Jury to Begin Deliberations in Deadly Conn. Home Invasion

A jury is expected to begin deliberations Wednesday in the trial of a man charged with killing a woman and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion in an affluent Connecticut town.

 

Joshua Komisarjevsky, a paroled burglar, could join his co-defendant on Connecticut's death row if convicted of the 2007 attack in which family members were tied up and left to die in a house fire. The trial began Sept. 19 and featured grim evidence, including rope used to bind the family and autopsy photos.

 

In closing arguments on Tuesday, prosecutors said Komisarjevsky was motivated not only by money but also an interest in the family's 11-year-old girl. Komisarjevsky is charged with sexually assaulting Michaela Petit, whom he spotted with her mother earlier at a supermarket.

 

While Komisarjevsky has blamed his co-defendant for killing the family, prosecutors cast Komisarjevsky as the mastermind. They cited examples in Komisarjevsky's confession in which he says he was the one talking to Dr. William Petit, the husband and father of the victims.

 

"He's the one who's controlling the situation," said State's Attorney Michael Dearington. "He's calling the shots."

 

Authorities say Komisarjevsky, 31, and Steven Hayes broke into the Cheshire home, beat William Petit with a bat, tied him and his family up and forced his wife to withdraw money from a bank. The house was doused in gas and set on fire, leading to the deaths of Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley Petit from smoke inhalation.

 

Hayes was convicted last year of raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit and killing her daughters. He was sentenced to death.

 

Jeremiah Donovan, Komisarjevsky's attorney, said his client admitted to molesting Michaela and assaulting her father, but he never intended to kill anyone. He said Komisarjevsky closed the girls' bedroom doors to give them more time to be rescued and suggested Hayley Petit might have lived if she climbed out a window. She managed to untie herself but was found at the top of the staircase.

 

William Petit said outside the New Haven Superior Court that defense arguments like that "were a little nauseating to listen to."

 

The break-in was planned by Komisarjevsky, who escalated the violence by attacking William Petit with a bat, Prosecutor Gary Nicholson said. The gas was poured in a way to ensure the girls were killed, Nicholson said, noting it was on the stairs that were the girls' only escape route.

 

Nicholson says both men had a motive to kill the family because each had committed a sexual assault and were worried about their DNA.

 

Donovan, the defense lawyer, who had Komisarjevsky stand and look at the jurors for the end of his argument, also said the jury should not be swayed by what Petit's family wants. He noted that William Petit and his relatives sit a few feet away from jurors.

 

"They stare at you. You know what they want," Donovan said. "Put them out of your mind."

 

Donovan said Komisarjevsky should get a life sentence.

 

Komisarjevsky was sexually abused as a child and suffered multiple concussions and later turned to drugs, Donovan said. A psychologist hired by the defense said that history increased his likelihood of criminal activity.