Jury Condemns Joshua Komisarjevsky to Death for Conn. Home Invasion Murders

Unlike the Casey Anthony trial verdict, one verdict I'm happy to hear about was Joshua Komisarjev
(CBS/AP) NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The man convicted of killing a woman and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion has been sentenced to death.

The jury deliberated for five days before returning the verdict against Joshua Komisarjevsky (koh-mih-sar-JEV'-skee). His accomplice, Steven Hayes, is already on death row for the murders in the affluent suburb of Cheshire. On Wednesday, the jury sent a note to the judge indicating they were having trouble weighing Komisarjevsky's role in the crime against Hayes.

The defense asked jurors to spare Komisarjevsky's life, arguing that his ultra-religious family never got him proper help after he was sexually abused as a child by his foster brother.


The crime led to the defeat of a bill to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut and sparked tougher state laws for repeat offenders and home invasions.
(Complete coverage of the Petit family murders on Crimesider)

What was once the Petit's house is now a rememberance garden... R.I.P.

Cheshire home invasion Survivor Appears on Oprah

CBS News- A Connecticut doctor whose wife and two daughters were killed in a gruesome 2007 home invasion said on Thursday's episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that while he has had suicidal thoughts he chose not to kill himself because he hopes to be with his family in the afterlife.

In court earlier this month, before a man convicted in the killings was sentenced to death, Dr. William Petit said he had struggled with suicidal thoughts, nightmares and flashbacks. Winfrey asked Petit why he decided not to kill himself after all.

"Religious reasons," Petit answered. "I thought in the afterlife, if I was going to meet up with my family, if I did that (commit suicide) then maybe I would never meet up with them again. I wasn't willing to take that chance. I thought that they would not approve and they would want me to go forward."

Petit was the sole survivor of the home invasion. His wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, were killed. The mother and youngest daughter were sexually assaulted. Authorities say their attackers tied the girls to their beds, poured gasoline on or around them and set the house on fire.

Steven Hayes of Connecticut was convicted of sexually assaulting and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit and killing her daughters. He was sentenced to death. Another defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, is to go to trial next year.

Petit told Winfrey he thinks his wife would want him to continue his medical career. He also told Winfrey that he is not considering forgiveness right now.

"I don't think you can forgive ultimate evil," he said. "I think forgiving the essence of evil is not appropriate."

Trial Set for 2nd Defendant in Cheshire Home Invasion

CHESHIRE - The date has been set for the second trial in a deadly Cheshire home invasion.

Joshua Komisarjevsky will stand trial in February for the killing of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters.

The other defendant, Stephen Hayes, was convicted in October and sentenced to death last week.

Jurors in CT Home Invasion Trial Speak Out

NEW YORK -- Jurors talked about their decision to condemn a Connecticut man to death for a home invasion triple murder on the “Today” show Tuesday.

When the death sentence was read aloud in the New Haven courtroom Monday, convicted killer Stephen Hayes smiled.

"I think if anyone deserved the death penalty in this life, probably he does,” said one of the jurors.

Hayes, who has tried to take his own life behind bars, wanted the death penalty, according to his defense attorney. But the jurors who sentenced him said they disagree.

"I think he's focused entirely on what he can do to best forward what position he can have left in life and I don't think the death penalty is what he has in mind at all," said Herbert Gram, a juror.

Prosecutors say Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky broke into the Petit family's Cheshire, Conn. home in the summer of 2007. They allegedly brutally tortured and killed Jennifer Petit and her two daughters, 17-year-old Haley and 11-year-old Michaela. They left the father William for dead, but he escaped.

Jurors say those details were extremely hard to hear, but support from their fellow jurors kept them objective.

"The hardest part was keeping my emotions at bay and making a decision within the law," said another juror.

"There was not a single non-civil word spoken during the entire deliberation for both periods. How 12 people just came together and worked out the problems of taking another person's life," said a male juror.

The jurors met with the father and husband, Dr. William Petit, after the trial in a basement room in the courthouse.

They said he was overwhelmed with thanks for their verdict.

One juror described Petit as the strongest man he's ever met.

Defense: Life Sentence 'Worse than Death' for Home Invasion Killer

New Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- A Connecticut jury begins deliberations Friday on whether Steven Hayes should be sentenced to life in prison or put to death.

Hayes was convicted of killing two sisters and their mother during a 2007 home invasion. Tom Ullmann, Hayes' lawyer, told jurors on Thursday his client would suffer more if given a life sentence.

"Life in prison without the possibility of release is the harshest penalty," said Tom Ullmann. "It is a fate worse than death."

Ullmann then had his 47-year-old client stand directly in front of the jury, put his hand on Hayes' shoulder and said to the five men and seven women, "He isn't a rabid dog that needs to be put to death. He has lost 80 pounds. He will never have a private bath. He goes to the bathroom in public. He will never eat a dinner that he makes but one that they provide. He has a rec cage for an hour a day. Like an animal at the zoo."

As he stood, Hayes -- who did not testify during the trial -- looked down at the floor.

His lawyer continued, "If you want to end his misery, put him to death. ... If you want him to suffer and carry that burden forever, the guilt, shame and humiliation, sentence him to life without the possibility of release."

But prosecuting attorney Michael Dearington sought to persuade the jurors to order Hayes be executed for his role in in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit.

"We cannot tie Steven Hayes to a bed, pour gasoline on him and set him on fire," Dearington said, referring to the killings. "But under our laws, we do have the death penalty."

He added that the Petit family had been "destroyed because Steven Hayes wanted money."

Superior Court Judge Jon Blue then read a 36-page charge and verdict form to the jury.

A psychiatrist testified in October that Hayes had told him, "I would rather they kill me," reflecting Hayes' apparent hope that he'd be executed.

The high school dropout said he had a long history of substance abuse, the psychiatrist said.

But Dearington said Thursday that that did not excuse the murders. "Drugs don't necessarily lead to violent crimes," he said.

Hayes was convicted of 16 of the 17 charges against him, including nine counts of murder and capital murder and four counts of kidnapping.

Prosecutors allege that Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky invaded the Petit home in Cheshire, beat Dr. William Petit, raped and strangled his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, sexually molested one of their two daughters, set the house afire and tried to flee.

The girls died of smoke inhalation; Petit himself escaped to a neighbor's home.

Komisarjevsky is to be tried separately.

In March, Hayes said he no longer wanted to commit suicide "but intended to let the state do it," a psychiatrist testified.

Dr. William Petit Won't Testify at Sentencing of Family's Killer

(CNN) -- A Connecticut man whose wife and two daughters were murdered in a 2007 home invasion will not testify at the sentencing of the convicted killer, he said Friday.

Dr. William Petit has "regretfully decided" against testifying because he said Connecticut's law on victim impact statements is unclear and could provide convicts with grounds to appeal their sentences.

Announcing his decision in a statement Friday, Petit urged Connecticut's General Assembly to "promptly amend the law to guarantee ... the right of surviving family members of capital murder victims to present victim impact statements" at sentencing.

On Tuesday, a jury convicted 47-year-old Steven Hayes of capital murder in the deaths of Petit's family members. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

On Friday, Petit said he would have preferred to make a statement at Hayes' sentencing.

"Unfortunately, however, our General Assembly has failed to enact an appropriately clear law to allow a victim like me the right to make a statement on behalf of myself and my family members during the course of a capital sentencing trial," his statement said.

"This lack of clarity in the law is a crippling disincentive to surviving family members of victims in capital murder cases to make a statement," Petit continued, because such statements could be construed to violate state law, giving a convict "a basis for appeal and possibly even a new sentencing trial."

Petit said Friday that the law fails to specify who may offer a victim impact statement or when the statement could be introduced.

"Does it permit the victim himself to read the statement or does its passive-voice phrasing require that a prosecutor or other court official read the statement?" he asked.

"More significantly, does it allow the statement to be read prior to the jury's decision on what sentence to impose or should the statement be read as a pointless formality after the jury has already decided what sentence to impose?"

Hayes was found guilty of 16 of the 17 charges against him in connection with the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, including nine counts of murder and capital murder and four counts of kidnapping. The jurors acquitted him of an arson charge in the burning of the family's home.

The killings took place in the New Haven suburb of Cheshire early on July 23, 2007.

Petit's and his wife's home was invaded in the middle of the night by Hayes and another man, Joshua Komisarjevsky, prosecutors say. Komisarjevsky will be tried separately.

"There is some relief, but my family is still gone," Petit told reporters after Tuesday's verdict. "It doesn't bring them back. It doesn't bring back the home that we had."

At the penalty phase, jurors will determine whether the mitigating evidence the defense is expected to present will outweigh the aggravating factors in favor of the death penalty. Judge Jon Blue set the penalty phase to begin October 18.

On Friday, Petit said that a victim impact statement should be a part of that process.

"Just as a capital murderer is permitted to seek to 'humanize' himself by presenting all manner of mitigating evidence about his own background and circumstances, the prosecution should also be permitted equally to 'humanize' the lives of a defendant's victims," his statement said.

During the trial, Jeremiah Krob, a Connecticut prison officer, testified he overheard Hayes confess to another inmate that he killed Jennifer Hawke-Petit.

Connecticut State Police Detective Anthony Buglione, who interviewed Hayes after the crime, has testified that the duo beat Petit bloody and left him in the basement.

According to the testimony, the two men then went upstairs and found Hawke-Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit asleep in the master bedroom. After tying Hawke-Petit to her bed, they led the girl to her room, tied her to her bed and put a pillowcase over her head, Hayes told Buglione.

They then found 17-year-old Hayley Petit in her room and did the same, he said.

After finding evidence of a bank account containing $20,000 to $30,000, they decided to have the mother go to the bank in the morning and withdraw money from her account, Buglione testified.

Hayes is accused of taking Hawke-Petit to the bank while Komisarjevsky allegedly stayed behind. When Hayes and Hawke-Petit returned with the money, the two men allegedly set the home on fire and fled.

Inside the home, authorities said, Hawke-Petit, 48, was found raped and strangled. Her two daughters, one of whom had been sexually assaulted, died of smoke inhalation. Petit, the sole survivor, escaped to a neighbor's home.

Burn Mother F*cker, Burn! - Hayes Convicted in Deadly Cheshire Home Invasion

NEW HAVEN (AP) - A paroled burglar was convicted Tuesday of killing a mother and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion in an affluent Connecticut town and now could be sentenced to death.

Steven Hayes was convicted of capital felony and three counts of murder by a jury that heard eight days of gruesome testimony about the July 2007 attacks on Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela.

The verdict triggers a second phase of the trial, in which the same jurors will decide if Hayes should be executed or face life in prison. Hayes was convicted of 16 counts and acquitted of a single count - arson.

Hayes' defense admitted to his involvement in the fatal home invasion but blamed his co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, for being the aggressor. Komisarjevsky faces trial next year.

Komisarjevsky spotted the mother and her two daughters at a supermarket, followed them to their Cheshire home, then returned later with Hayes, authorities say.

The men broke into the Petit house in the New Haven suburb of Cheshire, beat the girl's father with a baseball bat and forced Hawke-Petit to withdraw money from a bank before raping and strangling her, according to testimony. The men, both paroled burglars who met at a halfway house, tied the girls to their beds, put pillow cases over their heads and poured gas on or around them before setting the house on fire, authorities say.

The girls died of smoke inhalation. Authorities say the men were caught fleeing the scene.

Hayes' attorneys conceded most of the evidence on the first day and spent much of the trial focusing on Komisarjevsky's role. They pointed to graphic photos of Michaela found on Komisarjevsky's cell phone, and Hayes' attorney, Tom Ullmann, said Komisarjevsky escalated the violence at every critical point, starting with Dr. Petit's beating.

Prosecutors rejected that argument, saying the two men were equally responsible for the crime.