Benjamin Elliott (KHOU/YouTube).
A jury in Texas on Monday convicted a 21-year-old man who claimed he was sleepwalking when he plunged a knife into his twin sister’s neck, killing her.
On Tuesday, a judge sentenced Benjamin Elliott to 15 years in prison. Elliott was just 17 years old when in 2021 he stabbed his sister Meghan Elliott to death using a survival knife as she slept in her bed at their home in Katy, a Houston suburb. The defendant claimed he was sleeping and dreaming when he knifed his sister only to wake up and “suddenly” realize the stabbing was very much real.
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“I freaked out and, like, put the knife down and put a pillow on her to try and stop the bleeding. Then called, you know, 911 from my phone,” he said in his initial statement to cops.
But Meghan Elliott did not survive.
After deliberating for about five hours, the jury came back with a guilty verdict for murder.
His defense lawyer said in closing arguments that he had no reason to kill her.
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“How could a kid who cherishes his sister, who loves her, protects her, how could someone commit a crime that heinous without a reasonable explanation?” his attorney Wes Rucker told the jury, according to a courtroom report from local ABC affiliate KTRK.
Prosecutors said the sleepwalking defense was hogwash. While they could never come up with a motive for the killing, they did present evidence that Benjamin Elliott was on his phone some 20 minutes before the stabbing, suggesting he was awake. He also was alert enough to call 911, the state noted.
He also used the pillow to muffle her screams, prosecutors alleged.
“While I didn’t give you motive, I did give you premeditation. It’s not a coincidence that the knife he got the night before is the same knife he used to kill his sister,” prosecutor Megan Long said, per KTRK.
For their part, members of the Elliott family put their support behind Benjamin and believed he was indeed sleepwalking. They said he had a history of it. His older sister testified about an incident from several years ago in which he seemed to be sleepwalking when he appeared in a bedroom doorway.
“And I just like touched his shoulder and his eyes were barely open and then we told him to go back to bed,” Elizabeth Elliott said, according to local CBS affiliate KHOU.
Rucker opened his defense by addressing the “elephant in the room.”
“Is this just some made-up bologna or a really creative defense?” Rucker said. “The answer is absolutely not.”
The defense also presented experts who said the act is possible.
“I think the jury got it wrong,” defense witness Dr. Jerald Simmons, a neurologist, told KTRK after the verdict. “It’s totally possible. If it wasn’t possible, I would have not taken the position. There are other cases. They are rare, but they can occur.”
Although rare, the sleepwalking defense is used from time to time — even successfully. A jury found a North Carolina man not guilty of first-degree murder after he said he was sleepwalking when smothered his 4-year-old son and attacked two other children in September 2010. Experts reportedly told the jury he was suffering from stress and a lack of sleep when the incident occurred.
