Richard Steeves has been before the courts in two very different ways. The first time he was not convicted of anything. In January 1967 a New Hampshire court found him not guilty by reason of insanity of killing a man named Ralph Mace, and committed him for life. He had also entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to murder charges in Ohio, and an indictment for the death of another man was outstanding in Maine. The second time he was convicted. In January 1987 a jury in Knox County, Maine, found him guilty of the 1985 murder of Russell Bailey of Wells, and he was sentenced to life.
The two cases are separated by roughly two decades, and by a release from New Hampshire custody in 1984 that has been questioned in Maine ever since.
Steeves is blamed for five deaths across three states in 1965 and 1966: two men in Maine, a father and son in Ohio, and another man in New Hampshire. With the 1985 death in Wells, the total is six. The names of the Maine and Ohio victims and the towns of the earlier deaths are not on record.
Only one of those earlier deaths, that of Ralph Mace in New Hampshire, ended in a verdict: not guilty by reason of insanity, in January 1967.
The Supreme Court of New Hampshire decided State v. Steeves on August 17, 1979. The case was not a retrial of the killing. It concerned the terms on which Steeves was being held, in an action to modify a recommitment order brought under an earlier decision of the same court, Gibbs v. Helgemoe (1976).
After the January 1967 verdict, Steeves was committed to the New Hampshire State Prison "for life or until or unless earlier discharged, released or transferred." A recommitment hearing was held in June 1977, and the trial court ordered him recommitted to the State prison. In July 1977 the trial court transferred him to the state hospital. In February 1978 he asked the court to change the terms of his commitment, and on May 17, 1978 the trial court denied his motion.
By June 1979 the parties had agreed on new terms at the hospital. They included escorted privileges on the grounds, custody status to be set by the hospital staff, and notice to the attorney general's office and to defense counsel of any threats of harm to himself or others. Because of that agreement the Supreme Court held the action moot and dismissed it.
Steeves was found "criminally insane" in New Hampshire and in Ohio, and he was never tried in Maine for the deaths of 1965 and 1966. The court dates of the Ohio proceedings and the particulars of the Maine indictment are not on record.
A finding of not guilty by reason of insanity is not a conviction. The New Hampshire court found that Steeves killed Ralph Mace but that he was not criminally responsible, and the consequence was commitment, not a sentence.
Steeves was released from New Hampshire custody in 1984 after treatment for mental illness. The day and month of the release, the authority that ordered it and the conditions attached to it are not on record.
Russell Bailey, of Wells, Maine, died in April 1985. The death came less than six months after Steeves left New Hampshire custody. Bailey was an acquaintance of Steeves, who left Maine in April 1985.
Steeves was questioned about the death after leaving Maine and gave two conflicting accounts, in both of which he said he had witnessed the death and in both of which he named another man as responsible. A reporter for the Concord Monitor, Robert Hohler, later received statements from Steeves while Steeves was held in New Hampshire awaiting extradition to Maine. Hohler refused to testify about them at the Maine trial and was convicted of contempt. In 1987 he received a six-month suspended sentence and a $2,500 fine.
The case began in York County. Because of heavy publicity before trial it was moved to Knox County Superior Court in Rockland, where Steeves was tried in January 1987 on a charge of murder under Maine's criminal code. Justice G. Arthur Brennan presided. The jury convicted him and Justice Brennan sentenced him to life in prison.
The date of the verdict and the length of the trial are not on record. The defense argued that another man, whom Steeves had named, was responsible for Bailey's death.
Steeves appealed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The case, State v. Steeves, was decided on June 1, 1989, with an opinion by Justice Collins and the agreement of the other five justices (Clifford, Glassman, McKusick, Roberts and Wathen).
His only argument was that the trial court had made a reversible error in excluding testimony from a corrections officer. The officer would have said that, about fifteen months after the death, the other man named by Steeves had made threats against certain fellow prisoners. The defense contended that the threats were aimed at a class of people to which Bailey was said to have belonged. The trial court had excluded the testimony under Maine Rule of Evidence 403.
The Law Court held that the ruling was within the trial court's discretion. Threats of this kind, it reasoned, have to be tied to the victim, and there was no evidence that the man making them knew or suspected that Bailey belonged to the class in question. Without that link the testimony had little value as proof and carried a risk of confusion and delay. The judgment was affirmed.
In 2013 Steeves, then 71, was serving his life sentence. On January 25, 2013 Justice William Anderson had granted him a hearing on a post-conviction claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Steeves argued that his trial lawyer pressured him into turning down a state plea offer of 40 years. Justice Anderson cited the 2012 United States Supreme Court decision in Lafler v. Cooper, which extends the right to effective counsel to plea negotiations. No hearing date had been set by early February 2013. The judge made no ruling on a second claim, that evidence tied to another suspect was wrongly kept out of the trial. The outcome of the post-conviction proceeding is not on record.
In February 2017 Steeves, then 75, asked Maine's governor, Paul LePage, for a pardon or a commutation of his sentence. He appeared before the Governor's Board on Executive Clemency on February 24, 2017. The board's chairman said it had not known about the earlier deaths. Lisa Marchese, chief of the attorney general's criminal division, said that her office was "vehemently opposed" to his release. Maine abolished parole decades ago, so a pardon or a commutation is the only route to release for a prisoner serving a life sentence there.
In March 2017 the board's decision was pending. The outcome of the request is not on record. Steeves was then serving his sentence in Maine.
Wells, Maine, 1985: convicted of murder, Knox County Superior Court, January 1987; life sentence; conviction affirmed June 1, 1989.
New Hampshire, 1965 to 1966: found not guilty by reason of insanity of killing Ralph Mace, January 1967; committed. Not a conviction.
Ohio, 1965 to 1966: a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to murder charges; found "criminally insane". Not a conviction.
Maine, 1965 to 1966: an indictment was outstanding in 1979 and no trial is on record.
The Wells death is dated April 1985 (also given as 1984).
The number of victims is given as five in 1965 and 1966 and six in all. Only one of the earlier deaths, that of Ralph Mace, ended in a verdict.
1965 to 1966: deaths in Maine (two men), Ohio (a father and son) and New Hampshire (one man) are blamed on Richard Steeves.
January 1967: found not guilty by reason of insanity of killing Ralph Mace; committed to the New Hampshire State Prison for life or until discharged, released or transferred.
June 1977: recommitment hearing; recommitted to the State prison.
July 1977: transferred to the New Hampshire Hospital.
May 17, 1978: motion to change the terms of his commitment denied.
August 17, 1979: Supreme Court of New Hampshire dismisses the action as moot after the parties agree to new terms.
1984: released from New Hampshire custody.
April 1985: leaves Maine.
April 1985: death of Russell Bailey, Wells, Maine.
January 1987: tried in Knox County Superior Court; convicted of murder; sentenced to life by Justice G. Arthur Brennan.
1987: reporter Robert Hohler convicted of contempt for refusing to testify; six-month suspended sentence and $2,500 fine.
June 1, 1989: Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirms the conviction.
January 25, 2013: post-conviction hearing granted on an ineffective-counsel claim.
February 24, 2017: appears before the Governor's Board on Executive Clemency.
March 2017: decision pending.