A Ukiah man was convicted Wednesday of second-degree murder in the August 2022 death of his former girlfriend's 13-month-old son, who died after being left unattended for hours near railroad tracks on a 101-degree day. Edward Two Feathers Steele, 36, was found guilty in Mendocino County Superior Court, more than four years after the boy and his 2-year-old brother were abandoned in extreme heat and roughly ten months after a first jury deadlocked on the same murder charge.
A Second Trial Ends Where the First Could Not
According to pressdemocrat.com, Steele was convicted in connection with the Aug. 3, 2022, death of the child, whose mother had previously dated him. The outlet reports that a first jury in December 2025 split 10-2 in favor of guilt on the murder count, resulting in a mistrial on that charge even as the same panel convicted Steele of two counts of child endangerment. This month's retrial, as mendovoice.com notes, was the second trial on the same set of facts, and it produced the murder verdict prosecutors had sought since 2022.
The station's report lays out what happened in the hours before the boy died. Steele had returned to a motel on Aug. 3, 2022, the morning after an argument with the boys' mother, and took the two brothers — ages 13 months and 2 years — with him. He then left them unattended for hours beside railroad tracks in the 300 block of Brush Street while, according to Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster, he went swimming in the river during the hottest part of the day.
A Stranger's Intervention Came Too Late for One Boy
A homeless man found the 2-year-old suffering from severe dehydration and heat-related injuries roughly eight hours after the brothers were left alone, per the same account. He put the boy in the shade, gave him liquid and summoned help. Authorities who responded found the younger child, the 13-month-old, near where his brother had been located, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy determined that environmental exposure, heat, neglect and a viral infection contributed to the infant's death, the article notes. Steele was arrested the following day at the Hopland Rancheria, as pressdemocrat.com reported at the time.
Prosecutor Details the Legal Threshold for Murder
Eyster said proving second-degree murder required showing that Steele caused a death, acted with implied malice, and consciously disregarded human life — a higher bar than the child-endangerment counts the first jury had already resolved. The district attorney said that earlier panel had found Steele guilty of two counts of felony child endangerment and inflicting great bodily injury on two children under five, but deadlocked 10-2 on the murder count tied to the younger boy's death, prompting the mistrial and retrial.
Eyster thanked the man who found the surviving boy, along with other non-law-enforcement witnesses and the boys' mother, according to the Willits News. The Mendocino County District Attorney's Office reported the conviction.
Appeal Planned, Sentencing Still Pending
Steele faces 15 years to life in prison, though a sentencing hearing had not yet been assigned as of this week, per the same pressdemocrat.com report. His attorney argued that an involuntary manslaughter allegation would have been more appropriate than second-degree murder, and said the verdict will be appealed. A bench trial was also calendared to decide whether alleged aggravating circumstances are supported by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, after which the case will be referred to the Mendocino County Adult Probation Department for a background study and sentencing recommendation, Eyster said.
