things unconsciously while asleep. he detailed the battery of tests reitz had been given, which showed his propensity to sleepwalking. is it a fake? no, no, no. when you re in that rem sleep, there s no way you can fake it. the trial lasted three weeks. and now the jury would have to decide if it was conscious rage or unconscious tragedy. guilty or not? i was extremely worried and scared because what then? what happens then? if he s innocent, because he was sleepwalking, how do you go on? how do you move on after that? the jury was out for a day and a half. and then we the jury find the defendant stephen reitz guilty of murder. the jury rejected the science. didn t buy the data and tests that show a link between
reitz was also sent to a sleep clinic like this one for a battery of tests to see if he really did have a recognized sleeping disorder, something severe enough to produce such violence. he was wired and monitored and recorded. and as he fell asleep, cameras rolled. then the tests revealed not only a propensity to sleepwalk, reitz also suffered a significant night terror that was caught on tape and later featured in an australian documentary on sleepwalking. is it possible in this case there was a sleep terror episode and a sleepwalking episode which was somehow happening at the same time and thus created this tremendous violence? it s very likely. patients may wake up, be terrified, fulfill all the criteria for what we call sleep terror and then go on to develop a sleepwalking episode.
stephen reitz claimed he was fending off an intruder and didn t remember killing his girlfriend, eva, during the deadly dream. but he did recognize his fatal handiwork. he told us i must have done it. and we asked him why. he said, well, i m a commercial fisherman and that s the way we kill sharks. i must have done it. that s a curious way of being responsible without being responsible. without being responseible. absolutely. in situations like this, you don t want to press an individual too bad. you want to hear what they have to say. number one, you have to give them a fair shake. okay. what happened? tell us your side. nothing in reitz s story suggested he would ever want to harm eva, let alone kill her, especially during their stay here in catalina. there was no indication that they argued or fought about anything. according to him, they were having a wonderful, beautiful evening. when he was awakened by an intruder and everything else transpired after that.
of murder was now ruled an involuntary act. now some 15 years later and 3,000 miles away in california, that verdict in toronto resonated as the trial approached in the case against stephen reitz. so you see something like that, and you go, well, you know, there s a possibility it could happen here again. you know? we re hearing about trials that had gone on and the people were innocent. that s scary. it s very scary. there s no accountability. but the l.a. county district attorney s office was determined to hold reitz accountable and sought a first degree murder conviction, which seemed a bit risky, given reitz s sleep walking history, the parks case in toronto and the medical experts backing up his story. second degree murder, even manslaughter would be easier to prove. and might ensure a conviction. i would rather try the case and lose it, let them present their defense, as skeptical as i
found nothing unusual. was he psychotic in any way? no. no history of that? no. it was by chance when another patient told me about sleepwalking and how complicated the behavior could be. a lightbulb must have gone on in your head. right then. and i thought, i wonder if that s what it is. so ken parks, just like stephen reitz, underwent a series of sleep tests and also psychological exams conducted by a number of specialists. they discovered he had a family history of the disorder and tests confirmed parks had period of awakening from deep sleep and a strong propensity to sleepwalk, where anything could happen. there s no conscious awareness of what happens. so, thus, a mother could kill her child? yes. a husband could kill his wife? yes. there s been cases of mothers throwing their kids out a window and of husbands killing their