A former Army doctor was sentenced on Friday to 30 years in prison for attacking his wife and binding her with duct tape to a pole in their basement, said the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney in Virginia. The incident, which happened in September 2020, happened about a month after the defendant, Drew Steiner, 61, raped and illegally videotaped a woman he met online. He is already serving 10 years behind bars for that.
“Mr. Steiner committed a series of attacks in late 2020, and this sentencing is the end of a painful saga for everyone involved,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said in a statement obtained by Law&Crime. “While he is already serving a 10-year sentence in another case, this sentence helps reassure our community that Steiner can no longer endanger our neighbors.”
Steiner was convicted in a jury trial in October 2023 of abduction with intent to file, malicious wounding, and attempted rape.
The defendant had previously been enlisted in the Army and worked as a civilian at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, a hospital representative told D.C. NBC affiliate WRC in an April 2021 report.
The wife testified at Steiner’s trial, saying that he had just gotten over COVID-19 at the time, according to the outlet. He asked to get out of quarantine and into their bedroom. But then he pinned her to the bed.
“I said, ‘Please, I don’t feel well. I can’t breathe,’ and he said, ‘That’s the point,”” she testified.
She had used a sandal in an attempt to defend herself, but he later beat her head repeatedly with it.
At one point, when she got an aerosol can to defend herself, he threatened, “If you use that I’m going to shatter your face, and you know that I will.”
It culminated with him duct-taping her in the basement, switching off the lights and leaving. This gave her to opportunity to break free of her binds and run to the neighbor’s home.
That neighbor, Carmella Dillman, told WRC in the 2021 report that she herself was sleeping and woke up to the sound of loud knocking at the door. It was the wife.
“It turned out to be our neighbor,” Dillman said. “She kept whispering through the door that her husband was trying to kill her, so I called the police.”
It was not until later that Dillman discovered more about the details of the case.
“I am shocked to find out everything that has happened since,” she said. “One of our biggest issues is that we didn’t know what happened that night.”