Army doctor convicted of attacking wife in house

Drew Steiner was convicted of assaulting his wife in their Fairfax County, Virginia home. (Police photo: Fairfax County Police Department)

A former Army doctor was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday for attacking his wife and binding her with duct tape to a post in the basement of their home, the Fairfax County district attorney in Virginia said. The incident occurred in September 2020, about a month after the defendant, 61-year-old Drew Steiner, raped and illegally filmed a woman he met online. He is already serving 10 years behind bars for this.

“Mr. Steiner committed a series of attacks in late 2020, and this conviction marks the end of a painful saga for everyone involved,” District Attorney Steve Descano said in a statement obtained by Law&Crime. “Although he is already serving a 10-year prison sentence in another case, this verdict helps reassure our community that Steiner can no longer endanger our neighbors.”

Steiner was found guilty in a jury trial in October 2023 of kidnapping with intent to destroy data, intentional bodily harm and attempted rape.

The defendant had previously been in the Army and worked as a civilian at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, a hospital representative told DC-NBC affiliate WRC in an April 2021 report.

The woman testified at Steiner’s trial and said he had just recovered from COVID-19 at the time, the source said. He asked to come out of quarantine and into her bedroom, but then he pinned her to the bed.

“I said, ‘Please, I’m not okay. I can’t breathe,’ and he said, ‘That’s the point,'” she testified.

She had tried to defend herself with a sandal, but he later hit her repeatedly on the head with it.

Once, when she took out an aerosol can to defend herself, he threatened her: “If you use that, I’ll smash your face and you know it.”

It culminated in him duct-taping her in the basement, turning off the lights and leaving. This gave her the opportunity to break free of her bonds and run to the neighbor’s house.

That neighbor, Carmella Dillman, told WRC in the 2021 report that she was sleeping and woke up to a loud knock on the door. It was the wife.

“It turned out it was our neighbor,” Dillman said. “She kept whispering through the door that her husband was trying to kill her, so I called the police.”

Only later did Dillman learn more about the details of the case.

“I’m shocked to learn what has happened since then,” she said. “One of our biggest problems is that we didn’t know what happened that night.”

Further reporting on law and crime: Soldier allegedly beat infant to death in heated custody dispute just days after being ordered to do so

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