On the morning of Sept. 29, 2021, 17-year-old Benjamin Elliott, was in a Harris County Sheriff’s Office interrogation room in Houston, Texas.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): So, what happened, Benjamin?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: You ever have a really realistic nightmare? Where like just everything feels real, but also off at the same time?
Benjamin told Detective Freder Muñoz that he stabbed his twin sister once with a knife but had little memory of what had happened.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): So you go to sleep … what’s the next thing you remember?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: The next thing I remember is, like, the feeling of stabbing something … … I was in her room … and I turned on the light … and I was panicking. And I tried to stop bleeding with the – the — the pillow … So, I run in my room and I unplug my phone and I dial 911.
THE 911 CALL: SEPT. 29, 2021 | 4:41 A.M.
911 OPERATOR: Harris County 911, what’s the location of your emergency?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: I just killed my sister. … Oh my God …
911 OPERATOR: Tell me what your name is?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Benjamin Elliott.
911 OPERATOR: OK, tell me exactly what happened.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: I thought it was a dream. I — I took my knife and I stabbed her … Please … I don’t want her to die. I’m so sorry …
911 OPERATOR: How old is she?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: 17. We’re twins…
911 OPERATOR: Is she awake?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Yes … She’s like, barely alive …
911 OPERATOR: … is there anyone else there in the house with you?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: There is. It’s my parents, but they are asleep.
911 OPERATOR: OK. I need you to go wake them up …
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Mom! Dad!
911 OPERATOR: We’re gonna have to start CPR … right now…
911 OPERATOR: 1,2,3,4. 1,2 …
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): I stabbed my sister.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: How many times did you stab her?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Just once.
Michael Elliott: I heard the 911 call and I screamed.
911 CALL AUDIO:
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: What’s going on?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: I killed Meghan, I’m so sorry.
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: You what?
Michael Elliott: And I went to go move into the bedroom … as I moved I — I saw Meghan and she was, uh — (chokes back tears)
Kathy Elliott: It’s OK, babe.
Michael Elliott: It’s really not. Uh, she was, uh, gray, you know?
Michael Elliott remembers calling out to his wife Kathy.
Kathy Elliott: I heard Michael yell.
MICHAEL ELLIOTT (911 call audio): Oh my God!
Kathy Elliott: I was trying to figure out what’s going on … and Michael said the police are here … And I just —
Arriving paramedics took over CPR.
Michael Elliott: They took Benjamin out of the house … he was … shocked. He said … it was a dream.
911 CALL AUDIO:
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: What happened, son?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: It was a dream …
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: He said it was a dream, honey. What the f***!
Erin Moriarty: What did you make of that?
Michael Elliott: I don’t — I mean I just … I couldn’t believe it, I mean I couldn’t. …
Erin Moriarty: Not the Ben you knew. So it would have to have been that he was —
Kathy Elliott: Some — something would’ve had to happen …
Benjamin, his parents say, sat handcuffed in a police car for three hours while police, confronted with an apparent homicide, took control of the crime scene.
KATHY ELLIOTT (police bodycam): I just need to see her.
OFFICER: No — we can’t.
KATHY ELLIOTT: I need to see her.
Michael Elliott: … nobody would tell us if Meghan was OK and what was going on …
KATHY ELLIOTT (police bodycam): Take a picture for me. Let me see —
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: Yeah, can we see something?
OFFICER: No sir.
The Elliotts say they felt isolated by the police and eventually called a longtime friend who is also an attorney.
Kathy Elliott: He went and got some information … and he told us that Meghan had died.
It was news police didn’t share with Benjamin.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): Is she OK?
Benjamin asked Muñoz several times if his sister was alright.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): She is OK?
But the detective withheld the truth.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police questioning):Yeah, last I know about, she was uh, being checked out by the EMS.
Authorities say this is a textbook police technique to keep a suspect talking and they wanted Benjamin talking about his feelings for his sister.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): So, how’s your relationship with Meghan?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT Good. … she’s my twin sister. … I’d do anything for her.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: No rivalry there?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: No.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: You guys have any recent fights or anything like that?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: No … we’re pretty close for siblings. …
Benjamin, who spoke to police without a lawyer, said he loved his sister and described what he says he remembered before the stabbing. Phone records show he was scrolling the web, and Benjamin says he thinks he fell asleep somewhere around 2:30 or 3:30 in the morning.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): … where would that phone be at right now?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: … somewhere at the crime scene.
Benjamin provided Muñoz with his iPhone password and permission to search his phone.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: Have you ever been diagnosed with any mental illnesses?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: No.
Benjamin said there were no problems at home. And said that he was looking forward to college.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: I’m thinking about mechanical engineering. … I’m taking the SAT I think — Friday? No, Saturday.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: Let me ask you, the knife that you had in your hands … where’d you get it from?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: From my dad. He had given it to me that day. … it was like an Air Force survival knife. I was really enamored with it.
Benjamin and Meghan’s parents had a big collection of knives and gear. The family is big into camping. Kathy is senior manager with the Girl Scouts of America. Michael is a stay-at-home dad.
Michael Elliott: I know that if I had not given him that knife, this would not have happened. And uh —
After two hours in that interrogation room, at 11 a.m., Muñoz finally revealed that Meghan was dead.
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ (police interview): I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news … Meghan did not make it.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: Hmm.
Drue Whittecar: He and Meghan are so close, you could never picture anything bad happening between them.
Longtime friend Drue Whittecar was stunned to learn Benjamin was in police custody.
Drue Whittecar: He was very protective of her.
She says her family and the Elliott’s have been close since 2005.
Drue Whittecar: Ben was very engineering-focused.
Whittecar, herself an engineer, described Benjamin as soft-spoken, smart, funny and a bit nerdy, while Meghan was sensitive, wrote poetry and loved to draw. As a teenager Meghan had been diagnosed with autism.
Erin Moriarty: And how did she feel about Ben?
Drue Whittecar: She loved him. … she looked up to him. … you would see her walk up next to him when she would feel uncomfortable and just kinda stand by him. …
Erin Moriarty: Did he ever get tired of having to take care of Meghan?
Michael Elliott: I think he was proud of it.
Kathy Elliott: Yeah.
Michael Elliott: … he liked— he liked being a protector.
The Elliotts say the twins seemed happy in the weeks before the stabbing. With their eldest child, Elizabeth, already off at college, the twins toured separate universities.
Kathy Elliott: Meghan at this point had started coming out of her shell as well. … she was finding her voice.
Michael Elliott: Yeah.
Kathy Elliott: She had found friends online. … And … she had a YouTube channel where she was doing art.
The night before Meghan’s death, father and son spent hours playing popular video games, such as Survive the Nights. It was in that video game that Benjamin noticed a military-style knife that his father said resembled one that he owned. Michael offered to give it to Benjamin.
Michael Elliott: .. unfortunately … I went and got the knife out …
The Elliotts remember heading off to bed.
Erin Moriarty: Was there any, you know, any problem at all between the twins?
Michael Elliott: No. No.
The Elliotts, like police, couldn’t make sense of why Benjamin stabbed Meghan.
But police had the teenager’s confession, the bloody knife he used, along with a disturbing detail discovered at autopsy: Meghan hadn’t been stabbed just once — she had two stab wounds. Benjamin Elliott was charged with the murder of his twin sister.
WHY DID BENJAMIN ELLIOTT DO IT?
After several days on suicide watch, 17-year-old Benjamin Elliott was released on bail. His parents were there waiting for him.
Michael Elliott: I saw them put him out and he just kind of stood there on the sidewalk and I (cries, looks at his wife) — sorry.
Kathy Elliott: It’s OK.
Michael Elliott: I went up to him and — he seemed — I told him — I said, “Hey, Ben?” You know? And he seemed like — like he didn’t see me. He was surprised to see me …
Michael Elliott: We started driving and we were – we were asking if he was OK — and were getting very —
Kathy Elliott: Very quiet. Not —
Michael Elliott: Sort of quiet, like, you know — single word answers.
Kathy Elliott: So Michael … pulls the car over and stops and — and he gets out and comes around and takes his face in his hands. And he says, “hi.”
Michael Elliott: Just, yeah.
Kathy Elliott: Hi. “We love you. Hi.” And he just —
Michael Elliott: Yeah. And I saw him kind of, sort of wake. (cries)
Kathy Elliott: And then he just hugged us.
Michael Elliott: Yeah.
The Elliotts knew they could never sleep in their home again—and had already moved in with Kathy’s mother.
Kathy Elliott: Ben was worried that he might walk around, and he was worried he might do something, and he wanted to make sure everybody was safe.
The Elliotts were worried too.
Michael Elliott: The first two nights, I slept in a chair.
Kathy Elliott: Yeah.
Michael Elliott: In front of the door.
The couple even installed an alarm on Benjamin’s door.
Because his attorneys had asked them not to speak with their son about the night Meghan was killed, they couldn’t ask him the burning question: why?
MICHAEL ELLIOTT (police bodycam): There’s never been anything wrong with him at all.
Kathy Elliott: My bandwidth was — was a mental health something. Kathy’s father was schizophrenic.
She now feared her son might be. So did Benjamin’s lawyers Wes Rucker and Cary Hart.
Wes Rucker: So we had a psychiatrist sit down with him … I fully expected her to come back and say he’s got schizophrenia or he’s severely bipolar. And when she calls me up, she said, “Wes, he’s fine.” … it blew my mind.
They came to suspect Benjamin experienced something else entirely — he was actually sleepwalking when he killed his sister.
Erin Moriarty: Had you ever, either one of you, ever had a case quite like this?
Wes Rucker: Never.
Cary Hart: No.
Wes Rucker: You have a twin, um, causing the death of the other … and the last thing you think of … is this a sleepwalking case?
But Benjamin had told police the night he stabbed his sister it felt like a dream. And his lawyers say that sleepwalking defenses have been used successfully in the past.
In 1987, Canadian Kenneth Parks drove his car 14 miles to his mother-in-law’s home, beat her to death with a tire iron and stabbed her. He claimed he was asleep the whole 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 other children all while sleepwalking. A jury also found him not guilty.
Erin Moriarty: The big question here is just whether … Ben Elliott, in fact, killed his sister while he was sleepwalking.
Cary Hart: Correct.
So Benjamin’s lawyers reached out to Dr. Jerald Simmons, a neurologist and sleep disorder expert.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: When I first was approached, I was very skeptical. … The next question was, did I even want to deal with this? … my first reaction to this is, you know, well, who else are they going to go to? I mean, within the field of sleep medicine, this is what I do.
Simmons wanted to do a sleep study with Benjamin to test if it’s possible Benjamin could experience something called a parasomnia.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: In general, think of a parasomnia as an abnormal behavior that occurs during sleep.
Erin Moriarty: Like sleepwalking.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: Sleepwalking would be a parasomnia.
Simmons asked if Benjamin had a history of sleepwalking and his lawyers say he did. When he was about 10 years old, Benjamin’s older sister, Elizabeth, found him sleepwalking by her bedroom door. There was also a sleepover with childhood friends when Benjamin was found asleep on a couch, eating a donut. When they woke him, he seemed surprised and confused. Simmons also learned that there were other members of the Elliott family who sleepwalked.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: … the likelihood genetically is higher to have a parasomnia, specifically non-REM parasomnias, if there are other family members that have had that.
Kathy Elliott: My uncle … apparently used to sleepwalk when he was a teenager. … he would go out into the garage and, you know, with tools. … And apparently he walked in on my mom one time when she was in the shower.
Kathy also had an aunt who once walked out of her house while she was asleep.
Kathy Elliott: Ran out into the woods in the middle of the night and, you know –
Michael Elliott: Just waking up in the middle of a thunderstorm outside …
Simmons conducted two sleep studies with Benjamin in his sleep lab six weeks apart. In each, Benjamin was hooked up to machines that monitored just about everything his body did as he slept.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: So we did the sleep study … I saw that … He had obstructive sleep apnea …
Obstructive sleep apnea, says Simmons, is where the airway becomes partially blocked, creating a disturbance in the sleep pattern.
Erin Moriarty: So, he’s sleeping, struggling a bit to get breath … and that could be the trigger.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: Yes. Yes. Yes.
A trigger that, Simmons says, could cause a sleepwalking episode. Particularly when Benjamin’s brain waves enter what is known as a non-REM slow-wave sleep.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: Now we’re seeing slow-wave sleep.
Erin Moriarty: This is slow-wave sleep.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: … sleepwalking will typically occur in non-REM … slow-wave sleep.
During the sleep studies, Benjamin did not sleepwalk but Simmons observed how quickly Benjamin entered that non-REM slow-wave sleep.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: So it was 11 minutes from the time we turned off the lights until he was in slow-wave sleep.
This is important because on the night Benjamin stabbed Meghan, his phone activity stopped at 4:17 a.m. It was just 24 minutes later that he was on his phone calling 911.
Simmons says the fact that Benjamin is able to reach slow-wave sleep so quickly means it’s possible Benjamin was sleepwalking during that period of time his phone was inactive.
Erin Moriarty: Do you believe Ben killed his sister without even realizing he was doing it in his sleep?
Dr. Jerald Simmons: Yes. Ben definitely killed his sister. He did it. There’s no question, he’s the one that had the knife, and he stabbed her. But I believe it was part of a parasomnia. … He didn’t do this voluntarily. There was no motivation.
Dr. Simmons’ findings took Benjamin’s parents by surprise.
Kathy Elliott : … it’s scary as hell.
Michael Elliott: Yeah.
Kathy Elliott: If that can happen to us, then that could happen to anybody with — with a sleep problem.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT INDICTED FOR MURDER
Dr. Jerald Simmons: … he realized he — he was sinking the knife into something or someone and then woke up … and realized it was his sister.
After sleep expert Dr. Jerald Simmons made his assessment that Benjamin was sleepwalking when he killed his twin sister, the Elliotts were hopeful prosecutors might drop the case.
Kathy Elliott: At that point … we thought it might not go to trial.
But in April 2023, a year-and-a-half after Meghan’s death, a grand jury indicted Benjamin Elliott, 19, of first-degree murder.
Megan Long: We just didn’t think that what we saw was sleepwalking.
Megan Long and Maroun Koutani would handle the prosecution. It wasn’t Long’s first sleepwalking case. In 2019, she successfully convicted a man who claimed he was sleepwalking when he shot and killed his wife.
And Long told “48 Hours” she herself was a sleepwalker, as were her children. Still, Long disputes the Elliotts’ claim of a family history since, she says, neither of Benjamin’s parents had been sleepwalkers.
Megan Long: From our conversations with our sleep expert … family history of sleepwalking is a factor, it’s more prevalent when it’s, um, like first-degree family members, so, your parents.
The prosecutors hired their own sleep consultant, psychologist Dr. Mark Pressman, who concluded Benjamin was not sleepwalking when he stabbed Meghan. He says sleepwalkers become aggressive only when someone physically interferes with them.
Dr. Mark Pressman: And they respond by hitting or kicking or throwing furniture … But that’s — that’s like a reflex, an instinctive reflex to protect themselves.
And he points out that Benjamin would have had to have unsheathed the knife before he used it in the stabbing, which Pressman believes is a complex conscious action, not an unconscious one.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): The next thing I remember is … the feeling of stabbing something …
He also says it’s unusual for a sleepwalker to recall details the way Benjamin did to authorities after he stabbed Meghan.
Dr. Mark Pressman: He remembered … the feeling of the knife going into the neck. That’s a memory. You shouldn’t be able to have that memory.
Erin Moriarty: Aren’t there sometimes pockets of memory?
Dr. Mark Pressman: Not in these cases. No.
Dr. Jerald Simmons: If he was trying to fabricate this or just use this as an alibi, it would’ve been just as easy for him to say I don’t remember anything … … Instead, he’s — I interpret it as he’s trying to be as honest as he can.
But Pressman felt he had enough information to make his determination.
Erin Moriarty: You didn’t think you needed to talk to Ben?
Dr. Mark Pressman: No.
Prosecutor Long knew she needed more than an expert’s assessment to convict Benjamin — especially because she couldn’t identify a motive for murder. No one had witnessed any problems between the twins.
Megan Long: Is there no motive because he was sleepwalking, or is there no motive just because no one’s willing to come forward and tell us?
And they think they can convince a jury that Benjamin’s actions were intentional that night — stabbing Meghan twice. One wound was four inches deep and severed her carotid artery and jugular vein.
Megan Long: So he’s saying that he stabbed her in the neck, removed the knife … with where she was stabbed … blood would be coming out of her neck, you should see some sort of blood spatter on the walls. And there isn’t any of that.
Benjamin had told police he used a pillow to stop the bleeding.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): And I tried to stop bleeding with … the pillow –
DET. FREDER MUÑOZ: Mm-hmm.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: — that was behind her. I like, did — did that.
Long doesn’t believe that.
Megan Long: I think he wanted to cover her face, I think maybe even muffle if she were to scream or anything like that. … The only way for there not to be that blood spatter is it had to be there when he took the knife out. … it wasn’t there for lifesaving measures.
Erin Moriarty: But he’s calling 911. So, he is not trying to hide what he had done, right?
Maroun Koutani: I think at that point when he’s making that 911 call, he realizes I can’t hide what I’ve just done.
Koutani claims Benjamin is whispering on the 911 call and is suspicious why he is not yelling to his parents for help.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (911 call): Please … I don’t want her to die, I’m so sorry. [gasps]
Maroun Koutani: I think he’s whispering because he doesn’t want his parents to come to the same reality that he’s now living in — that he took his sister’s life. I think that that’s why he doesn’t wake them before calling 911. I think that’s why he doesn’t scream in the house when he realizes what he’s done.
And they argue Meghan was already dead by the time Benjamin called 911.
Megan Long: … by the time EMS got there, she wasn’t breathing on her own. She had no heartbeat.
Megan Long: … our medical examiner said that with the wound that she suffered from, she would’ve been dead within minutes.
Benjamin’s interrogation raised even more questions, they say, especially when Benjamin described his house as a “crime scene.”
Maroun Koutani: Benjamin Elliott is asked by Deputy Muñoz, where’s your phone? Benjamin Elliott responds with, “it’s at the crime scene.” And to us that was significant. … not many 17-year-olds would … respond with, “at the crime scene.” Most people would say at my house, in my room …
And there is more, says Koutani.
Maroun Koutani: His demeanor and his behavior is very calm. … certainly not, uh, the type of behavior you would expect from somebody who comes to with a knife in their hand and their sister dead in the sleep of her own bedroom.
Erin Moriarty: Could he be in shock? I mean, realizing what he had done? Isn’t that possible?
Maroun Koutani: I think based on his response to Deputy Muñoz in a couple portions of the interview, we can tell that he’s not necessarily in shock with what the consequences of his actions were.
During the interview, Benjamin told police that his sister had struggled with her mental health.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): My sister had, um, a pretty severe depression for a while, Meghan.
To prosecutors, that suggested maybe everything wasn’t so perfect in the Elliott family. A contention that Benjamin’s lawyers find ridiculous. They say investigators made virtually no effort to learn about the Elliotts or Benjamin.
Wes Rucker: They don’t have a clue about this kid. …
Wes Rucker: … they weren’t even curious.
Cary Hart: … he would know what was gonna happen to him if he killed his sister. … there was nothing for him to gain. There was everything for him to lose. There’s just no reason why he would’ve done that.
Before trial, prosecutors offered Benjamin a 30-year plea deal. He turned it down.
Wes Rucker: The tragedy is now the family lost their daughter, but they’re now losing their son. He’s on trial for his life.
A MURDER WITHOUT A MOTIVE?
Kathy Elliott: He’s a victim. … He went to sleep … he woke up and he — he found out he had killed his sister.
After struggling with Meghan’s loss, the Elliotts now faced the possibility they could lose Benjamin, too.
Kathy Elliott: It’s a nightmare that happened to all of us.
Benjamin’s first-degree murder trial began on Feb. 18, 2025.
Cary Hart: You tell your colleagues “I have a client who killed his twin sister, and we believe he was sleepwalking.” … And they think you’re crazy.
But with no evidence of any problems between the twins, Benjamin’s lawyers hope they can convince a jury that sleepwalking is the only explanation. Even prosecutors knew the lack of motive could be a problem.
Megan Long: I think our biggest hurdle going into this trial was the why.
Erin Moriarty: So you made sure you had jurors who’d at least be open to the idea – they may never know … why Meghan Elliott was stabbed.
Megan Long: Right.
In his opening remarks, Maroun Koutani made it clear, that while there was no motive, they had their murderer.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in court): He calls 911 at 4:41. “Hello? Hello?”
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (to 911): I just killed my sister.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in court): “I stabbed her with a knife.”
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (to 911): Oh my God.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in court): He’s whispering.
Prosecutors told jurors about Benjamin’s behavior during that interrogation.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in court): And you’ll see his demeanor in the interview.
Pointing to Benjamin’s reaction when the detective tells him Meghan is dead.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in court): “Sorry to tell you this, but Megan has succumbed to her injuries.” … And the defendant says, “Hmm.”
Witnesses offer details about her wounds, the lack of blood spatter and the prosecution’s theory that Benjamin covered Meghan’s head with a pillow while he stabbed her. And Benjamin’s father was surprised to learn that prosecutors would ask him to identify Meghan’s body for the record.
MEGAN LONG (in court): This is a photo taken from an autopsy …
MICHAEL ELLIOTT: Sorry (cries). Yeah, that’s Meghan.
MEGAN LONG: No further questions, Your Honor.
After the prosecution rested, defense attorneys Cary Hart and Wes Rucker took over, making their case about sleepwalking.
WES RUCKER (in court): This is not a ruse. This is not some defense to get Ben off of a tragic, tragic set of circumstances … This is a real phenomenon …
And that call Benjamin made to 911? The defense says that’s evidence he was desperate to save Meghan.
WES RUCKER (in court): He’s saying things like, “oh my God.” “I thought it was a dream.” “I don’t want her to die.” He’s trying to do CPR.
Family friend Drue Whittecar told the jury about Benjamin’s devotion to Meghan.
WES RUCKER (in court): Ever notice that — that the sweet kid or the tender kid … change into somebody else?
DRUE WHITTECAR: Absolutely not.
Appearing by Zoom, childhood friend Anand Singh told the jury about that sleepover when he found Benjamin asleep and eating a donut.
ANAND SINGH (testifying): Just the sheer confusion on his face. Like he genuinely seemed baffled as to how that happened.
Benjamin’s great aunt, Martha Knight-Oakley, a psychologist, told the jury about her own sleepwalking history, including finding herself in the woods one night.
MARTHA KNIGHT-OAKLEY (in court): All I know is I came to in the bushes, clutching my dog.
But the defense team’s star witness was Dr. Jerald Simmons. He testified for four hours, detailing the science and sleep studies that convinced him of Benjamin’s innocence.
DR. JERALD SIMMONS (in court): … it totally fits in line with a process we call sleepwalking violent behaviors.
On rebuttal, prosecutors called their own sleepwalking expert Dr. Mark Pressman.
DR. MARK PRESSMAN (in court): I concluded, uh, he was not in a sleepwalking state.
MEGAN LONG: How did you come to that conclusion.
DR. MARK PRESSMAN: He had memory. He is said to have come out of the state much faster than any sleepwalker could ever do.
In closing arguments, prosecutors described a deliberate murder.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in court): Benjamin Elliott walked into his sister’s room with this very knife and he stabbed her in the neck twice.
MAROUN KOUTANI: There is no blood spraying in the room. You know why? The only thing soaked in blood is the pillow that he muffled her screams with.
Benjamin’s defense attorneys pushed back.
CARY HART (in court): … if you’re trying to cover something up, you’re not calling 911. You’re not begging for someone to help your sister.
WES RUCKER (in court): You do not convict a young man, a 17-year-old, because of how he looks or because how he answers interrogation questions.
But prosecutor Megan Long had the final word. And she suggested the family was involved in a coverup that began with calling the friend who is a lawyer.
MEGAN LONG (in court): Look, I’m a mother. … I understand wanting to protect your children. I get it … But you … can’t let them get away with it. … They have been protecting him from the get-go.
Long didn’t leave it there.
MEGAN LONG (in court): They want to say that this family life was perfect. … But we don’t necessarily know what happens behind closed doors. …
And what she said next stunned the courtroom filled with the Elliott family and friends.
MEGAN LONG (in court): I want you to look in this courtroom. There are so many people here for Benjamin. There is not one person here for Meghan. (audible gasps from courtroom)
CARY HART: I’m going to object to that. That is pure speculation.
But the judge let the prosecution continue.
MEGAN LONG (in court): You have to be her hero … … he knew exactly what he was doing. … there has been no remorse shown here in this courtroom by him.
After four days of testimony, the case went to the jury.
Bill Price | Juror: We uh, took a vote immediately.
Jurors were divided.
Bill Price: It was split seven to five.
Could they reach a verdict?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT SPEAKS OUT
Bill Price: I was sleepwalker … and one of my own children … used to sleepwalk too …
Several of the jurors who decided Benjamin’s fate knew a lot about sleepwalking.
Erin Moriarty: You know someone who was a — a sleepwalker?
Wesley Scott | Juror: Absolutely. Yes … had a family member, yes.
Carlos Fidalgo| Juror: On my mom’s side. My grandfather.
But even with their experience, they were deeply conflicted about Benjamin.
Bill Price: We spent a lot of time with … the interview by the detective … he talked about how he was gonna go take the SAT … he just seemed to not have a lot of remorse.
It didn’t take them long to come to a unanimous decision. After four hours of deliberations, jurors reached a verdict: guilty.
Benjamin Elliott: I remember hearing guilty, and I was completely shocked.
Benjamin Elliott—who did not testify at trial— later spoke to “48 Hours” inside the county jail.
Benjamin Elliott: I feel like this has been a I don’t know, a miscarriage of justice, I guess … I am not guilty of murder for my sister Meghan Elliott.
Benjamin, now 21 years old, said he and his family were appalled by the way prosecutor Megan Long ended her closing argument.
MEGAN LONG (in court): There are so many people here for Benjamin. There is not one person here for Meghan.
Benjamin Elliott: That was crazy to me.
Erin Moriarty: What do you mean?
Benjamin Elliott: Everyone in that courtroom was there for Meghan.
MEGAN LONG (in court): I understand wanting to protect your children
And his parents were outraged by the statements made by prosecutors hinting at problems within the family.
MEGAN LONG (in court): We don’t necessarily know what happens behind closed doors .
Kathy Elliott: … they were lying.
Michael Elliott: Yeah. It was horrible.
Kathy Elliott: They waited until the closing when they knew that nothing could be said afterwards to — to pull out these outlandish … Implications about you don’t know what happens behind closed doors.
Michael Elliott: Yeah. … she knows damn well, there’s … not a shred of evidence that anything untoward was happening in — in our house, in our family.
Benjamin and his parents had little time to let the guilty verdict sink in.
They were back in court for sentencing the following day.
MAROUN KOUTANI (in court): And he is the one that went into her room that night and snuffed the life out of her
Prosecutors asked for 40 years. But a member of the jury asked the judge for leniency because he worried about Benjamin’s family.
Judge Danilo Lacayo told the court he wanted a sentence that he could live with.
JUDGE DANILO LACAYO: I sentence you to 15 years in prison. …
The request for leniency, says Benjamin, makes him wonder if a few jurors had more doubts than they wanted to admit.
Benjamin Elliott: If you believe … that I crept into my sister’s bedroom and murdered her while she was asleep, why would you possibly want leniency for that person? That person is horrible.
Erin Moriarty: Are you that person?
Benjamin Elliott: No, I’m not. I’m not that person. I mean I’m – I —I try to be genuine. I try to be honest I’m — I’d like to think of myself as a good person.
Benjamin says authorities misconstrued everything he did, starting with that 911 call.
Erin Moriarty: The prosecutors say you were whispering on the phone. Were you?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT: No … That’s ridiculous. I wasn’t whispering … … I was panicked. … I wasn’t screaming into the phone cause I’m just not a — I don’t really yell.
And Benjamin insists that as soon as he realized what he had done, he was trying to help Meghan — using the pillow to try to stop the bleeding.
Erin Moriarty: The state says that you didn’t use the pillow to try to stop the bleeding.
Benjamin Elliott: No.
Erin Moriarty: You did it to keep her from screaming.
Benjamin Elliott: Yeah.
Erin Moriarty: What do you say to that?
Benjamin Elliott: … that’s crazy to me. And there’s absolutely, absolutely zero forensic evidence for that at all.
And what about his seemingly calm demeanor throughout the police interview?
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): The plan is I’m taking the SAT …
Erin Moriarty: You’re talking to a deputy and you’re talking about SATs and colleges.
Benjamin Elliott: I’m trying to get my mind off of things.
BENJAMIN ELLIOTT (police interview): I’ve had some issues with school stuff sometimes …
Benjamin Elliott: I think you can see it in the conversation. I keep pretty much steering the conversation away from what happened. … I don’t want to think about it.
As for learning Meghan had died, Benjamin says he just shut down. And that he was desperately hoping she’d be OK.
Erin Moriarty: Do you feel you’re guilty of anything?
Benjamin Elliott: No.
Erin Moriarty: You don’t.
Benjamin Elliott: No. No. I — I don’t think this is my fault at all. … I used to blame myself for it cause it’s like, you know, I — I was the one holding the knife, right? But, I mean, I’ve come to realize that I’m not. You know. I couldn’t have done anything, any different than what I had done.
And Benjamin says he misses his twin.
Benjamin Elliott: It’s really hard that she’s not here.
Erin Moriarty: Isn’t it hard to know that it’s because of you she’s not here?
Benjamin Elliott: Yeah. Yeah, it’s really hard. … We did everything together … Like, we were — we were very, very close. … She was a wonderful person … She was an artist … the way she looked at the world … she looked at it with like a creative mind, so she would just see just beautiful things everywhere.
Benjamin Elliott will be eligible for parole in 2032 when he is 28 years old. He is appealing his conviction.
Produced by Murray Weiss. Jenna Jackson is the development producer. Morgan Canty is the field producer. Doreen Schechter and Gary Winter are the producer-editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.