Calverley gets 40 years for kidnapping, murder

The final defendant in the Sarah Pasco murder case was sentenced to 40 years in prison in the Christian County Courthouse on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Steven Calverley, 34, of Stotts City, was sentenced to 30 years for second degree murder, 10 years for first degree assault, 15 years for first degree robbery, 15 years for first degree kidnapping, and 10 years each for four charges of armed criminal action. The sentences for murder and assault were consecutive, the remaining charges were concurrent “to one another and all sentences.”
Calverley was originally charged in Lawrence County, but his trial was moved to Christian County on March 25, 2021. He waived his right to a jury trial in February of 2024; in return, the state agreed not to seek the death penalty against him. He was found guilty of all charges on Nov. 1, 2024.
Calverly only defendant to go to trial
Calverley, formerly of Republic, was one of nine defendants who were charged in the murder of Sarah Pasco, and the only one to go to trial. The other defendants all pleaded out. The other eight all made plea bargains with the Lawrence County Prosecutor’s office and received sentences ranging from 40 years in prison to probation.
How the murder unfolded
Pasco was murdered in August of 2020 after she and an unidentified woman were abducted, forced down a well west of Miller and shot. Calverley, who was originally booked into the Lawrence County Jail on Aug. 19, 2020, was transferred out of the jail on Wednesday, Jan. 8, to the Missouri Department of Corrections to begin serving his sentence.