STEPHEN HUGUELEY | Death Row Inmate Who Killed His Own Mom: Rachel Waller (in (1986), An inmate (in 1991) and a correctional counselor in 2002 | Found Dead in His Isolation Cell Three Days After The Move To Set His Execution Date | Lot of 2 ALS

Stephen Hugueley. Lot of 2: Handwritten ALS. Commercial #10 (4.125” x 9.5”) envelopes. Pmks: (1) August 15, 2006. Content unknown. Pristine. And (2) August 16, 2006. Content unknown. Pristine.

• Classification: Murderer

• Characteristics: Parricide

• Number of victims: 3

• Date of murders: 1986 / 1991 / 2002

• Date of birth: January 2, 1968

• Date of death: July 16, 2021

• Victims profile: Rachel Waller (his mother) / An inmate / Delbert Steed (correctional counselor)

• Method of murder: ??? / Stabbing with homemade knife

• Location: Tennessee, USA

• Status: Sentenced to life in prison on August 19, 1986. Sentenced to life in prison on February 13, 1992. Sentenced to death on September 16, 2003

• SL: originally 8/15/2006

Murder of Delbert Steed

Stephen Lynn Hugueley was convicted in September 2003 of the murder of a counselor at the Hardeman County prison where he was being held on a life sentence for the murder of his mother in 1986 in their home. He had also received a life sentence in February 1992 after the murder of an inmate in the West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning. On January 17, 2002, Delbert Steed, a correctional counselor at the Hardeman County Correctional Facility, entered F pod to counsel inmates. At that same time, Hugueley also entered the pod, approached the table where Steed was sitting, and stabbed Steed in the back. As Steed fell to the floor, Hugueley continued stabbing him. Another correction officer working on pod control called a Code One, requesting assistance. The pod officer opened the pod door and told Hugueley to stop. Upon hearing her command, Hugueley raised up, and came towards her with the knife drawn back like he was going to stab her, so she shut the door. Hugueley then returned to stabbing Steed. Another officer then entered the pod and ordered Hugueley to drop his weapon. In response, Hugueley stabbed one or two more times until the handle broke on the knife; then he stopped. Finally, Hugueley complied with the officer's order and dropped to the floor. By this time, other officers and medical personnel had arrived. After surveying the area, they observed a pillowcase on the floor that appeared to have something inside it. They also saw that the weapon used to stab Steed remained lodged in his back, but the weapon's handle lay near the shower wall. An internal affairs investigator with the Tennessee Department of Correction was contacted as a result of the incident. By the time the investigator arrived at the scene, Delbert Steed's body had been removed to the infirmary. However, at the crime scene the investigator observed that the weapon removed from Steeds body was a quarter-inch rod that had been sharpened to a very fine point on one end and was almost eleven inches long. Also, the pillowcase observed at the scene was actually a torn piece of a sheet that had D cell batteries in one end. An internal affairs investigator with the Department of Correction was contacted to interview Hugueley at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution later that day. Before conducting the interview, the investigator had Hugueley acknowledge his rights and sign a waiver form, documenting his willingness to talk. In his statement, Hugueley admitted that he and Steed had never gotten along. Steed had been stabbed a total of thirty-six times. Hugueley stated that he intended to kill Steed and had purposefully aimed for his vital organs, "the heart and the lung." The wounds to Steed were comprised of ten to the chest, one to the abdomen, fourteen to the back, and eleven to the arm. Of the thirty-six wounds, twelve were lethal in and of themselves. Hugueley added that, had his weapon not broken off in Steed's back, he would have killed a lot more people that day. Hugueley further stated that he has no remorse for his actions. At trial, Hugueley took the stand in his own defense and admitted to killing Steed. Hugueley waived his right to present any mitigation evidence. Hugueley was previously convicted of the first-degree murder of his mother in 1986 for which he received a sentence of life imprisonment. In 1992, he was again convicted of first-degree murder; a fellow inmate was the victim. Finally, in 1998, the defendant pled guilty to attempt to commit first-degree murder of another inmate. The weapon used in the 1998 offense bore similar characteristics to the one used to murder Steed.

Death row inmate Stephen Hugueley (January 2, 1968 – July 16, 2021 | age 53), herein referred to as “Stephen”), who killed his own mom was found dead days after move to set his execution date. A man on Tennessee's death row died Friday, three days after the state filed for a new execution date in his case. This week, he once again pleaded with the courts to be let out of solitary confinement, where he'd been for 18 years. Stephen L. Hugueley, 53, was pronounced dead at 2:35 am Friday at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution where he was housed. He died of apparent natural causes. "Years of this abuse took a tremendous physical and mental toll upon Stephen. That Stephen withstood this treatment for so long is a testament to the strength of his spirit," his attorney, Federal Public Defender Amy Harwell, wrote Friday. Hugueley was sentenced to death in 2003 after a conviction for first degree murder in the 2002 killing of prison counselor Delbert Steed at the Hardeman County Correctional Complex. Steed was stabbed 36 times. Hugueley was serving time on previous convictions at the time of Steed's killing. He received a life sentence in August 1986 after he was convicted of fatally shooting his mother, Rachel Waller of Dyer County, with a shotgun and dumping her body into the Forked Deer River. He was 18 at the time. Stephen Hugueley, 53, was found dead at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on Friday July 16, three days after the state moved to set a new date for his execution. In 1991, Hugueley killed a fellow inmate while he was incarcerated at the West Tennessee High Security Prison. Six years later, Hugueley stabbed another inmate at the state’s maximum security prison at the time, Brushy Mountain. He was convicted of attempted first degree murder. Hugueley was later moved to the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Relief from solitary confinement

Hugueley sued TDOC leadership in federal court over his continued solitary confinement in July 2019. In a letter filed Tuesday, he called living in solitary confinement for 18 years "psychological and physical torture," and accused the department of trying to drive him to suicide, "like my father." "Every day that they can delay providing me any meaningful relief is a good day for the defendants and a psychologically and physically horrifying day for me, and it is a day closer to my death, a day which I can never reclaim, thereby, making it even more apparent that it is their intent to hold me in solitary confinement without any immediate and meaningful relief until I am dead," he wrote. The same day, the state moved to set his execution date. It was not scheduled before his death. His exact cause of death was not immediately available, pending official determination by the medical examiner, TDOC said.

Tennessee resumed executions for capital crimes in 2018 and has since executed seven people, most recently in February 2020 before pandemic considerations delayed others scheduled. New dates have not been been set for any of the 47 people remaining on death row as of Friday morning.ⁱ

VIDEO: A Tennessee death row inmate was found dead days after state filed motion to set execution date | https://youtu.be/QIKvcEYa3Eg

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