The legal logic of twisted child killer Joel Steinberg makes perfect sense to the state's highest court.

Steinberg won a partial victory Thursday when the Court of Appeals cut $5 million from the wrongful-death bill he was handed for fatally beating his "adopted" 6-year-old daughter.

In a unanimous decision, the court agreed that Steinberg - a disbarred lawyer still on parole - couldn't be held liable for abuse inflicted on Lisa Steinberg before her death in 1987.

The ruling lets Steinberg, 66, off the hook for a third of the $15million judgment won by Lisa's biological mom from a negligence case she filed after his 1989 criminal conviction.

The seven judges bought Steinberg's argument that he couldn't be held financially liable because the jury that convicted him of manslaughter did not directly confront the allegations of the earlier abuse.

"The jury in [the] defendant's criminal trial was not required to determine whether Lisa was subjected to repeated physical abuse by [the] defendant during the months prior to the acts resulting in her death," the court said.

Steinberg acted as his own lawyer, making legal arguments in briefs he wrote himself.

Yesterday, he refused to come to the door of his Harlem apartment to discuss the case.

"Read the brief," he said grumpily over the intercom when asked for his reaction. "It speaks for itself."

In his brief, he denied Lisa was abused, insisting she was a "very happy, well-adjusted, bright, socialized, popular child." He also praised his own fathering skills, claiming he served as a "responsible parent" who "took her everywhere" with him.

Steinberg had gotten Lisa as a days-old infant from her mother, Michele Launders, then an unwed Long Island teen who paid him $500 in legal fees to arrange an adoption.

Instead, Steinberg took the baby home to Hedda Nussbaum, his live-in companion.

The court said the question of whether Steinberg owes $5 million to Launders would have to be decided by a lower court.

It was unclear yesterday whether Launders would press the matter. The court said Steinberg remains liable for the $10million balance, minus nearly $1 million Launders already has collected from the city. Steinberg has said he doesn't have the money anyway.

"We're pleased that the court has upheld the core of the judgment," said Launders' attorney Wayne Schaefer.

The city has paid Launders $985,000 to settle her claims that it failed to protect Lisa from Steinberg.

Prosecutors said he struck Lisa in the head with his hand around 6 p.m. on Nov. 5, 1987, and then went out to dinner while Nussbaum tried to revive the girl. When he returned, he and Nussbaum freebased cocaine for a couple of hours. Steinberg served 17 years of an 8-1/3-to 25-year sentence for first-degree manslaughter.

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