In late December 1979, **Steven Craig Little**, a **7-year-old white male child**, was tragically murdered in Dallas, Texas. His body was discovered on **December 27, 1979**, discarded inside a garbage can and set ablaze. Investigators determined that the young victim had been **strangled** and then **sexually assaulted** before being burned — a brutal combination of crimes that shocked the local community.
The suspect in this horrific case was **Malcolm Robbins**, a drifter with a disturbing history of violence. Robbins, a white male, was later arrested in late **November 1980** in New Jersey after the brutal murder of 9-year-old Evan Bailey. At that time, Robbins confessed not only to Bailey’s murder but also to the murder of **Steven Craig Little**, which he claimed to have committed on **December 27, 1979**, in Dallas. According to Robbins, he had been traveling from California and arrived in Dallas, where he lured Steven Little — described as a white boy around age seven playing at a playground — into his van. He then raped and strangled the child before abandoning the body in a trash receptacle and setting it on fire. Robbins’s confession reportedly included specific details that were known only to law enforcement, lending credibility to his admission.
Following his confession, Robbins was prosecuted. A week after his arrest, law enforcement officials from multiple states coordinated to determine how to proceed legally. Robbins was first tried and convicted in **New Jersey** for the kidnapping and murder of Evan Bailey in **April 1981**, receiving a **life sentence** with parole eligibility after 30 years. This initial conviction was followed by extraditions and plea bargains in **California**, where he was sentenced to **death** in **May 1983** for the murder of Christopher Finney. Subsequently, he also stood trial and was **convicted** for the murders of Stephen Little and another victim in Maine. By **1989**, authorities in New Jersey arranged Robbins’s transfer to California to carry out his death sentence.
Throughout the legal process, Robbins’s confession to Steven Little’s death was taken seriously by prosecutors, supported by the details he provided that corresponded with crime scene facts. There are **no records** of any other suspects or arrests connected to Steven Little’s murder beyond Robbins. After these convictions, Robbins remained incarcerated under sentences spanning multiple states.
