← Back to the front page

The Detective Who Discovered HE Was the Murderer: Historic Sleepwalking Cases

Khalid Elhassan February 9, 2025 15 min

Sleepwalking - Robert Ledru commits murder in his sleep — Robert Ledru commits murder in his sleep. Pinterest

3. Nagging and the Sleepwalking Defense

Elena Steinberg dances with her father at a 1981 wedding. Arizona Republic

The marriage of Steven Steinberg of Scottsdale, Arizona, and his wife Elena, came to a violent end in 1981: he stabbed her twenty six times with a kitchen knife, as she cried out for her children. He initially tried to blame it on burglars and a home invasion gone wrong. When police investigators debunked that possibility, he confessed that he killed her. However, he claimed to have done it while sleepwalking, a condition caused by excessive stress from his wife’s constant nagging for money. In the subsequent trial in Maricopa County’s Courthouse, the prosecutors put all their eggs in one basket and made a case for premeditated murder. In hindsight, the prosecutors’ failure to hedge their bets and add some more charges as alternates turned out to be a mistake. Steinberg’s attorney, who specialized in insanity defenses, made a case for not guilty by reason of insanity.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.