Man convicted of murder in downtown Spokane stabbing

A jury convicted a 48-year-old man earlier this month of repeatedly stabbing and killing another man in 2023 in downtown Spokane.

The Spokane County jury found Steven P. White guilty of second-degree murder in the slaying of 44-year-old Shan A. Anderson, according to court documents.

Superior Court Judge Rachelle Anderson declared a mistrial on White’s first-degree murder charge after the jury could not reach a verdict after multiple hours of deliberation.

Officers responded in the early morning hours of Aug. 27, 2023, to the South Wall Street railroad viaduct for a dead person, court records show. One man reported he was walking on Wall Street when he saw the victim, later identified as Anderson, lying in a parking lot with a lot of blood.

Video surveillance from nearby buildings showed White thrusting his hand down toward the victim, who was lying on the ground possibly sleeping, in a stabbing motion about 13 times, police wrote in documents. White then left the viaduct, and Anderson could be seen walking behind him with a limp and appeared to be holding his side, according to surveillance in documents. Anderson then fell to the ground.

Audio surveillance captured a male voice yelling for help for several minutes, court records show.

Anderson was stabbed an estimated 14 times, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office in documents. Prosecutors have said the victim and killer knew each other.

Surveillance indicated the attack happened about 1½ hours before the body was reported to police.

Police arrested White about one week after the killing near the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza in downtown Spokane. Detectives wrote that White’s physical appearance, tattoos and facial features matched the person in the surveillance videos. He also had a limp similar to the one observed from the attacker on surveillance, according to documents.

White is scheduled to be sentenced for second-degree murder on March 7 by Judge Anderson. A first-degree murder trial was set for March 31.