‘Cheerful,’ ‘Most Cordial’ And A Murderer

Everybody, it seems, liked Steve Waddell.

Shoshone County commissioners described him as “most cordial, easy to work with, and pleasant in his attitude.”

A county maintenance supervisor called Waddell “cheerful … hard-working and helpful … friendly and courteous.”

Waddell, a sheriff’s deputy said, had “an upbeat attitude … and is an extremely hard worker.”

Waddell, a pleasant 26-year-old inmate at the county jail, also is a killer.

He murdered his high school sweetheart in 1988, stabbing her at least 10 times in a college dorm room in Caldwell while her friends stared in horror. Within a year, Michelle Sebree’s grief-stricken parents committed suicide, leaving their two other children orphans.

Still, Shoshone County officials, who wrote letters on Waddell’s behalf to state corrections officials, stood by their praise of the killer this week, saying they knew little of his crime. All they saw, they said, was a cheerful, hard-working young man.

Waddell pleaded guilty in 1989 to second-degree murder, and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. In 1992, he was transferred to the Shoshone County Jail, under a contract the county has to house state inmates.

Less than five months after arriving at the Shoshone County Jail, Waddell became a “worker inmate,” cleaning the jail and helping in the kitchen. Within a year, in apparent violation of state Department of Corrections regulations, Waddell worked at the jail and courthouse, walking between the buildings and adjacent stores without wearing restraints.

“For the past two years I have been a trusty at the Shoshone County Jail,” Waddell wrote to the state Commission of Pardons and Parole. “During this period of time, I have been in contact with the general public on a daily basis.”

Kingston resident Larry Irvine, who’s challenging Shoshone County Sheriff Dan Schierman in the coming election, said allowing Waddell on the streets was “a serious, serious blunder.”

“It’s frightening, really, that a long-time law enforcement officer could be hoodwinked into letting someone like this run free,” Irvine said. “If he (Schierman) gets taken in by people like this, he ought to be selling shoes.”

Schierman defends the inmate’s treatment, saying Waddell always was accompanied by Steven Hintz, a deputized maintenance man who Schierman said is armed. Waddell had no history of trouble while in jail, the sheriff said.

“From what we knew of him, we didn’t feel that he would be a threat if turned loose,” Schierman said.

Schierman added that his department only recently was made aware of regulations on restraints.

State corrections officials came to Shoshone County Feb. 21 to review Waddell’s situation. On Feb. 22, they moved Waddell to a medium-security state prison.

Citing security reasons, state officials on Tuesday removed the last of their inmates from the Shoshone County Jail. The move angered Schierman, who said the department simply was trying to stem bad publicity over Waddell’s allegedly soft treatment.

“Trying to make themselves look better, they’re trying to blame the counties,” Schierman said. “Somebody needs to go back to Corrections and say ‘What possessed you in the first place to put a convicted killer in a county setting?”’

Waddell so impressed officials and workers at the jail and courthouse that they began writing letters trying to win him parole.

“I sincerely hope that Steve will be released soon. I see him as a valuable asset to this or any community,” Hintz wrote to the Department of Corrections.

“It is our sincere hope that the members of the board can find justification to place Steve on parole so he can resume his life purpose,” wrote Sheriff Schierman and four of his officers. “It has been a pleasure to know Steve and it is our hope that he will stay in our area so that we can continue our association with him.”

Shoshone County Auditor Marcia Wingfield, who described Waddell as polite, even-tempered and quiet, said she asked the sheriff about the crime before writing the letter.

“I was told he was convicted of murder,” she said Tuesday. “That was all I asked, and I felt that was all I needed to know.”

All Wingfield intended to do, she said, was help Waddell get a parole hearing. Whether he deserved parole, she said, was best left to the parole commission.

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