Fred Steese, the Las Vegas man who spent more than two decades in prison for a murder he did not commit, died in August at age 62. His sister, Lynn Myers, said he had pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver.
Steese was convicted in 1995 of fatally stabbing Gerard Soules, a 56-year-old former trapeze artist who ran a dog show at Circus Circus, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He had faced the death penalty for the 1992 killing before jurors returned a guilty verdict and he agreed to a sentence of life without parole. Steese maintained he was in Idaho when Soules died, and North Las Vegas police first contacted him in Indiana, where he was living at the time — though he later gave multiple, shifting versions of events before confessing.
An Alibi Buried for Two Decades
The case eventually unraveled over withheld evidence. Original trial prosecutors — Bill Kephart and Doug Herndon — withheld evidence related to Steese's Idaho whereabouts, a violation of constitutional disclosure rules, according to ProPublica. Defense attorneys argued prosecutors had also unlawfully withheld other exculpatory evidence and intimidated witnesses; prosecutors denied committing any misconduct. Kephart lost his 2020 reelection campaign, while Herndon went on to publicly back the 2019 Nevada legislation that created a compensation path for the wrongfully convicted.
Then-district judge Elissa Cadish found in a 2012 ruling that the evidence established, in her words, a well-documented alibi from multiple consistent and reliable sources. Even so, Steese made an Alford guilty plea to second-degree murder in order to secure his freedom, and he was released from prison in 2012 after serving more than 21 years behind bars. Nancy Lemcke, who represented Steese at trial as a young lawyer and later became Clark County Public Defender, said simply that the justice system is not infallible.
Pardoned, Then Left to Rebuild Alone
Nevada authorities pardoned Steese in 2018. A 2017 joint investigation by ProPublica and Vanity Fair, titled Kafka in Vegas, examined prosecutors' withholding of alibi evidence in his case. Lisa Rasmussen, who represented Steese after his 2013 release, helped him with basic needs like groceries and shoes in the years before he ever saw compensation money.
In 2021, Judge Jasmin Lilly-Spells approved Steese's settlement with the state and granted him a Certificate of Innocence. The Attorney General's Office agreed Steese met the qualifications for compensation. The award totaled $1.35 million, according to ProPublica, calculated at nearly 18 years of post-conviction imprisonment rather than his full 21-plus years in custody, since Nevada's compensation statute excludes pre-trial jail detention from its calculation.
How Nevada Calculates a Wrongful Conviction
Nevada passed a compensation law in 2019. It set a tiered formula ranging from $50,000 per year for one to ten years of wrongful imprisonment up to $100,000 per year for terms of 20 years or more, according to the Innocence Project. Beyond the cash payout, the law also mandates non-monetary support — tuition within the Nevada System of Higher Education, state health insurance, housing stipends, counseling, and financial literacy training.
Despite that safety net, Steese's post-release life spiraled. He became a trucker after leaving prison and had plans for his settlement. But his sister and attorney believed he had spent the settlement money, and the paper reported bouts of homelessness. He struggled with homelessness and substance abuse in the years after his release, the paper reports, before his cancer diagnosis.
A Murder That Remains Unsolved
The actual killing of Gerard Soules has never been solved. North Las Vegas police acknowledged that Steese did not commit the crime but did not answer questions about whether the case remains open, per the Review-Journal. The Clark County District Attorney's Office said prosecutors were unaware of any new leads or additional evidence. Ryan Norwood described the case as very cold, saying the person who actually killed Soules was never investigated.
Kathleen Soules Nasrey, Gerard Soules' sister, supported Steese's effort to be cleared by the Nevada Board of Pardon Commissioners and says she believes Steese did not kill her brother. Her position places the Soules family in the unusual position of standing behind the very man once convicted of her brother's murder — even as the true circumstances of his death remain unresolved nearly 34 years later.
