Jury weighs death in fatal Conn. home invasion

[October 18, 2010]  NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- The jury that convicted a man of killing a woman and her two daughters during a night of terror in their home will begin weighing whether he should be executed.

The penalty phase of the trial of 47-year-old Steven Hayes starts Monday in New Haven Superior Court. Hayes was convicted of 16 counts for the 2007 killings in Cheshire.

Authorities said Hayes and another ex-convict, 30-year-old Joshua Komisarjevsky, broke into the house, beat Dr. William Petit, and forced his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to withdraw money from a bank before Hayes sexually assaulted and strangled her.

Their daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, were tied to their beds before the house was set ablaze.

Komisarjevsky's trial starts next year.

The crime drew comparisons to "In Cold Blood," Truman Capote's chilling book about the 1959 murders of a Kansas family, and prompted more Cheshire residents to get guns. It also led to tougher laws for repeat offenders and home invasions, and Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell cited the case when she vetoed a bill that would have abolished the death penalty.

Connecticut has executed only one person since 1960. Serial killer Michael Ross was put to death by lethal injection in 2005.

Komisarjevsky spotted the mother and her two daughters at a supermarket, followed them to their home, then returned later with Hayes, according to authorities. The men were caught fleeing the scene, they said.

Hayes' lawyers conceded most of the evidence on the trial's first day. But they blamed Komisarjevsky for escalating the violence at every critical point, starting with William Petit's beating. Prosecutors rejected that argument, saying they both were equally responsible for the crime.

Jurors heard eight days of gruesome testimony, saw photos of the victims, charred beds, rope, ripped clothing and ransacked rooms. They deliberated for five hours over two days.

Hayes was convicted of six capital felony charges, three murder counts and two charges of sexually assaulting Hawke-Petit. The capital offenses were for killing two or more people, the killing of a person under 16, murder in the course of a sexual assault and three counts of intentionally causing a death during a kidnapping.

Still reeking of gasoline, Hayes gave police an emotionless confession in which he said he was financially desperate when the men hatched a plan to break into a house, tie up the family, rob them and flee. But Hayes said "things got out of control," a detective testified.

Hayes told authorities he sexually assaulted Hawke-Petit after Komisarjevsky, told him he had to "square things up" because Komisarjevsky had sexually assaulted Michaela, a detective testified.

A prison officer, Jeremiah Krob, said he overheard Hayes tell another inmate that he killed Hawke-Petit after Komisarjevsky told him he had to do it.

Hayes' attorneys had wanted to argue that executions cost more than life sentences. But a judge ruled last week that such evidence is not legally admissible.

[Associated Press; By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN]

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