Infamous Child Killer Out After 17 Years
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Infamous child killer Joel Steinberg (search) was released from prison Wednesday after nearly 17 years behind bars for the 1987 beating death of his 6-year-old adopted daughter.
The former lawyer, now 63, served two-thirds of the maximum 25-year manslaughter sentence. He has continued to deny responsibility for the girl's death.
Steinberg left the upstate prison with $104 in earnings from his inmate account and was picked up in a limousine by defense attorney Darnay Hoffmann (search).
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lisa Steinberg died in November 1987, three days after a vicious beating in the Greenwich Village apartment where she lived with Steinberg and his former lover, Hedda Nussbaum (search).
Nussbaum called police after finding the 6-year-old naked, bruised and not breathing. Nussbaum, initially a co-defendant, herself had a split lip, broken ribs, a broken nose and a fractured jaw she said were inflicted by Steinberg.
According to Nussbaum's testimony, Steinberg struck Lisa for staring at him, then ignored her injuries and smoked cocaine.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Nussbaum, 59, who said she would flee New York rather than face Steinberg again, quit her job Friday at My Sister's Place (search), a domestic violence center in White Plains, Executive Director Julie Domonkos said Wednesday.
Hoffmann has said he offered Steinberg a free apartment and a $250-a-week job with a local cable television show. Steinberg will have to make regular visits to a parole officer through October 2012. Now disbarred, he worked in prison as a paralegal.