Already Convicted Murderer Charged Again in Shooting of Gas Station Robber

Albuquerque –

Detectives with the Albuquerque Police Department have arrested a gas station employee accused of pursuing and fatally shooting a man suspected of stealing cash from the store early Sunday morning. Authorities have not released the victim’s identity as they await next-of-kin notification.

The employee, identified as 37-year-old Stephen Clausell McCorkle, was working at the Shwan gas station at 7011 Lomas Blvd. NE when the incident occurred. Investigators determined that McCorkle had purposely left the store’s front doors unlocked while he went to the restroom around 5:00 AM. Upon his return, he reportedly encountered two homeless individuals inside the store. The employee said he noticed homeless peeps had taken several items, including a small burlap bag of cash which had for some reason been placed on top of the stores safe.

McCorkle confronted the two individuals, prompting them to empty their pockets. Neither individual was seen returning the burlap-style pouch containing the money. The money was destined to have been deposited into the stores safe.

Surveillance footage shows the men fleeing the store at 5:06 AM, with McCorkle chasing one of them west on Lomas Blvd. During the chase, McCorkle appeared to pull a medium-sized handgun from his pocket.

The footage later shows McCorkle returning to the store at 5:09 AM, before he got into a vehicle and drove west on Lomas. About an hour later, APD officers responded to reports of a man lying in the street near Georgia St. and Mountain Rd. NE. The victim was reportedly shot in the lower, right side of his back. The location the victim died was several blocks northwest of the gas station. A ShotSpotter alert recorded a gunshot in that area at 5:13 AM.

At 5:26 AM, McCorkle was seen returning to the gas station on foot. According to APD, police were notified of the theft an hour after the shooting occurred.

Further interviews revealed that it was unusual for Stephen, also known as “Slim,” to place the cash on top of the safe instead of performing a safe drop as required. The burlap bag of cash was never recovered from McCorkle or the store. Additionally, the burlap style pouch which contained money was not located on the victim’s body at the time he was found by police.

APD homicide detectives secured an arrest warrant for McCorkle, charging him with an open count of murder. Authorities took him into custody overnight and booked him into the Metro Detention Center. He has a felony criminal record dating back to 2007 with a variety of charges commit murder, child abuse, and theft. The murder case was in 2014 and he entered a guilty plea. Former Judge Jacqueline Flores sentenced him to 8 years with 4 years suspended. He appeared to get out of prison in 2019 but continued to violate parole through 2024.

You can read our initial coverage of this incident here: https://abqraw.com/post/apd-investigating-homicide-after-body-found-in-ne-abq/ We received an email from civilian APD PIO Rebecca Atkins just after 10AM announcing the homicide. We went to scene by 10:40AM to find no homicide investigation happening at the Mountain Rd. NE and Georgia St. NE. Typically these take over six hours to complete and would have put the investigation completed by noon.

This is the 118th homicide of 2024 for the Albuquerque metro area.