Misspelling called key to innocence

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1997 | 11:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A defense lawyer says his client Frederick L. Steese is so dumb that he can't even spell his name correctly and that shows he's innocent of a North Las Vegas murder for which he was convicted.

James Erbeck, attorney for Steese, told the Nevada Supreme Court Monday there's been an injustice done to Steese, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the fatal stabbing of Gerald Soulos in June 1992.

The day after the killing, Steese filled out a job application in Idaho and spelled his first name"Fredrick" leaving out the "e."

Steese has below normal intelligence, Erbeck said.

"He is so stupid that he can't spell his own name." Steese in later documents also misspelled his first name, the lawyer said.

Erbeck also accused the Clark County District Attorney's office of concealing evidence of a collect telephone call made from Boise, Idaho, on June 3 by Steese to a former homosexual partner, Richard Rock in Pocono Pines, Pa.

But Deputy District Attorney William Kephart, who also prosecuted the case, told the court that Steese's brother Robert apparently made that collect call. Kephart said there were conflicting stories from Rock concerning whether he had actually talked to Steese on the day of the killing.

Soulos, who performed a pet show at Circus Circus in Las Vegas, was stabbed at least 38 times. His nude body was discovered in his trailer home in the Silver Nugget Campland in North Las Vegas. Steese reportedly had a homosexual relationship with Soulos, but robbery was the apparent motive for the killing.

The court took the arguments under study and will rule later.

The key to the case, according to Erbeck, is that Steese has an alibi that he left Las Vegas days before the killing, and was instead in Wyoming and then Idaho.

Erbeck said the district attorney's office knew about the exculpatory evidence of the telephone call from Idaho to Pennsylvania on the day of the killing but did not reveal it to him.

During the trial, the prosecution found Rock in Pennsylvania and flew him to Las Vegas to testify. Rock didn't want to testify because he had a homosexual affair with Steese and he didn't want the relationship revealed in Pennsylvania where he managed a resort.

Rock was sent back to Pennsylvania to get telephone records. But when he returned to Las Vegas, the district attorney's office did not put him on the stand and instead Rock went back to Pennsylvania. Kephart said the issue of the telephone call was discussed with Deputy District Attorney William Koot who felt it was not exculpatory evidence that would help the defense.

Erbeck argued that he tried to talk with Rock while he was in Las Vegas, but he said Rock was told by the district attorney's office not to talk to the defense lawyer. Rock left town before Erbeck could get hold of him.

It wasn't until two months after the trial, that Erbeck tracked down Rock and found out about the collect call.

But Kephart told the court that Erbeck, before the trial, had listed Rock as one of the defense witnesses. He said it was Rock's option to leave Las Vegas without talking to the defense lawyer.

"He (Rock) chose not to talk to Mr. Erbeck," he said.

Kephart suggested Robert Steese was in Idaho posing as his brother. Frederick Steese allegedly filled out the misspelled job application in June but the application was again filled out in September when Frederick Steese was in jail.

There was testimony from a jail informant, said Kephart, that Steese bragged he had killed the victim and had his brother set up the alibi.

Both men had Texas accents, Kephart said, and Rock could have been mistaken when he thought he talked with Frederick on the telephone on June 3, believed to be the day of the killing.

Erbeck said the telephone call plus the "testimony of hayseeds" from Idaho that Frederick was in that state in early June, would have meant a different outcome at the trial.

Erbeck said the Steese brothers had not seen each other in 20 years. But Kephart said there was testimony from a witness from Idaho that the man filling out the job application did not have a tattoo on his arm. Frederick Steese does have a tattoo.