The Killing of Lisa Steinberg

Courtroom footage is available for this story for license and/or purchase from the IN SESSION archives – click here.

Joel Talks

As the trial moved on, the specter of Hedda Nussabum's testimony must have concerned Steinberg's attorney, Ira D. London, and terrified the defendant. Like most defendants, Steinberg would not testify so as not to supply the prosecution with another chance to re-tell the crime, but also to avoid making any incriminating statements. The jury would not be allowed to see an easily excited defendant who had a lot of explaining to do as to how a six-year-old girl wound up dead in his apartment while he went out to dinner with friends. Up until the week of November 25, Steinberg kept his comments to a bare minimum. He gave no interviews and was not required to testify at pre-trial hearings or at the grand jury.

But he couldn't remain totally silent. Over the objections of his attorneys, Steinberg wrote a letter to Newsday, a Long Island newspaper that published it November 25. In this hand written letter, Steinberg said, "My feelings for Lisa are almost inexpressible. She was the world to me." He went on to say that he loved her and missed her deeply. "Just once," he wrote, "look at her smile in one of those photographs and you will understand my feelings. My sadness and sense of loss are more than I can bear at times"

Word had already reached Steinberg's defense team that Hedda was expected to testify within days. Steinberg wrote that he was concerned about what she would say. "Regarding Hedda," he said, "I must tell you that I loved her very much. I can only hope that she is capable of the truth in relating the events of Lisa's life and the events of Lisa's last night with us." Since her arrest, Hedda was hospitalized and then received psychiatric care at the Four Winds Hospital in Westchester County. She had no contact with Steinberg since November 2, 1987. It was part of her treatment regimen that she should have no communication with him whatsoever. For Steinberg, that meant he would be unable to manipulate her. With his freedom at stake and a prison term looming, he must have imagined that he could sway Hedda still. But he knew that he had a great deal to fear from an ex-lover turned state's witness. "Given what I have read," he continued, "I fear Hedda may no longer be the person I knew and loved."

Steinberg was right on both counts: he had a lot to fear and Hedda was no longer a punching bag.