WEED, NEW MEXICO — Stephen Craig Campbell pleaded guilty in 2025 to federal charges including misuse of a passport, possession of false papers to defraud the U.S., aggravated identity theft, and possessing a firearm and ammunition as a fugitive of justice. He is expected to face 12 years in prison once sentenced.
Campbell had lived under the stolen identity of Walter Lee Coffman for nearly four decades. Coffman died in a car accident in 1975 at age 22, shortly after graduating from the University of Arkansas with an engineering degree. Campbell, originally from Stockton, California, attended the same university at the same time as Coffman.
Campbell was on the U.S. Marshals’ “Most Wanted” list for four decades for an attempted murder charge stemming from an incident in Wyoming in the early 1980s. According to court records, he allegedly planted an explosive device at the residence of his estranged wife’s boyfriend in 1982. The device detonated when his wife opened it, causing her to lose a finger and suffer additional injuries. The explosion also started a fire that damaged the homes of the boyfriend and a neighbor.
In 1984, Campbell applied for a U.S. passport using Coffman’s name and renewed it multiple times through at least 2015, using his own address and photograph. He obtained a Social Security card under Coffman’s name in 1995 after contacting the Social Security Administration to remove records of Coffman’s death, using an Oklahoma driver’s license as supporting documentation. Starting in 2015, he applied for Social Security retirement insurance benefits under Coffman’s identity and received approximately $140,000 in government funds.
Campbell also purchased property in Weed, New Mexico, in Coffman’s name and used the fraudulent passport to renew a New Mexico driver’s license as recently as 2019. He was arrested on February 19, 2025, in Weed during a raid on his residence where law enforcement executed a search warrant. During the arrest, Campbell confronted officers with a loaded rifle but eventually set it down after repeated commands.
Following his arrest, law enforcement recovered 57 firearms and a large quantity of ammunition from his home. “If this were to happen today, the likelihood of someone being able to go 40 years from today to evade law enforcement, I say that opportunity or that chance is slim to none,” said Raul Bujanda, special agent in charge of the FBI Albuquerque office.