On the morning of Sept. 29, 2021, 17-year-old Benjamin Elliott was in a Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace interrogation room in Houston, Texas.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): So, what occurred, Benjamin?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: You ever have a very lifelike nightmare? The place like simply the whole lot feels actual, but additionally off on the identical time?
Benjamin advised Detective Freder Muñoz that he stabbed his twin sister as soon as with a knife however had little reminiscence of what had occurred.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): So that you fall asleep … what is the subsequent factor you bear in mind?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: The subsequent factor I bear in mind is, like, the sensation of stabbing one thing … … I used to be in her room … and I turned on the sunshine … and I used to be panicking. And I attempted to cease bleeding with the – the — the pillow … So, I run in my room and I unplug my cellphone and I dial 911.
THE 911 CALL: SEPT. 29, 2021 | 4:41 A.M.
911 OPERATOR: Harris County 911, what is the location of your emergency?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: I simply killed my sister. … Oh my God …
911 OPERATOR: Inform me what your identify is?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Benjamin Elliott.
911 OPERATOR: OK, inform me precisely what occurred.
Kathy Elliott
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: I believed it was a dream. I — I took my knife and I stabbed her … Please … I do not need her to die. I am so sorry …
911 OPERATOR: How outdated is she?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: 17. We’re twins…
911 OPERATOR: Is she awake?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Sure … She’s like, barely alive …
911 OPERATOR: … is there anybody else there in the home with you?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: There’s. It is my mother and father, however they’re asleep.
911 OPERATOR: OK. I want you to go wake them up …
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Mother! Dad!
911 OPERATOR: We’re gonna have to begin CPR … proper now…
911 OPERATOR: 1,2,3,4. 1,2 …
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): I stabbed my sister.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: What number of occasions did you stab her?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Simply as soon as.
Michael Elliott: I heard the 911 name and I screamed.
911 CALL AUDIO:
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: What is going on on?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: I killed Meghan, I am so sorry.
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: You what?
Michael Elliott: And I went to go transfer into the bed room … as I moved I — I noticed Meghan and he or she was, uh — (chokes again tears)
Kathy Elliott: It is OK, babe.
Michael Elliott: It is actually not. Uh, she was, uh, grey, ?
Michael Elliott remembers calling out to his spouse Kathy.
Kathy Elliott: I heard Michael yell.
MICHAEL ELLIOTT (911 name audio): Oh my God!
Kathy Elliott: I used to be making an attempt to determine what is going on on … and Michael stated the police are right here … And I simply —
Arriving paramedics took over CPR.
Michael Elliott: They took Benjamin out of the home … he was … shocked. He stated … it was a dream.
911 CALL AUDIO:
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: What occurred, son?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: It was a dream …
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: He stated it was a dream, honey. What the f***!
Erin Moriarty: What did you make of that?
Michael Elliott: I do not — I imply I simply … I could not imagine it, I imply I could not. …
Erin Moriarty: Not the Ben you knew. So it must have been that he was —
Kathy Elliott: Some — one thing would’ve needed to occur …
Benjamin, his mother and father say, sat handcuffed in a police automobile for 3 hours whereas police, confronted with an obvious murder, took management of the crime scene.
Harris County 182nd Prison District Court docket 
KATHY ELLIOTT (police bodycam): I simply have to see her.
OFFICER: No — we will not.
KATHY ELLIOTT: I have to see her.
Michael Elliott: … no one would inform us if Meghan was OK and what was occurring …
KATHY ELLIOTT (police bodycam): Take an image for me. Let me see —
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: Yeah, can we see one thing?
OFFICER: No sir.
The Elliotts say they felt remoted by the police and ultimately known as a longtime good friend who can also be an legal professional.
Kathy Elliott: He went and acquired some info … and he advised us that Meghan had died.
It was information police did not share with Benjamin.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): Is she OK?
Benjamin requested Muñoz a number of occasions if his sister was alright.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): She is OK?
However the detective withheld the reality.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police questioning):Yeah, final I learn about, she was uh, being checked out by the EMS.
Authorities say this can be a textbook police method to maintain a suspect speaking and so they wished Benjamin speaking about his emotions for his sister.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): So, how’s your relationship with Meghan?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT Good. … she’s my twin sister. … I would do something for her.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: No rivalry there?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: No.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: You guys have any current fights or something like that?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: No … we’re fairly shut for siblings. …
Benjamin, who spoke to police with out a lawyer, stated he liked his sister and described what he says he remembered earlier than the stabbing. Telephone information present he was scrolling the online, and Benjamin says he thinks he fell asleep someplace round 2:30 or 3:30 within the morning.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): … the place would that cellphone be at proper now?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: … someplace on the crime scene.
Benjamin supplied Muñoz along with his iPhone password and permission to look his cellphone.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: Have you ever ever been identified with any psychological diseases?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: No.
Benjamin stated there have been no issues at dwelling. And stated that he was trying ahead to school.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: I am desirous about mechanical engineering. … I am taking the SAT I believe — Friday? No, Saturday.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: Let me ask you, the knife that you simply had in your fingers … the place’d you get it from?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: From my dad. He had given it to me that day. … it was like an Air Power survival knife. I used to be actually enamored with it.
Benjamin and Meghan’s mother and father had a giant assortment of knives and kit. The household is large into tenting. Kathy is senior supervisor with the Lady Scouts of America. Michael is a stay-at-home dad.
Michael Elliott: I do know that if I had not given him that knife, this might not have occurred. And uh —
After two hours in that interrogation room, at 11 a.m., Muñoz lastly revealed that Meghan was useless.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): I am sorry to be the bearer of dangerous information … Meghan didn’t make it.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Hmm.
Drue Whittecar: He and Meghan are so shut, you possibly can by no means image something dangerous occurring between them.
Longtime good friend Drue Whittecar was shocked to be taught Benjamin was in police custody.
Drue Whittecar: He was very protecting of her.
She says her household and the Elliott’s have been shut since 2005.
Drue Whittecar: Ben was very engineering-focused.
Whittecar, herself an engineer, described Benjamin as soft-spoken, sensible, humorous and a bit nerdy, whereas Meghan was delicate, wrote poetry and liked to attract. As a young person Meghan had been identified with autism.
Erin Moriarty: And the way did she really feel about Ben?
Drue Whittecar: She liked him. … she regarded as much as him. … you’ll see her stroll up subsequent to him when she would really feel uncomfortable and simply kinda stand by him. …
Erin Moriarty: Did he ever get bored with having to care for Meghan?
Michael Elliott: I believe he was pleased with it.
Kathy Elliott: Yeah.
Michael Elliott: … he favored— he favored being a protector.
Kathy Elliott 
The Elliotts say the twins appeared blissful within the weeks earlier than the stabbing. With their eldest baby, Elizabeth, already off in school, the twins toured separate universities.
Kathy Elliott: Meghan at this level had began popping out of her shell as nicely. … she was discovering her voice.
Michael Elliott: Yeah.
Kathy Elliott: She had discovered associates on-line. … And … she had a YouTube channel the place she was doing artwork.
The evening earlier than Meghan’s demise, father and son spent hours taking part in in style video video games, similar to Survive the Nights. It was in that online game that Benjamin observed a military-style knife that his father stated resembled one which he owned. Michael provided to provide it to Benjamin.
Michael Elliott: .. sadly … I went and acquired the knife out …
The Elliotts bear in mind heading off to mattress.
Erin Moriarty: Was there any, , any downside in any respect between the twins?
Michael Elliott: No. No.
The Elliotts, like police, could not make sense of why Benjamin stabbed Meghan.
However police had {the teenager}’s confession, the bloody knife he used, together with a disturbing element found at post-mortem: Meghan hadn’t been stabbed simply as soon as — she had two stab wounds. Benjamin Elliott was charged with the homicide of his twin sister.
WHY DID BENJAMIN ELLIOTT DO IT?
After a number of days on suicide watch, 17-year-old Benjamin Elliott was launched on bail. His mother and father had been there ready for him.
Michael Elliott: I noticed them put him out and he simply sort of stood there on the sidewalk and I (cries, seems to be at his spouse) — sorry.
Kathy Elliott: It is OK.
Michael Elliott: I went as much as him and — he appeared — I advised him — I stated, “Hey, Ben?” ? And he appeared like — like he did not see me. He was shocked to see me …
Michael Elliott: We began driving and we had been – we had been asking if he was OK — and had been getting very —
Kathy Elliott: Very quiet. Not —
Michael Elliott: Form of quiet, like, — single phrase solutions.
Kathy Elliott: So Michael … pulls the automobile over and stops and — and he will get out and comes round and takes his face in his fingers. And he says, “hello.”
Michael Elliott: Simply, yeah.
Kathy Elliott: Hello. “We love you. Hello.” And he simply —
Michael Elliott: Yeah. And I noticed him sort of, kind of wake. (cries)
Kathy Elliott: After which he simply hugged us.
Michael Elliott: Yeah.
The Elliotts knew they might by no means sleep of their dwelling once more—and had already moved in with Kathy’s mom.
Kathy Elliott: Ben was apprehensive that he would possibly stroll round, and he was apprehensive he would possibly do one thing, and he wished to ensure all people was protected.
The Elliotts had been apprehensive too.
Michael Elliott: The primary two nights, I slept in a chair.
Kathy Elliott: Yeah.
Michael Elliott: In entrance of the door.
The couple even put in an alarm on Benjamin’s door.
As a result of his attorneys had requested them to not converse with their son concerning the evening Meghan was killed, they could not ask him the burning query: why?
MICHAEL ELLIOTT (police bodycam): There’s by no means been something flawed with him in any respect.
Kathy Elliott: My bandwidth was — was a psychological well being one thing. Kathy’s father was schizophrenic.
She now feared her son could be. So did Benjamin’s attorneys Wes Rucker and Cary Hart.
Wes Rucker: So we had a psychiatrist sit down with him … I absolutely anticipated her to come back again and say he is acquired schizophrenia or he is severely bipolar. And when she calls me up, she stated, “Wes, he is superb.” … it blew my thoughts.
They got here to suspect Benjamin skilled one thing else completely — he was truly sleepwalking when he killed his sister.
Erin Moriarty: Had you ever, both of you, ever had a case fairly like this?
Wes Rucker: By no means.
Cary Hart: No.
Wes Rucker: You will have a twin, um, inflicting the demise of the opposite … and the very last thing you consider … is that this a sleepwalking case?
However Benjamin had advised police the evening he stabbed his sister it felt like a dream. And his attorneys say that sleepwalking defenses have been used efficiently up to now.
In 1987, Canadian Kenneth Parks drove his automobile 14 miles to his mother-in-law’s dwelling, beat her to demise with a tire iron and stabbed her. He claimed he was asleep the entire time. And a jury believed him.
And in North Carolina in 2010, Joseph Mitchell strangled his 4-year-old son and attacked two of his different kids all whereas sleepwalking. A jury additionally discovered him not responsible.
Erin Moriarty: The massive query right here is simply whether or not … Ben Elliott, in reality, killed his sister whereas he was sleepwalking.
Cary Hart: Right.
So Benjamin’s attorneys reached out to Dr. Jerald Simmons, a neurologist and sleep problem professional.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: After I first was approached, I used to be very skeptical. … The subsequent query was, did I even wish to take care of this? … my first response to that is, , nicely, who else are they going to go to? I imply, inside the area of sleep drugs, that is what I do.
Simmons wished to do a sleep examine with Benjamin to check if it is potential Benjamin may expertise one thing known as a parasomnia.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: Basically, consider a parasomnia as an irregular conduct that happens throughout sleep.
Erin Moriarty: Like sleepwalking.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: Sleepwalking can be a parasomnia.
Harris County 182nd Prison District Court docket 
Simmons requested if Benjamin had a historical past of sleepwalking and his attorneys say he did. When he was about 10 years outdated, Benjamin’s older sister, Elizabeth, discovered him sleepwalking by her bed room door. There was additionally a sleepover with childhood associates when Benjamin was discovered asleep on a sofa, consuming a donut. Once they woke him, he appeared shocked and confused. Simmons additionally discovered that there have been different members of the Elliott household who sleepwalked.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: … the probability genetically is increased to have a parasomnia, particularly non-REM parasomnias, if there are different members of the family which have had that.
Kathy Elliott: My uncle … apparently used to sleepwalk when he was a young person. … he would exit into the storage and, , with instruments. … And apparently he walked in on my mother one time when she was within the bathe.
Kathy additionally had an aunt who as soon as walked out of her home whereas she was asleep.
Kathy Elliott: Ran out into the woods in the course of the evening and, –
Michael Elliott: Simply waking up in the course of a thunderstorm outdoors …
Simmons carried out two sleep research with Benjamin in his sleep lab six weeks aside. In every, Benjamin was hooked as much as machines that monitored nearly the whole lot his physique did as he slept.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: So we did the sleep examine … I noticed that … He had obstructive sleep apnea …
Obstructive sleep apnea, says Simmons, is the place the airway turns into partially blocked, making a disturbance within the sleep sample.
Erin Moriarty: So, he is sleeping, struggling a bit to get breath … and that may very well be the set off.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: Sure. Sure. Sure.
A set off that, Simmons says, may trigger a sleepwalking episode. Notably when Benjamin’s mind waves enter what is named a non-REM slow-wave sleep.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: Now we’re seeing slow-wave sleep.
Erin Moriarty: That is slow-wave sleep.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: … sleepwalking will sometimes happen in non-REM … slow-wave sleep.
Throughout the sleep research, Benjamin didn’t sleepwalk however Simmons noticed how shortly Benjamin entered that non-REM slow-wave sleep.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: So it was 11 minutes from the time we turned off the lights till he was in slow-wave sleep.
Kathy Elliott 
That is vital as a result of on the evening Benjamin stabbed Meghan, his cellphone exercise stopped at 4:17 a.m. It was simply 24 minutes later that he was on his cellphone calling 911.
Simmons says the truth that Benjamin is ready to attain slow-wave sleep so shortly means it is potential Benjamin was sleepwalking throughout that time frame his cellphone was inactive.
Erin Moriarty: Do you imagine Ben killed his sister with out even realizing he was doing it in his sleep?
Dr. Jerald Simmons: Sure. Ben positively killed his sister. He did it. There is no query, he is the one which had the knife, and he stabbed her. However I imagine it was a part of a parasomnia. … He did not do that voluntarily. There was no motivation.
Dr. Simmons’ findings took Benjamin’s mother and father without warning.
Kathy Elliott : … it is scary as hell.
Michael Elliott: Yeah.
Kathy Elliott: If that may occur to us, then that might occur to anyone with — with a sleep downside.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT INDICTED FOR MURDER
Dr. Jerald Simmons: … he realized he — he was sinking the knife into one thing or somebody after which awakened … and realized it was his sister.
After sleep professional Dr. Jerald Simmons made his evaluation that Benjamin was sleepwalking when he killed his twin sister, the Elliotts had been hopeful prosecutors would possibly drop the case.
Kathy Elliott: At that time … we thought it may not go to trial.
However in April 2023, a year-and-a-half after Meghan’s demise, a grand jury indicted Benjamin Elliott, 19, of first-degree homicide.
Megan Lengthy: We simply did not suppose that what we noticed was sleepwalking.
Megan Lengthy and Maroun Koutani would deal with the prosecution. It wasn’t Lengthy’s first sleepwalking case. In 2019, she efficiently convicted a person who claimed he was sleepwalking when he shot and killed his spouse.
And Lengthy advised “48 Hours” she herself was a sleepwalker, as had been her kids. Nonetheless, Lengthy disputes the Elliotts’ declare of a household historical past since, she says, neither of Benjamin’s mother and father had been sleepwalkers.
Megan Lengthy: From our conversations with our sleep professional … household historical past of sleepwalking is an element, it is extra prevalent when it is, um, like first-degree members of the family, so, your mother and father.
The prosecutors employed their very own sleep advisor, psychologist Dr. Mark Pressman, who concluded Benjamin was not sleepwalking when he stabbed Meghan. He says sleepwalkers grow to be aggressive solely when somebody bodily interferes with them.
Dr. Mark Pressman: And so they reply by hitting or kicking or throwing furnishings … However that is — that is like a reflex, an instinctive reflex to guard themselves.
Harris County 182nd Prison District Court docket 
And he factors out that Benjamin would have needed to have unsheathed the knife earlier than he used it within the stabbing, which Pressman believes is a fancy aware motion, not an unconscious one.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): The subsequent factor I bear in mind is … the sensation of stabbing one thing …
He additionally says it is uncommon for a sleepwalker to recall particulars the best way Benjamin did to authorities after he stabbed Meghan.
Dr. Mark Pressman: He remembered … the sensation of the knife going into the neck. That is a reminiscence. You should not be capable to have that reminiscence.
Erin Moriarty: Aren’t there typically pockets of reminiscence?
Dr. Mark Pressman: Not in these instances. No.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: If he was making an attempt to manufacture this or simply use this as an alibi, it could’ve been simply as straightforward for him to say I do not bear in mind something … … As a substitute, he is — I interpret it as he is making an attempt to be as sincere as he can.
However Pressman felt he had sufficient info to make his willpower.
Erin Moriarty: You did not suppose you wanted to speak to Ben?
Dr. Mark Pressman: No.
Prosecutor Lengthy knew she wanted greater than an professional’s evaluation to convict Benjamin — particularly as a result of she could not determine a motive for homicide. Nobody had witnessed any issues between the twins.
Megan Lengthy: Is there no motive as a result of he was sleepwalking, or is there no motive simply because nobody’s prepared to come back ahead and inform us?
And so they suppose they will persuade a jury that Benjamin’s actions had been intentional that evening — stabbing Meghan twice. One wound was 4 inches deep and severed her carotid artery and jugular vein.
Megan Lengthy: So he is saying that he stabbed her within the neck, eliminated the knife … with the place she was stabbed … blood can be popping out of her neck, you need to see some kind of blood spatter on the partitions. And there is no of that.
Benjamin had advised police he used a pillow to cease the bleeding.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): And I attempted to cease bleeding with … the pillow –
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: Mm-hmm.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: — that was behind her. I like, did — did that.
Lengthy does not imagine that.
Megan Lengthy: I believe he wished to cowl her face, I believe possibly even muffle if she had been to scream or something like that. … The one means for there to not be that blood spatter is it needed to be there when he took the knife out. … it wasn’t there for lifesaving measures.
Erin Moriarty: However he is calling 911. So, he isn’t making an attempt to cover what he had performed, proper?
Maroun Koutani: I believe at that time when he is making that 911 name, he realizes I am unable to disguise what I’ve simply performed.
Koutani claims Benjamin is whispering on the 911 name and is suspicious why he isn’t yelling to his mother and father for assist.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (911 name): Please … I do not need her to die, I am so sorry. [gasps]
Maroun Koutani: I believe he is whispering as a result of he does not need his mother and father to come back to the identical actuality that he is now residing in — that he took his sister’s life. I believe that that is why he does not wake them earlier than calling 911. I believe that is why he does not scream in the home when he realizes what he is performed.
And so they argue Meghan was already useless by the point Benjamin known as 911.
Megan Lengthy: … by the point EMS acquired there, she wasn’t respiratory on her personal. She had no heartbeat.
Megan Lengthy: … our medical expert stated that with the wound that she suffered from, she would’ve been useless inside minutes.
Benjamin’s interrogation raised much more questions, they are saying, particularly when Benjamin described his home as a “crime scene.”
Maroun Koutani: Benjamin Elliott is requested by Deputy Muñoz, the place’s your cellphone? Benjamin Elliott responds with, “it is on the crime scene.” And to us that was important. … not many 17-year-olds would … reply with, “on the crime scene.” Most individuals would say at my home, in my room …
And there’s extra, says Koutani.
Maroun Koutani: His demeanor and his conduct could be very calm. … actually not, uh, the kind of conduct you’ll count on from any person who involves with a knife of their hand and their sister useless within the sleep of her personal bed room.
Erin Moriarty: Might he be in shock? I imply, realizing what he had performed? Is not that potential?
Maroun Koutani: I believe based mostly on his response to Deputy Muñoz in a pair parts of the interview, we are able to inform that he is not essentially in shock with what the implications of his actions had been.
Throughout the interview, Benjamin advised police that his sister had struggled together with her psychological well being.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): My sister had, um, a reasonably extreme despair for some time, Meghan.
Kathy Elliott 
To prosecutors, that urged possibly the whole lot wasn’t so good within the Elliott household. A competition that Benjamin’s attorneys discover ridiculous. They are saying investigators made just about no effort to be taught concerning the Elliotts or Benjamin.
Wes Rucker: They do not have a clue about this child. …
Wes Rucker: … they weren’t even curious.
Cary Hart: … he would know what was gonna occur to him if he killed his sister. … there was nothing for him to achieve. There was the whole lot for him to lose. There’s simply no motive why he would’ve performed that.
Earlier than trial, prosecutors provided Benjamin a 30-year plea deal. He turned it down.
Wes Rucker: The tragedy is now the household misplaced their daughter, however they’re now shedding their son. He is on trial for his life.
A MURDER WITHOUT A MOTIVE?
Kathy Elliott: He is a sufferer. … He went to sleep … he awakened and he — he came upon he had killed his sister.
After combating Meghan’s loss, the Elliotts now confronted the chance they might lose Benjamin, too.
Kathy Elliott: It is a nightmare that occurred to all of us.
Benjamin’s first-degree homicide trial started on Feb. 18, 2025.
Cary Hart: You inform your colleagues “I’ve a shopper who killed his twin sister, and we imagine he was sleepwalking.” … And so they suppose you are loopy.
However with no proof of any issues between the twins, Benjamin’s attorneys hope they will persuade a jury that sleepwalking is the one rationalization. Even prosecutors knew the dearth of motive may very well be an issue.
Megan Lengthy: I believe our largest hurdle going into this trial was the why.
Erin Moriarty: So that you made positive you had jurors who’d not less than be open to the thought – they might by no means know … why Meghan Elliott was stabbed.
Megan Lengthy: Proper.
In his opening remarks, Maroun Koutani made it clear, that whereas there was no motive, that they had their assassin.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in courtroom): He calls 911 at 4:41. “Good day? Good day?”
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (to 911): I simply killed my sister.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in courtroom): “I stabbed her with a knife.”
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (to 911): Oh my God.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in courtroom): He is whispering.
Prosecutors advised jurors about Benjamin’s conduct throughout that interrogation.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in courtroom): And you may see his demeanor within the interview.
Pointing to Benjamin’s response when the detective tells him Meghan is useless.
Harris County 182nd Prison District Court docket 
MAROUN KOUTANI (in courtroom): “Sorry to let you know this, however Megan has succumbed to her accidents.” … And the defendant says, “Hmm.”
Witnesses provide particulars about her wounds, the dearth of blood spatter and the prosecution’s concept that Benjamin coated Meghan’s head with a pillow whereas he stabbed her. And Benjamin’s father was shocked to be taught that prosecutors would ask him to determine Meghan’s physique for the report.
MEGAN LONG (in courtroom): This can be a photograph taken from an post-mortem …
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: Sorry (cries). Yeah, that is Meghan.
MEGAN LONG: No additional questions, Your Honor.
After the prosecution rested, protection attorneys Cary Hart and Wes Rucker took over, making their case about sleepwalking.
WES RUCKER (in courtroom): This isn’t a ruse. This isn’t some protection to get Ben off of a tragic, tragic set of circumstances … This can be a actual phenomenon …
And that decision Benjamin made to 911? The protection says that is proof he was determined to save lots of Meghan.
WES RUCKER (in courtroom): He is saying issues like, “oh my God.” “I believed it was a dream.” “I do not need her to die.” He is making an attempt to do CPR.
Household good friend Drue Whittecar advised the jury about Benjamin’s devotion to Meghan.
Kathy Elliott 
WES RUCKER (in courtroom): Ever discover that — that the candy child or the tender child … develop into any person else?
DRUE WHITTECAR: Completely not.
Showing by Zoom, childhood good friend Anand Singh advised the jury about that sleepover when he discovered Benjamin asleep and consuming a donut.
ANAND SINGH (testifying): Simply the sheer confusion on his face. Like he genuinely appeared baffled as to how that occurred.
Benjamin’s nice aunt, Martha Knight-Oakley, a psychologist, advised the jury about her personal sleepwalking historical past, together with discovering herself within the woods one evening.
MARTHA KNIGHT-OAKLEY (in courtroom): All I do know is I got here to within the bushes, clutching my canine.
However the protection staff’s star witness was Dr. Jerald Simmons. He testified for 4 hours, detailing the science and sleep research that satisfied him of Benjamin’s innocence.
DR. JERALD SIMMONS (in courtroom): … it completely matches consistent with a course of we name sleepwalking violent behaviors.
On rebuttal, prosecutors known as their very own sleepwalking professional Dr. Mark Pressman.
DR. MARK PRESSMAN (in courtroom): I concluded, uh, he was not in a sleepwalking state.
MEGAN LONG: How did you come to that conclusion.
DR. MARK PRESSMAN: He had reminiscence. He’s stated to have come out of the state a lot quicker than any sleepwalker may ever do.
CBS Information 
In closing arguments, prosecutors described a deliberate homicide.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in courtroom): Benjamin Elliott walked into his sister’s room with this very knife and he stabbed her within the neck twice.
MAROUN KOUTANI: There isn’t a blood spraying within the room. why? The one factor soaked in blood is the pillow that he muffled her screams with.
Benjamin’s protection attorneys pushed again.
CARY HART (in courtroom): … in the event you’re making an attempt to cowl one thing up, you are not calling 911. You are not begging for somebody to assist your sister.
WES RUCKER (in courtroom): You don’t convict a younger man, a 17-year-old, due to how he seems to be or as a result of how he solutions interrogation questions.
However prosecutor Megan Lengthy had the ultimate phrase. And she or he urged the household was concerned in a coverup that started with calling the good friend who’s a lawyer.
MEGAN LONG (in courtroom): Look, I am a mom. … I perceive wanting to guard your kids. I get it … However you … cannot allow them to get away with it. … They’ve been defending him from the get-go.
Lengthy did not go away it there.
MEGAN LONG (in courtroom): They wish to say that this household life was good. … However we do not essentially know what occurs behind closed doorways. …
And what she stated subsequent shocked the courtroom full of the Elliott household and associates.
MEGAN LONG (in courtroom): I need you to look on this courtroom. There are such a lot of folks right here for Benjamin. There’s not one individual right here for Meghan. (audible gasps from courtroom)
CARY HART: I’ll object to that. That’s pure hypothesis.
However the choose let the prosecution proceed.
MEGAN LONG (in courtroom): You must be her hero … … he knew precisely what he was doing. … there was no regret proven right here on this courtroom by him.
After 4 days of testimony, the case went to the jury.
Invoice Value | Juror: We uh, took a vote instantly.
Jurors had been divided.
Invoice Value: It was cut up seven to 5.
Might they attain a verdict?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT SPEAKS OUT
Invoice Value: I used to be sleepwalker … and considered one of my very own kids … used to sleepwalk too …
A number of of the jurors who determined Benjamin’s destiny knew loads about sleepwalking.
Erin Moriarty: somebody who was a — a sleepwalker?
Wesley Scott | Juror: Completely. Sure … had a member of the family, sure.
Carlos Fidalgo| Juror: On my mother’s facet. My grandfather.
However even with their expertise, they had been deeply conflicted about Benjamin.
Invoice Value: We spent a whole lot of time with … the interview by the detective … he talked about how he was gonna go take the SAT … he simply appeared to not have a whole lot of regret.
It did not take them lengthy to come back to a unanimous choice. After 4 hours of deliberations, jurors reached a verdict: responsible.
Benjamin Elliott: I bear in mind listening to responsible, and I used to be utterly shocked.
Benjamin Elliott—who didn’t testify at trial— later spoke to “48 Hours” contained in the county jail.
Benjamin Elliott: I really feel like this has been a I do not know, a miscarriage of justice, I suppose … I’m not responsible of homicide for my sister Meghan Elliott.
Benjamin, now 21 years outdated, stated he and his household had been appalled by the best way prosecutor Megan Lengthy ended her closing argument.
MEGAN LONG (in courtroom): There are such a lot of folks right here for Benjamin. There’s not one individual right here for Meghan.
Benjamin Elliott: That was loopy to me.
Erin Moriarty: What do you imply?
Benjamin Elliott: Everybody in that courtroom was there for Meghan.
MEGAN LONG (in courtroom): I perceive wanting to guard your kids
And his mother and father had been outraged by the statements made by prosecutors hinting at issues inside the household.
MEGAN LONG (in courtroom): We do not essentially know what occurs behind closed doorways .
Kathy Elliott: … they had been mendacity.
Michael Elliott: Yeah. It was horrible.
Kathy Elliott: They waited till the closing once they knew that nothing may very well be stated afterwards to — to tug out these outlandish … Implications about you do not know what occurs behind closed doorways.
Michael Elliott: Yeah. … she is aware of rattling nicely, there’s … not a shred of proof that something untoward was occurring in — in our home, in our household.
Benjamin and his mother and father had little time to let the responsible verdict sink in.
They had been again in courtroom for sentencing the next day.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in courtroom): And he’s the one which went into her room that evening and snuffed the life out of her
Prosecutors requested for 40 years. However a member of the jury requested the choose for leniency as a result of he apprehensive about Benjamin’s household.
Choose Danilo Lacayo advised the courtroom he wished a sentence that he may dwell with.
JUDGE DANILO LACAYO: I sentence you to fifteen years in jail. …
The request for leniency, says Benjamin, makes him surprise if a number of jurors had extra doubts than they wished to confess.
Benjamin Elliott: When you imagine … that I crept into my sister’s bed room and murdered her whereas she was asleep, why would you presumably need leniency for that individual? That individual is horrible.
Erin Moriarty: Are you that individual?
Benjamin Elliott: No, I am not. I am not that individual. I imply I am – I —I attempt to be real. I attempt to be sincere I am — I would like to consider myself as an excellent individual.
CBS Information 
Benjamin says authorities misconstrued the whole lot he did, beginning with that 911 name.
Erin Moriarty: The prosecutors say you had been whispering on the cellphone. Had been you?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: No … That is ridiculous. I wasn’t whispering … … I used to be panicked. … I wasn’t screaming into the cellphone trigger I am simply not a — I do not actually yell.
And Benjamin insists that as quickly as he realized what he had performed, he was making an attempt to assist Meghan — utilizing the pillow to attempt to cease the bleeding.
Erin Moriarty: The state says that you simply did not use the pillow to attempt to cease the bleeding.
Benjamin Elliott: No.
Erin Moriarty: You probably did it to maintain her from screaming.
Benjamin Elliott: Yeah.
Erin Moriarty: What do you say to that?
Benjamin Elliott: … that is loopy to me. And there is completely, completely zero forensic proof for that in any respect.
And what about his seemingly calm demeanor all through the police interview?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): The plan is I am taking the SAT …
Erin Moriarty: You are speaking to a deputy and also you’re speaking about SATs and faculties.
Benjamin Elliott: I am making an attempt to get my thoughts off of issues.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): I’ve had some points with college stuff typically …
Benjamin Elliott: I believe you may see it within the dialog. I preserve just about steering the dialog away from what occurred. … I do not wish to give it some thought.
As for studying Meghan had died, Benjamin says he simply shut down. And that he was desperately hoping she’d be OK.
Erin Moriarty: Do you’re feeling you are responsible of something?
Benjamin Elliott: No.
Erin Moriarty: You do not.
Benjamin Elliott: No. No. I — I do not suppose that is my fault in any respect. … I used responsible myself for it trigger it is like, , I — I used to be the one holding the knife, proper? However, I imply, I’ve come to comprehend that I am not. . I could not have performed something, any completely different than what I had performed.
Kathy Elliott 
And Benjamin says he misses his twin.
Benjamin Elliott: It is actually onerous that she’s not right here.
Erin Moriarty: Is not it onerous to know that it is due to you she’s not right here?
Benjamin Elliott: Yeah. Yeah, it is actually onerous. … We did the whole lot collectively … Like, we had been — we had been very, very shut. … She was an exquisite individual … She was an artist … the best way she regarded on the world … she checked out it with like a artistic thoughts, so she would simply see simply lovely issues all over the place.
Benjamin Elliott might be eligible for parole in 2032 when he’s 28 years outdated. He’s interesting his conviction.
Produced by Murray Weiss. Jenna Jackson is the event producer. Morgan Canty is the sphere producer. Doreen Schechter and Gary Winter are the producer-editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
