A man accused of bombing his ex-wife’s finger off 44 years ago in Green River has announced a plan to plead guilty in a related identity-theft case in New Mexico.
Stephen Craig Campbell, 77, made the announcement through his public defender, David Benatar, in an April 1 notice to the U.S. District Court for New Mexico.
“Campbell… gives notice that he intends to enter into a guilty plea in this matter,” says the one-paragraph filing. It doesn’t specify whether Campbell will plead guilty to the passport fraud charge filed last February in that case, or whether the parties plan to supplant it with a different charge in accordance with a plea agreement.
The filing did not reflect a public plea agreement as of Thursday afternoon.
Taken together, the Sweetwater County and federal court documents allege that Campbell sent a bomb to his ex-wife’s new boyfriend’s house in Green River, Wyoming, in 1982. The blast blew off one of her fingers, and injured her hand, chest, legs and feet. He later bonded out of jail and stole his dead classmate’s identity as he settled in New Mexico.
Federal and local authorities converged on his 44-acre compound in the mountains of New Mexico last February, and Campbell met agents with a high-powered rifle and refused to surrender, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.
When Campbell “finally emerged from the wooded hideout” authorities took him into custody with no shots fired, the sheriff’s statement said.
The notice to plead guilty follows a magistrate judge’s January finding that, despite Campbell’s attorney’s earlier concerns over his mental competency, the defendant is competent enough to participate in his prosecution.
Benatar did not immediately return a Thursday voicemail request for comment.
Sweetwater County Attorney Danny Erramouspe, who has waited years to prosecute Campbell, said he’s “just waiting to see how this goes and for him to come back here.”
Cowboy State Daily reached out to a Wyoming defense attorney rumored to be representing Campbell in the attempted murder case involving the bombing, but did not hear back from him and was unable to confirm his representation.
If there’s no agreement in place to cap it, the passport fraud charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. After Campbell’s sentence, he’d be extradited to Wyoming to stand trial for the bombing, Sweetwater County authorities have said prior.
In Wyoming, attempted first-degree murder is punishable by a term of life in prison.
Lt. Mont Mecham Wrote
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 Stephen Craig 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, when going 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 Target
The woman was not the intended target of the bomb, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office’s February 2025 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 his deceased college classmate Walter Lee Coffman’s identity in New Mexico, says a 2025 press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for 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 began to unravel 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.
