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EXHIBIT 25
Case 2:OO—cv—O1118—NVW Document 110-7 Filed O3/28/2007 Page1 of 4

AFFIDAVIT
State of Arizona )
) ss.
County of Maricopa )
Being first duly sworn, JAMES H. STEPP says as follows:
l. I met Steven Craig James when each of us was six or seven years old. We
lived in the same area in north Phoenix and my mother was the housekeeper for
Steve’s parents, Bradley and Winnie James.
2. Steve and I attended grade school, junior high school and high school
together and were °‘best friends." His family moved to Glendale around the time we
were in tenth grade. Even after he moved, we remained good friends and saw each
other often.
3. When we were growing up, Steve knew he had been adopted, but he didn’t
know anything about his birth family.
4. Steve was a good kid, but he was hyperactive. He had trouble sitting still
and he jumped around a lot when we played together. He sometimes got in trouble in
class by doing silly things to "get the teacher’s attention? He was bigger and fatter
than the other kids and they teased him a lot. Sometimes he liked to "talk tough" with
these other kids, but he was really afraid to get into fights, and l had to protect him.
5. Steve wasn’t much of an athlete, and he was always "the last one picked"
when they were choosing sides for sports and games. He tried to get other kids to like
him by doing silly stunts, like eating flies and chalk or spitting wads of paper. He even
stole money from his parents, then would use it to buy things like ice cream for other W
kids. He believed that people didn’t like him because he was fat and he tried to buy
their friendship.
6. Steve worshiped his father, Bradley James, who was very strict. Mr. James
criticized Steve a lot and whipped him when he misbehaved. But Mr. James also
indulged Steve a lot, giving him a large allowance and buying things for him (like a
bicycle).
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Case 2:OO—cv—O1118-NVW Document 110-7 Filed O3/28/2007 Page 2 of 4

7. Steve and I attended Paradise Valley High School together. Steve liked to
play pool, and he started to out classes frequently to play pool. He was suspended once
from Paradise Valley, and his family moved to Glendale not long after that.
8. I saw Steve many times after he moved, even in 1980 and 1981, up until the
time he was arrested for murder.
9. I attended Steve’s wedding when he married Mama Hulgren early in 1980.
I believe it was in her mom’s back yard and there were about 30 or 40 people present.
The marriage did not last long, probably less than a year. He was really depressed
when she left him.
10. I saw him several times during the next year in his trailer (near Thomas
Road and Interstate 17), and he always seemed down on himself, saying that he had ‘
messed up his life, lost his wife and let his parents down. They were still supporting
him at this time, and his father, Brad James, criticized him a lot. This just seemed to
add to Steve’s depression. 1-le wanted desperately to please his dad, but it seemed to
him that nothing he did was good enough.
12. Steve just couldn’t seem to find his way to make things right. At one time
we started a welding class together, but he decided not to re—enroll, saying that he was
no good at it, no good at anything in his life. .
1 1. When I married my first wife, our wedding was on January 17, 1981, and I
asked Steve to be my best man. However, a couple of weeks before the wedding, he
went to California to see his "real mom" and he didn’t come back for a long while,
missing my wedding. U
12. Steve was very upset when he returned from California. He could not
understand why his mom had given him away when she had other kids, and then she
had even more babies after giving him away. This devastated Steve. He felt
worthless.
13. He also leamed about his real dad when he went to California. He said his
dad had been sent to prison and was either still in prison or had died. He told me, "J im,
I’m just like my old man. No good."
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Case 2:OO—cv-O1118-NVW Document 110-7 Filed O3/28/2007 Page 3 of 4

14. Steve knew that I didn’t want to get involved with drugs but I knew that he
was doing them a lot. One time I visited him at his trailer, a couple of weeks before he
was arrested for murder. He was with two other guys, and I believe they were the two
guys who were charged with Steve in the murder. One was Steve’s age and the other
was a young teenager. All three of them were obviously high. Their eyes were glassy
and their speech was slurred. They wanted me to hang around with them, but I was
uncomfortable about the drugs and left immediately.
15. When I learned that Steve had been involved in killing another person, I
hoped he would get a prison sentence, not the death penalty, because I knew the good
person underneath all the drug abuse and insecurity about his childhood. I thought that
he needed help, but he could have been rehabilitated.
16. I was available to testify at Steve’s sentencing hearing, but his lawyer
never contacted me before he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
17. A couple of years after Steve was on death row, another lawyer contacted
me and my mom asking if we would be witnesses at a court hearing to decide if Steve
could get a new sentence. We both agreed to be witnesses. The lawyer asked us to
write down a list of things we would say if we were called as witnesses. My mom and
I both prepared our lists, but there never was a hearing.
” . 3 nf
DATED this day of @}f*~"° f" , 2007.
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Subscribed and sworn before me this wi 7 day of {_k,Q,a4,¢¢/éz , 2007
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