Henry Steiger and the Murder of Cassandra Robinson: Trial and Appeals

Henry Steiger is a Pensacola, Florida man serving life in state prison for the second-degree murder of Cassandra Robinson, the 25-year-old mother of his infant daughter. Robinson was last seen on February 1, 2018, after the couple’s daughter’s first birthday party, and her body was found more than five months later inside a 55-gallon drum in a storage trailer Steiger owned. The Henry Steiger and Cassandra Robinson murder case ended with a life sentence in August 2019 and, after his federal probation was revoked, a concurrent 20-year federal prison term.

What Happened to Cassandra Robinson

Robinson was 25 and the mother of Steiger’s one-year-old daughter, Evelynn. Prosecutors said Steiger killed her after she sent a text message on the day she disappeared telling him, “This thing between us is over.” Their theory was straightforward: Robinson intended to leave and take the baby, and Steiger would not accept it.¹

Julian Mesure, who had worked for Steiger, testified that Steiger had talked for months about harming Robinson, at various points discussing killing her, selling her into slavery, or paying her to leave. On the day of the murder, according to Mesure, Steiger said “the only thing he had left to decide was ‘the where and when.'” Later that evening Steiger told him the matter was settled, said he had told Robinson “it’s your time to go,” and made a choking motion with his hands. Steiger then asked Mesure to climb inside a large container to see if it could hold Robinson’s body.²

Prosecutors told jurors Robinson was strangled while she was holding baby Evelynn, and that the child fell to the floor.³ By the time the body was recovered, decomposition was so advanced that the medical examiner, Dr. Andrea Minyard, listed the cause of death as “homicidal violence of undetermined means” and the manner as homicide. A plastic grocery bag was wrapped around Robinson’s head.²

Five Months Missing

Robinson was last seen alive at Evelynn’s first birthday party at the couple’s home on East Strong Street in Pensacola. She was not reported missing until June 8, 2018, when her sister Charlisa Robinson filed a report. The family had assumed for months that Robinson was simply out of contact, in part because Steiger had a history of taking her phone from her. What finally alarmed them was her prolonged absence from social media.⁴

During those months Steiger kept possession of the baby. The day after the killing, he arrived at an acquaintance’s home with Evelynn and said Robinson was “only used for breast milk.” Interviewed by police on June 11, he claimed Robinson had left the home on February 1 in a black BMW. At a second interview on June 27, he suggested she might be vacationing in Bermuda.⁵

On June 15, 2018, three days after Robinson was reported missing and while her body remained hidden, Steiger opened a custody case in Escambia County court seeking a paternity test. When officers later came to arrest him on a separate federal probation matter, he had already packed his and the baby’s belongings and stacked them by the door.⁶

The Body in the Drum

On July 11, 2018, investigators found Robinson’s remains inside a green steel drum in a cargo trailer Steiger owned near North 65th Avenue and West Fairfield Drive in Pensacola. She was identified from her tattoos and a rib bone.⁷ Police also recovered Robinson’s broken iPhone after Mesure directed them to a location on North Davis Highway where it had been dumped. Other belongings were found at a home on Clubhouse Terrace and in a storage shed Steiger used.⁵

Steiger was already in the Santa Rosa County Jail on a federal probation violation from an earlier wire fraud case when the murder investigation caught up with him. On July 27, 2018, Pensacola police charged him with second-degree murder.⁸

Trial, Defense, and Life Sentence

Steiger’s trial was held in Escambia County Circuit Court, and he took the stand. He admitted he had “propagated a charade” by telling police and others that Robinson had left voluntarily or been sold into slavery. His trial account contradicted what he had told investigators earlier: he testified he found Robinson in the laundry room with a plastic bag over her head and a rope of tied grocery bags around her neck, tried to clear her airway, then stopped after feeling a “hand on his shoulder” and sensing she was at peace with deceased relatives. He acknowledged putting the body in a barrel and disposing of her electronics, describing himself as being in “cover-my-tracks mode.”²

Defense attorney Paul J. Hamlin told jurors Robinson’s bipolar disorder played a role, characterizing what happened not as a suicide or a prank but as an “attention-getter” gone wrong. Assistant State Attorney Alvin “Trey” Myers pointed to physical evidence he said undermined that account, including 20 to 30 Publix grocery bags tied into a rope, two bags forced down Robinson’s throat, and a bag over her head. Myers told the jury: “She was leaving and taking that baby. And, that man … could not stand it, and he killed her.”¹

On June 21, 2019, the jury returned a guilty verdict on second-degree murder after about three hours of deliberation. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Burns sentenced Steiger to life in prison. Under Florida law, a life sentence carries no parole or early release.⁹

State Appeals

Steiger appealed to Florida’s First District Court of Appeal, arguing his defense attorney was ineffective for failing to redact references to an unrelated 2014 federal wire fraud case from a recorded police interview and for failing to object at trial, and that the trial court wrongly admitted three autopsy photographs.¹⁰ On August 27, 2020, the appellate court upheld the conviction and sentence. It ruled the ineffective-assistance claims did not amount to “fundamental error” and found the autopsy photographs relevant and more probative than prejudicial.¹¹

The Florida Supreme Court then took up the case on a legal question about when ineffective-assistance claims can be raised on direct appeal. On November 10, 2021, the court approved the First District’s decision, holding that unpreserved ineffective-assistance claims cannot be raised on direct appeal unless they constitute fundamental error and directing such claims to postconviction motions instead.¹²

Federal Wire Fraud and the 20-Year Sentence

When Steiger killed Robinson, he was two months into a three-year term of federal probation. In September 2017, he had pleaded guilty in the Northern District of Florida to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud. The court had sentenced him to probation with no prison time.¹³

After the murder conviction, the federal district court held a revocation hearing. It found Steiger had violated his probation and cited evidence that he planned the killing, carried it out in the presence of his infant daughter, and hid the body. The court revoked probation and imposed 20 years on each of the four wire fraud counts, all running concurrently with each other and with the Florida life sentence. Twenty years was the statutory maximum on each count and a substantial upward departure from the revised guidelines range of 12 to 18 months.¹⁴

Steiger appealed to the Eleventh Circuit, arguing the district court did not adequately explain its reasons for the sentence. The full court, sitting en banc, took up the case to settle a broader question about the standard of review. On April 29, 2024, the en banc court applied plain-error review and found no reversible error, noting that the sentencing record made the district court’s reasoning clear given the severity of the murder.¹⁴ The case then went back to the original panel to address Steiger’s remaining challenges to the reasonableness of the sentence. The panel affirmed the 20-year term.¹⁵

The Baby and Robinson’s Family

After the murder, Robinson’s sister Karen Robinson obtained custody of Evelynn. Karen said Steiger had held on to the child the entire time Cassandra was missing, from February through July 2018, and told reporters the family had long been worried about the relationship, including past abuse and the fear Steiger inspired in people around him.³ She told the Pensacola News Journal, “I know there’s no way she would’ve left the baby,” adding, “Her leaving the baby behind, it’s a piece of her so it gives us a sense of relief and makes us feel better.”⁶

1
Pensacola News Journal. Trial of Pensacola Man Accused of Killing His Baby’s Mother Wraps Up
2
FindLaw. Steiger v. State
3
WEAR-TV. Report: Man Strangled Girlfriend With Bare Hands While She Held Their Child
4
Pensacola News Journal. Missing Pensacola Woman’s Homicide: PPD IDs Suspect, Works to Locate Crime Scene
5
Pensacola News Journal. Pensacola Murder Suspect Confessed He Strangled Daughter’s Mom
6
Pensacola News Journal. Family Gives Insight Into Cassandra Robinson’s Relationship With Murder Suspect
7
KFOX-TV. Report: Man Strangled Girlfriend With Bare Hands While She Held Their Child
8
City of Pensacola. Pensacola Police Charge Man With Murder of Cassandra Robinson
9
Pensacola News Journal. Pensacola Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murdering Baby’s Mother
10
Pensacola News Journal. Murder Conviction, Sentence Upheld for Henry Steiger in Cassandra Robinson Death
11
NorthEscambia.com. Appeals Court Upholds Life Sentence of Escambia Man That Murdered Mother of His Child
12
Florida State University College of Law Digital Collections. Steiger v. State, No. SC20-1404
13
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. United States v. Steiger, No. 22-10742
14
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. United States v. Steiger, No. 22-10742 (En Banc)
15
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. United States v. Steiger, No. 22-10742 (Panel on Remand)