Bio

Travis Glass was born on July 25, 1979, and lived in Palmyra, Missouri. In March 2001, Elizabeth Campbell, who owned and operated a Hannibal, Missouri tavern called "Ole Milts," hired Glass as a bartender. During his employment, Glass visited Campbell's home on at least three occasions and would sometimes talk and joke with Campbell's 13-year-old daughter, Steffini Wilkins, when she visited the bar during the day; on one occasion, he called her a "hottie," and the two also spoke on the phone. Approximately two weeks before the murder, Campbell fired Glass.

Murder Story

On the evening of May 24, 2001, Campbell left for work around 8:30 p.m., taking her two younger sons to a babysitter and leaving Steffini home alone. Steffini spoke with a friend on the phone until 10:40 p.m. that night. A neighbor later reported seeing a black Oldsmobile at the Campbell home that night; investigators subsequently confirmed a 1996 black Oldsmobile was registered to Glass.

Glass kidnapped Steffini and strangled her using her own bra strap, which he wrapped around her throat. Her nude, battered body was discovered on May 25, 2001, near an access area along the Salt River in Ralls County, south of Hannibal; prosecutors later argued she had been sexually assaulted either before or after her death. Investigators processing the scene recovered hairs from her back, a piece of her bra strap along the roadway, several mud impressions near the body, and pieces of a broken flashlight in a nearby parking and driveway area.

Investigators quickly focused on Glass, given his connection to the victim's family, his recent firing, the neighbor's sighting of his distinctive vehicle, and the vehicle registration match. Glass was arrested the same day the body was found and confessed to strangling Steffini with her bra strap.

Glass's trial was moved on a change of venue to Columbia, Missouri, in Boone County, where a jury convicted him of first-degree murder on November 20, 2002. Assistant Attorney General Robert Ahsens III told jurors during the trial that prosecutors sought the death penalty because the murder was "willful, wanton and violent and involved a sexual assault, before or after her death," noting also that Steffini had been kidnapped during the crime. Steffini was remembered as a seventh-grader at Hannibal Middle School, where she had been a cheerleader and a member of the basketball team.

During the sentencing phase, Glass's sister, Tonya Gallaher, testified about his close relationship with her two young children. His defense attorney, David Kenyon, argued the murder was "completely out of character" for Glass, and presented evidence that he had been raised by his grandparents in a family with a history of alcoholism. The jury nonetheless recommended death, and Glass was formally sentenced on February 25, 2003.

The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed Glass's conviction and death sentence on direct appeal on June 8, 2004, with a rehearing subsequently denied on July 1, 2004 (State v. Glass, 136 S.W.3d 496). Glass was held on Missouri's death row at the Potosi Correctional Center beginning in 2002. In June 2010, just before a new jury trial over his sentence was scheduled to begin in Callaway County, Glass's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole; Callaway County Judge Kevin M. Crane finalized this judgment. Following the commutation, Glass was expected to be transferred from death row to a different Missouri correctional facility.