A man who lived under a dead person’s identity for more than four decades has pleaded guilty to a string of federal crimes, including identity theft, passport fraud, and unlawful firearm possession, after being captured in New Mexico in 2025.
Stephen Craig Campbell, 73, admitted this week that he assumed the identity of Walter Lee Coffman, who died in 1975 at age 22. Court filings say Campbell began using Coffman’s name after finishing an engineering degree at the University of Arkansas in the early 1980s. The case spans decades of false documents, benefit payments, and a long time on the U.S. Marshals Most Wanted List.
Campbell first applied for a U.S. passport in Coffman’s name in 1984 and kept renewing that passport over the years using his own photo and a current address. He sought to erase the death record with the Social Security Administration in 1992 and then, on October 15, 1995, received a replacement Social Security card in Coffman’s name. Those false credentials later helped him secure retirement benefits starting in 2015, totaling approximately $140,000.
Property records show Campbell bought land in Weed, New Mexico, under the Coffman name around 2003, and he continued to renew passports in 2005 and 2015. He knowingly used a fake passport to renew a New Mexico driver’s license on September 4, 2019 in Cloudcroft. Authorities say he kept the fraudulent passport until it was seized on February 19, 2025 during the investigation that led to his arrest.
The search of Campbell’s Weed residence turned up a large firearms cache and significant ammunition. Agents recovered 57 firearms in total after a standoff and a search warrant on February 19, 2025. During the initial encounter he had a loaded rifle and later acknowledged that he was a fugitive, which made him prohibited from possessing weapons under federal law.
Campbell also faces an outstanding warrant from Wyoming dated 1983 for Failure to Appear on an original charge of Attempted First-Degree Murder. Prosecutors allege that in 1982 he planted an explosive device at the home of his estranged wife’s boyfriend. The device detonated when his wife opened it, causing her to lose a finger and suffer other injuries while starting a fire that damaged the residence and an adjacent unit.
Federal charges to which Campbell pleaded guilty include misuse of a passport, possession of false papers to defraud the United States, aggravated identity theft, and being a fugitive in possession of a firearm and ammunition. At sentencing he faces up to 12 years in federal prison based on the combination of counts he admitted to in court.
The announcement of the guilty plea was made by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison, Special Agent in Charge Justin A. Garris of the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Emma Boston of the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General. The investigation involved multiple federal components working together over a long period.
Investigators say the case was co-investigated by the Las Cruces Resident Agency of the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office and the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General. The matter was originally opened by Diplomatic Security’s El Paso Resident Office and the National Passport Center’s Fraud Prevention Unit. Enforcement assistance came from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations and the Otero County Sheriff’s Office, and prosecution is handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Clara Nevarez Cobos.
