He Killed His Twin Sister, Then Claimed He Was Sleepwalking: How Prosecutors Showed It Was Premeditated

A Houston man was sentenced to 15 years in prison today for stabbing his twin sister to death on September 29, 2021, when the killer and victim were both 17.

At the time of the violence, Benjamin Elliott, now 21, told the 911 operator he thought he was “dreaming” at the time of the attack. He said he’d woken up in his sister Meghan’s room, where he found her with a knife in her neck, according to Fox26 Houston.

According to documents read in court after Elliott’s arrest, he said he removed the knife from his sister’s neck and applied pressure as soon as he realized he wasn’t dreaming. He then called 911, and the operator told him to start CPR.

Elliott was performing CPR on his sister when local deputies arrived at the family’s home, but Meghan was pronounced dead by EMS at the scene. She had multiple stab wounds, per Fox26 Houston.

Elliott reportedly told one of the officers at the scene that he didn’t “deserve respect” because he “killed [his] sister,” per KHOU 11. In a video played for jurors, Elliott was seen in an initial interview with detectives explaining what had happened immediately after the stabbing: “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.” 

Both the defense and prosecution brought in experts to testify about parasomnias — sleep disorders that can include sleepwalking and other disruptive sleep behaviors.

Dr. Jerald Simmons, a neurologist who testified for the defense, said he thought the “jury got it wrong” in convicting Elliott, according to ABC13. “If it wasn’t possible, I would have not taken the position. There are other cases. They are rare, but they can occur.”

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Prosecutors didn’t agree, arguing that Elliott had been using his cellphone immediately before the stabbing occurred. He had the wherewithal to call 911, they asserted, also arguing that he had stifled Meghan’s screams with a pillow, per ABC13.

Prosecutors also said that the survival knife he’d used to kill his sister was one he’d just gotten the night before the killing.

During the trial, Elliott’s older sister testified that he had sleepwalked before, and his great-aunt said the family had a history of sleepwalking, KHOU 11 reports.

A forensic psychologist who examined Elliott before the trial said the man had reported some recent “mental health issues” but was not experiencing them at the time of the murder.