connection between Schmidt’s death and the other cases is that they occurred at Casper-Leinenkugel’s property on Schmidt Terrace and involved acetonitrile, the motion said.
The motion also argues that trying the Schmidt case along with the other cases would prevent Casper-Leinenkugel from receiving a fair trial.
Joining the 2007 case and the 2025 cases “creates a serious risk that the two circumstantial cases will improperly reinforce one another in the jury's mind rather than being tested on their own terms,” the motion said. “A jury asked whether Defendant introduced acetonitrile into the wine in 2025 may find that inference easier to draw once told that a chemically similar death occurred on the same property in 2007 and is now attributed to Defendant; conversely, a jury asked whether Defendant caused Mr. Schmidt's death in 2007 a conclusion investigators themselves did not draw at the time may find that inference easier to draw once persuaded of the 2025 allegations.”
The motion also asks for a waiver of the filing deadline for the motion.
“Good cause exists for this relief: the discovery in this matter comprises approximately 350 GB of data produced to the defense in rolling batches, and required substantial time to process, review, and analyze before the factual and legal basis for severance could be responsibly identified and briefed,” the motion said. “The State has been on notice of the substance of Defendant's severance concerns; and the State will suffer no cognizable prejudice from the Court's consideration of this motion at this stage of the proceedings, as no trial date has been set and no jury has been impaneled.”
A date to hear the motion in court has not been set. Casper-Leinenkugel remains held in Henderson County’s jail under no bond.