Man Charged In Sex Offender Prison Cellmate's Death

ANNAPOLIS, MD – A Pasadena man serving a 30-year sentence at Jessup Correctional Institution after he was convicted of fatally stabbing his heroin dealer 60 times has been charged with killing his prison cellmate, a sex offender. Joseph Patrick Soule, 29, of Pasadena, is accused in the November 2018 murder of David Isacc Stephenson, 44, of Carroll County, who was found dead in the cell the men shared.

Soule stabbed Christie Lynn Pelland, 43, of Pasadena, who reportedly supplied Soule with drugs, he unsuccessfully denied the charge at his trial. An Anne Arundel County Circuit Court jury convicted Soule in the murder of Pelland, who worked for Spiritual Cleaning. Her body was found at the Medical Arts Centre of Glen Burnie; Pelland cleaned several of the offices inside the building where she was found on May 12, 2014. He was sentenced to prison in July 2017.

According to online Maryland court records, Stephenson had been imprisoned in 2010 for a 20-year sentence on multiple counts of sexual abuse of a child. He had volunteered as an American Sign Language interpreter on the Deaf Studies Advisory Board of Frederick Community College and with the Frederick County Commission on Disabilities, according to the Frederick News-Post. Stephenson admitted he had abused two boys, one for a period of several months, and the other for about four years. The victims were age 12 and 16 in December 2010 when Stephenson was sent to prison.

Shortly after 3 a.m. on Nov. 2, a correctional officer was making cell checks and saw the window to a cell was covered up. Additional officers were summoned and they entered the cell, where they found Stephenson lying on the floor. He was unresponsive and had sustained obvious trauma, officials said. A motive for the killing has not been released by authorities.

Soule told investigators that he and Stephenson fought and that he had to defend himself. But an autopsy by the Chief Medical Examiner disagreed, the Capital Gazette reports, noting that Stephenson had been stabbed in the neck and there was significant blunt force trauma to his head.

“Stephenson’s body was found with his hands bound behind his back with electrical cord,” charging documents state, according to the newspaper. “There was a knot tied into the cord that bound Stephenson’s hands, and it was a well-formed figure-8 style knot, and did not appear to be hastily tied.”

Soule has been charged with first-degree murder and two counts of possession of a dangerous weapon-wear and carry with intent to injure, according to online court records.

Photo of Joseph Soule, courtesy of Anne Arundel County Police