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Hedda Nussbaum was on the stand for seven days.
Each day brought new and disturbing revelations about her torturous
life under Steinberg’s Svengali-like control. But it was her testimony
concerning the night of November 1, 1987, that had the jury’s
undivided attention. Her description of Lisa’s death was critical to
the prosecution and would determine Joel Steinberg’s fate.
Nussbaum told the court that Steinberg awoke
about 3 p.m. She said that she had not slept at all the night before.
“The first thing that I remember is that Joel asked both Lisa and
myself if we had drunk enough water that day…Joel always explained
that I didn’t drink enough water,” she said. When she told him that
she did not, Steinberg made Hedda and Lisa eat hot pepper. According
to Hedda, Steinberg then stated that he was going out for dinner. A
few minutes later, Lisa asked Hedda “Do you think Daddy is going to
take me with him tonight?” Hedda said she replied to Lisa, “Well, go
in and ask him yourself!”
Lisa went into the bedroom where Steinberg was
getting dressed while Hedda went to the bathroom. According to Hedda’s
testimony, Steinberg then walked into the bathroom holding Lisa, who
was unconscious. Hedda said this occurred about 6:00 p.m. “She was
lying in his arms limp,” she said, “And I said ‘What happened?’ He
said, ‘What’s the difference what happened? This is your child. Hasn’t
this gone far enough?’” They laid the unconscious girl on the bathroom
floor while Hedda attempted to revive her. But Lisa was not
responding. While she continued her efforts at first aid, Hedda said,
Steinberg went to the bedroom and finished dressing for dinner with
his friend.
At about 7:00 p.m., Steinberg was ready to
leave. Hedda testified that he told her “Relax. Go with her. Stay in
harmony with her.” Nussbaum stated that she was worried about Lisa but
listened to Steinberg when he “promised he would get her up when he
got back.” She told the court that Steinberg called the apartment
while he was out and asked how Lisa was. While he was on the phone,
Steinberg gave Hedda permission to eat. She said she told him that
Lisa was still lying on the bathroom floor unconscious. Hedda said
that she still tried to revive her but nothing worked. “I realized no
matter what I did, it didn’t seem to make much difference,” she told
the court, “so I didn’t need to work with her every minute. And I
wanted to keep busy. So I rearranged Joel’s files.”
When Steinberg returned later that evening,
Hedda said, they freebased cocaine. Freebasing cocaine was the
predecessor of crack and required special paraphernalia to burn the
drug properly. “You put the crystallized cocaine, the free base, in
the top part of the pipe,” Hedda testified, “put water in the pipe and
then you draw through a tube. Mr. Steinberg smoked for a couple of
hours until the cocaine was, that we had, was gone and I smoked a
small amount.” Hedda testified that while they freebased Steinberg
mentioned Lisa. “One thing he said was about Lisa, ‘I knocked her down
and she didn’t want to get up again. The staring business had gotten
to be too much for her,” she said. “Joel had been saying that I was
staring at him and that both of the children had been staring at him.”
Hedda said that they continued to smoke cocaine until about 4:00 a.m.
When they checked on Lisa again, she was still unconscious. They
picked her up and placed her on the bed while Hedda looked through a
medical dictionary for advice.
Hedda said that Steinberg remained awake and
read books to see if he could find out what was wrong with Lisa. At
about 6:30 a.m., Hedda said, Steinberg called out for her and yelled,
“She stopped breathing!” Hedda said she wanted to call 911 but
Steinberg told her to wait a few minutes while he tried to give her
CPR. When that failed, Steinberg finally told Hedda to call for
help. By that time, Lisa had been on the cold, bathroom floor for
nearly 12 hours.
“I thought Joel would be able to restore her,”
Hedda told the court, “I feel horrible. It’s something I’ll have to
live with and regret for the rest of my life.”
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