State Parole Board denies parole for man convicted of murdering two Monterey Peninsula women
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- The Monterey County District Attorney's Office announced the state parole board has denied parole to convicted murderer, Alfred Powell.
Powell was convicted of killing Sandra Steppuhn and Suzanne Nixon in separate incidents.
Powell pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing Nixon in 1983 and pleaded guilty to an additional count of second-degree murder for killing Steppuhn in January 2018.
The D.A. said Nixon's body was found in a garage where Powell was living on Third Street in Monterey back in 1983. It was then that Powell was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Steppuhn, meanwhile, was reported missing in December 1982 after giving a ride to a hitchhiker later identified as Powell.
Steppuhn's skeletal remains were found decades later in September 2015 on Third Street where Powell previously lived.
At his parole hearing on August 6, 2024, Powell claimed he had no recollection of killing either women and testified he wasn't sure if he was responsible.
The D.A. said Powell's parole has been denied for a period of five more years.
Alfred Powell sentenced for cold-case murder of Seaside woman
A man serving a life sentence for the murder of a Pebble Beach woman has also been sentenced for the murder of a Seaside woman.
Last month, 62-year-old Alfred Powell pleaded guilty to killing 32-year-old Sandra McGee Steppuhn of Seaside, in 1982, the same year he killed 30-year-old Suzanne Kay Nixon of Pebble Beach.
Powell was sentenced to serve 15-years-to-life in prison for Steppuhn's murder.
The 32-year-old mother of three was considered missing for more than three decades. Her body was found in 2015 when a landscaper dug up the yard and found her remains. At the time of her disappearance Powell had lived in a detached garage on the property.
Powell was arrested in 1983 for Nixon's murder. Her body was also found in the garage on Third Street.
During Friday's sentencing, Judge Culver heard victim statements from Steppuhn's husband and her three daughters, who were 12, 12, and 17 at the time their mother disappeared. The family said they wanted Powell to know that while he permanently changed their lives the day he killed their mother, he didn't break them.
Judge Culver said she had presided over many murder trials in her career, she had not seen or sentenced anyone as depraved as Powell. Before stating that she intended for Powell to remain in prison for the rest of his life, Judge Culver called him "intensely egocentric" and stated that he had psychopathic and sociopathic traits.
PREVIOUS STORY: 1/5/2018 10:00 p.m.
A guilty plea Friday, decades after the murder of a Seaside mother.
Alfred Powell pled guilty to killing Sandra Steppuhn in 1982. It marks the end of a long challenging case for the District Attorney's office and some justice for the victim's family.
"We would rather have something, rather than nothing," said Gigi Bridgers, daughter of Sandra Steppuhn.
The night Steppuhn disappeared, she gave a ride to a hitchhiker, her roommates later identified as Powell and was last seen at a Monterey convenience store.
"She had been a missing person for 32 years until her remains were discovered in September 2015," said Deputy District Attorney Matthew L'Heureux.
Landscapers found her buried in a yard on Third Street in Monterey, a property Powell once lived on. But the District Attorney's office says since the murder was decades old, it brought big challenges to the case.
"The death and or unavailability of some witnesses who had information in the case, we did have that here. There's also sometimes an issue of being able to locate and test the physical evidence," L'Heureux said.
Challenges they were only able to overcome because of cooperation from current and retired law enforcement and those who knew Steppuhn best.
"We've had people who knew Ms. Steppuhn happy to come forward to fly in to testify from New York and Florida, all over the United States because they remembered what a good person she was and how much they cared about her," said L'Heureux.
"I couldn't have asked for a better team they've made sure that they've reached out to both my father and my sisters as well as my self at every turn so, you know, I couldn't be happier with them," Gigi Bridgers said.
While this may not bring closure for the family, it has brought answers and Steppuhn's daughter says part of her mother will always live on.
"Her light is still shining everyday no matter what he did to her and as long as she had [my two sisters and me], she will always live on and we will always tell people about what an amazing person she was," Bridgers said.
Powell is already serving a 15-year to life sentence in Vacaville for the murder of a Pebble Beach hairstylist.
He will be brought back to Monterey County for sentencing on the 26th of January. Gigi and her family plan to be there.
PREVIOUS STORY: An inmate serving life in prison for the murder of a Pebble Beach woman has pleaded guilty Friday for the murder of a Seaside woman.
According to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office, 62-year-old Alfred Powell pleaded guilty to second degree murder for the death of Sandra Steppuhn. Steppuhn, a 32-year-old mother of three went missing in December of 1982 after picking up a hitchhiker, later identified as Powell.
Powell was arrested on March 4, 1983 for the murder of Suzanne Kay Nixon, 30, of Pebble Beach. Nixon's body was found in a garage on Third Street in Monterey. Powell had been living in the homes garage where he had been working for an elderly homeowner as a gardener.
"At the time of Nixon's murder, Powell had not yet been identified as a suspect in Steppuhn's disappearance," said the DA's Office.
In September 2015, landscapers digging in the yard on Third Street in Monterey discovered Steppuhn's skeletal remains.
Three decades later Powell was charged with Steppuhn's murder. He is currently serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison for the murder of Nixon.
On January 26, 2018, Powell will be sentenced for the new convictions.
