Sweetwater County’s top prosecutor will have to wait at least an extra month to pursue charges against a New Mexico man accused of a 1982 bombing attack in Green River as he has his sanity evaluated.
A judge has paused the federal fraud prosecution of Stephen Craig Campbell, 76, so that the man can have his mental competency checked.
Campbell is accused in Sweetwater County of sending a bomb to his ex-wife’s new boyfriend’s house in Green River in 1982, causing a blast that blew off one of her fingers and injured her hand, chest, legs and feet.
Campbell was caught in New Mexico amid a dramatic standoff with law enforcement Feb. 19, more than 40 years after he bonded out of jail and skipped court in Wyoming on an attempted murder charge, authorities say.
But he’s slated to face a federal prosecution first, as he’s accused of passport fraud on claims he stole $140,000 in Social Security benefits under the name of a dead classmate.
Sweetwater County Attorney Dan Erramouspe told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the local attempted-first-degree murder charge is still pending and that he’ll wait his turn.
“Yeah, we’re still prosecuting,” he said. “We’re waiting to find out when he’ll be done with his federal charges. That’s basically it.”
U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Gregory B Wormuth, of New Mexico, paused Campbell’s federal case last week and ordered the U.S. Attorney General to commit him to a facility for 30 days to have his mental competency checked and determine if he’s well enough to participate in his case.
The prosecutor can seek an extension if Campbell needs more time for that evaluation, says the order.
At the end of that evaluation, the psychologist or psychiatrist must report to the court whether Campbell can face his case, or whether he should stay at the mental facility and why.
Wormuth added another order: Anything Campbell says during his mental health evaluation can’t be used against him in the criminal proceeding, though it can go toward arguments on his mental condition.
The judge’s order relates from an earlier proceeding by Campbell’s defense counsel that there’s “reasonable cause” to believe he has a mental disease or defect that could render him unable to understand court or help with his own defense.
If convicted on the fraud charge, Campbell faces up to 10 years in federal prison, then would be extradited to Wyoming to stand trial for the bombing.
Attempted first-degree murder is punishable by a term of life in prison.
The Standoff
When authorities from agencies including the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, the Social Security Administration and the Otero County Sheriff’s Office converged to arrest Campbell at his 44-acre compound in the mountains of New Mexico, a standoff followed, says a February statement by the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.
Campbell met agents with a high-powered rifle and took a concealed and elevated position, refusing to surrender.
Officers deployed flash-bang stun devices, commanded Campbell to surrender and used “tactical maneuvers,” says the statement.
“He finally emerged from the wooded hideout and was taken into custody without shots fired,” the statement says.
Authorities secured his rifle, loaded with armor-piercing ammunition with a round chambered. The property search revealed 57 firearms and large quantities of ammunition, the statement says.
Sweetwater County Sheriff John Grossnickle at the time called Campbell’s one of the most significant and dramatic fugitive cases in Wyoming law enforcement history.
Forty-Three Years Ago
The original affidavit by Green River Police Lt. Mont Mecham says an explosion happened July 17, 1982, at 775 West 3rd North, apartment 6B.
Sarah Campbell found a package on the front porch of her boyfriend Mike Holder’s home that day and brought it to her apartment. She noticed the package had no postage and had been addressed by her husband, she told investigators at the time.
Inside, the parcel was wrapped with a grocery sack turned inside out, which was how Campbell “invariably wrapped packages,” the affidavit says.
She also found Salt Lake Tribune newspapers stuffed in the parcel, which looked like the same ones she’d taken to his house prior to pack up her things, says the document.
She noticed a toolbox in the package and tried to open it with her left hand.
The latch popped up, and the package exploded, says the document.
She was hospitalized with injuries to her hand, chest, legs and feet. The home and a neighboring unit both caught fire.
The ex-wife was not the intended target of the bomb, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office’s recent statement says.
Rock Springs Police Department Bomb Squad agent Ron Noorda said the blast should have killed her, the document indicates.
Holder was on the phone with Sarah Campbell when the package exploded, the affidavit says.
When Stephen Campbell had learned that Holder was dating his ex-wife, Campbell told Holder he should carry a gun, Mecham wrote.
Rock Springs Police Department Lt. Robert Overy, an expert in explosives, told investigators the bomb would have required a technical knowledge of electrical engineering and circuits, plus access to explosives, the affidavit says.
“Stephen C. Campbell has an electrical engineering degree and has had specialized training in small electrical engine repair,” wrote Mecham, adding that Campbell also had access to topside explosives at a chemical company.
Holder’s neighbor had noticed a man who looked like Campbell parking a vehicle the day before the explosion and walking to the front porch of Holder’s home, the affidavit says.
Mecham wrote that an employee at the chemical company told investigators that in late June or early July, Campbell had someone ask him to cut four pieces of 12-by-2-inch threaded metal pipe.
Investigators found a fragment of that size threaded metal pipe at the scene, says the document.
Barry Stroh, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent, told Mecham a handwriting comparison between Campbell’s script and the writing on the bomb package showed they were written by the same person, the affidavit concludes.
Give Back That Bond
The appearance bond order from Campbell’s Aug. 2, 1982, court appearance under Sweetwater County Judge Brad Schroeder indicates he was given a surety bond. Later filings say the bond was for $25,000.
Then-Sweetwater County Attorney Robert J. Reese signed a motion for a bench warrant for Campbell’s arrest on Sept. 20, 1982, the day Campbell missed a scheduled court hearing.
Schroeder signed off on the warrant.
By March 3, 1982, Deputy County Attorney Harold Moneyhun was asking the ABC Bonding Agency to forfeit the bond.
The Alias
An investigation uncovered Campbell’s use of Walter Lee Coffman’s identity in New Mexico, says a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of New Mexico.
Coffman had graduated from the University of Arkansas two months before he died in 1975. University records showed Campbell and Coffman attended the same school and both pursued engineering degrees, says the statement.
Campbell first applied for a passport under the name of the dead college classmate in 1984 and renewed it multiple times, always giving a photograph of himself and his current address, court documents allege.
He obtained a replacement Social Security card in Coffman’s name in 1995 using an Oklahoma driver’s license in Coffman’s name, says the statement.
Campbell relocated to Weed, New Mexico, in about 2003. The federal prosecutor’s statement says he bought land under Coffman’s name and kept renewing the passport.
But the scheme started to unravel when in September 2019, when Campbell visited the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Department in Cloudcroft to renew his driver’s license.
Agents from the National Passport Center’s Fraud Prevention Unit found Coffman’s death certificate around that time, says the statement.
Campbell is now suspected of having received about $140,000 in U.S. government payouts through the Social Security Administration.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
