A Texas man who attributed a bout of sleepwalking to the deadly stabbing of his twin sister greater than three years in the past was just lately was discovered responsible of homicide in reference to the slaying.
Benjamin Elliott was sentenced to fifteen years in jail on Feb. 25 for killing his sister Meghan in 2021.
Solely 17 on the time, Benjamin known as 911 within the early morning hours of Sept. 29, 2021, and instructed dispatchers he had simply stabbed his sister, FOX26 reported.
When Harris County authorities received to the Elliott house, they discovered Benjamin performing CPR on Meghan who had sustained a number of stab wounds. First responders pronounced her lifeless on the house.
Elliott instructed detectives that he abruptly awakened in his sister’s room and noticed a knife in her neck. When he realized it wasn’t a dream, he eliminated the knife, put a pillow on her neck to cease the bleeding, after which ran to his room, grabbed his telephone, and dialed 911.
“I stabbed her after which immediately wasn’t,” Benjamin stated throughout an preliminary interview with an investigator following his arrest, in keeping with KHOU11. “I freaked out and, like, put the knife down and put a pillow on her to try to cease the bleeding. Then known as, you realize, 911 from my telephone.”
Elliott instructed investigators that he and his sister had been good buddies and it felt like a “sensible nightmare” when he awakened above her mattress.
Throughout the now-21-year-old’s week-long trial, his attorneys mounted a protection to bolster the sleepwalking declare by utilizing the testimony of a forensic psychologist and a sleep professional who talked about irregular sleep behaviors and Elliott’s historical past of psychological well being points.
Benjmain’s older sister video-conferenced from Georgia and testified that she as soon as witnessed an occasion during which her brother sleptwalk. An important-aunt additionally instructed jurors that the household has a historical past of sleepwalking.
Prosecutors additionally enlisted sleep consultants to testify in opposition to the protection and offered proof from Benjamin’s telephone logs to discredit the somnambulism declare, stating that he was utilizing his smartphone simply earlier than the homicide and that the system even tracked his steps to his sister’s room, ABC13 reported.
In addition they asserted that Benjamin had bought the survival knife he used within the stabbing only a day earlier than Meghan was killed and used the pillow to muffle his sister’s screams fairly than cease her bleeding.
“Whereas I didn’t offer you motive, I did offer you premeditation. It’s not a coincidence that the knife he received the night time earlier than is identical knife he used to kill his sister,” prosecutor Megan Lengthy instructed the jury throughout closing arguments.
After 5 hours of deliberating, the jury delivered a responsible verdict on Monday. The following day, the choose sentenced Elliott.
Protection attorneys requested for 5 years, calling the conviction a “miscarriage of justice.” The jury requested for the choose to be lenient. Prosecutors, alternatively, requested a 40-year jail time period.
Elliott will probably be eligible for parole midway by his 15-year time period.
Dr. Jerald Simmons, a neurologist who testified for the protection, stated he thought the “jury received it improper,” in keeping with ABC13. “If it wasn’t doable, I’d haven’t taken the place. There are different instances. They’re uncommon, however they’ll happen.”
In 2019, Raymond Lazarine mounted the identical sleepwalking protection after being charged along with his spouse’s homicide in Harris County. He was convicted.
