Steve Sandison is a Michigan prisoner serving life without parole for a 1991 Wayne County murder who, in October 2014, strangled his cellmate, Theodore Dyer, a convicted child sex offender, inside the Saginaw Correctional Facility. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was given a second life sentence, this one with the theoretical possibility of parole, to run consecutively with the one he was already serving.1MLive. Murderer Says He Killed Prison Cellmate
The Killing Inside the Cell
Sandison was 51 on October 29, 2014. Dyer was 67, roughly 10 months into a 25-to-50-year sentence for first-degree criminal sexual conduct against a 9-year-old girl.2Grand Haven Tribune. Mother of Sex Assault Victim Reacts to Attacker’s Murder
At his plea hearing the following February, Sandison described the night in plain terms. Dyer had been talking about his conviction and trying to justify it. Sandison told him to stop and to ask for a cell transfer in the morning. When Dyer kept going, Sandison hit him in the face several times, and after Dyer fell, wrapped a cord around his neck and killed him.1MLive. Murderer Says He Killed Prison Cellmate A separate account drawn from his statements to investigators described him knocking Dyer unconscious and then strangling him with Dyer’s own shoelaces.3CBS News Detroit. Imprisoned Murderer Gets Life Sentence for Strangling Child Molester Cellmate
His stated reason was short. “The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester.”1MLive. Murderer Says He Killed Prison Cellmate
What Sandison Said in Court
His remarks at sentencing before Saginaw County Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard are what carried the case into national coverage. He expressed no remorse toward Dyer: “I don’t feel bad for what I did. I feel bad for maybe his family or something, but as far as remorse toward him, no.”3CBS News Detroit. Imprisoned Murderer Gets Life Sentence for Strangling Child Molester Cellmate
He also rejected the label some had attached to him in the weeks after the killing. “People think I’m some kind of hero, when I’m actually not. I just did what I thought was best in the time I was given.” He added a line that got repeated widely: “I’ve been getting these emails saying that, you know, it’s not my position to judge anybody. I want to make it quite clear that I didn’t judge him. I know God is the only judge we have. I just set the appointment up.”4MLive. See Prisoner Steven Sandison Talk About Killing Cellmate
The Plea and Sentence
Sandison was initially charged with open murder. On February 23, 2015, in Saginaw County Circuit Court, he pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of second-degree murder, and the open murder count was dismissed.5Mid-Michigan NOW. Prison Inmate Pleads Guilty in Cellmate Slaying at Saginaw Correctional On April 22, 2015, Judge Borchard imposed the maximum penalty for second-degree murder in Michigan: life with the possibility of parole.4MLive. See Prisoner Steven Sandison Talk About Killing Cellmate
That sentence runs consecutively with the life-without-parole term he was already serving out of Wayne County for the 1991 murder, so the new sentence does not change his release prospects in any practical way.6Mid-Michigan NOW. Imprisoned Murderer Gets Life for Strangling Cellmate
How They Ended Up in the Same Cell
A natural question is how a convicted child sex offender came to share a cell with a man already serving life for murder. The Michigan Department of Corrections’ policy directive on prisoner placement bars certain facilities from housing sex offenders at lower security levels. At Saginaw Correctional specifically, prisoners assigned to Level I housing “must not be serving for, and must not have a history of, a sexual offense or an offense connected with a sexual act.”7Michigan Department of Corrections. Prisoner Placement and Transfer Policy Directive Dyer was housed at Saginaw at a higher security classification, where that restriction did not apply. No public reporting identified a specific policy failure or MDOC investigation into the cell assignment.
The same directive requires that transferred prisoners be screened within 72 hours of arrival using a Prison Rape Elimination Act risk assessment, which is supposed to feed into housing and bed assignments. Whether that screening occurred or was adequate for Sandison and Dyer has not been publicly addressed.7Michigan Department of Corrections. Prisoner Placement and Transfer Policy Directive
Where He Is Now
After the killing, Sandison was moved to the Ionia Correctional Facility and placed in the highest security classification.1MLive. Murderer Says He Killed Prison Cellmate He remains in the Michigan prison system. Because his 1991 Wayne County sentence carries no possibility of parole, the second life term does not create a realistic path to release. No appeals or subsequent filings tied to the Dyer case have been publicly reported.3CBS News Detroit. Imprisoned Murderer Gets Life Sentence for Strangling Child Molester Cellmate