I frequently read, watch and listen to things that pertain to inmates, former felons and jails. I recently watched a video about a man pleading guilty to killing his cellmate. The man’s name is Steven Sandison. He was assigned a new cellmate and it happened to be a guy who molested children. Child molesters immediately have a bad reputation in jail as soon as they enter. The seemingly “unjust act” that contributed to this cellmate losing his life was that he couldn’t stop talking about being a child molester.
Sandison gave his cellmate a choice of staying the night if he would look for another place to stay the next day. However the cellmate decided he wanted to keep talking about his crime, so Sandison killed him. There aren’t many people that can stand in front of judge the way Sandison did and talk about his crime. This very act is what got to me the most. He stood there and told his story without remorse, shame or guilt. It was almost as if Sandison knew in his mind that he was completely justified in killing his cellmate.
I don’t think Sandison should have killed his cellmate over this. However, my opinion is spoken at home, a place where there is very little danger and no prison politics. I tried to think of reasons why Sandison had such a strong urge to kill his cellmate. Perhaps he thought his life was in danger due to some inmates belief that child molesters have no control over their sexual desires and urges. Maybe he was simply telling the truth about not liking child molesters. It could also be that he didn’t want to be associated with him due to jailhouse politics, a topic I can not discuss because I went to a prison camp, which is different from going to a prison. Another reason could be that Sandison himself was also into molesting children or he really was okay with a person who molests children and he didn’t want that side to show in prison.
No matter what the reason was, Sandison had nothing to lose. He was previously serving life without parole for his 1991 slaying. Killing his cellmate because he had nothing to lose explains his laid back attitude in court about the murder.