Petit Family Murders in CT-2007 SOLVED-Death Sentence for both men.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.courant.com/community/cheshire/hc-petit-hearing-0722.artjul22,0,264710.story
CHESHIRE KILLINGS
Plea Deal For Komisarjevsky, Hayes Has No Support From Prosecutors, Petit

Marybelle Hawke , the mother of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, speaks with the press after a hearing in New Haven Superior Court. (MARK MIRKO / HARTFORD COURANT / July 21, 2009

NEW HAVEN — - This week marks the second anniversary of the slayings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, Hayley and Michaela, inside their Cheshire home.

It is also another chapter in what promises to be a grueling court process.

Members of Hawke-Petit's family, including Dr. William Petit, who was beaten in the July 23, 2007, attack but survived, were frustrated with the pace of the proceedings as they emerged Tuesday from Superior Court in New Haven following a hearing for suspects Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky.

"Our system is out of kilter — victims' rights are totally abused," Petit said.

Defense attorneys made an offer to speed up the process — let the suspects plead guilty to the charges in exchange for life sentences that would spare them a place on Connecticut's death row.

But neither prosecutors nor the victims' relatives expressed any willingness to deal.

Hayes, 46, of Winsted, and Komisarjevsky, 28, of Cheshire, are charged with capital felony and charges of murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and arson in connection with the killings. Hawke-Petit was strangled and Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were left bound in their beds as the house was doused with gasoline. Before Hawke-Petit was killed, she was forced to go to her bank with one of the suspects and withdraw $15,000, police believe.

Petit was badly beaten but managed to escape. The suspects were arrested while fleeing from the burning home.

Neither Hayes nor Komisarjevsky spoke at Tuesday's hearing, which was contentious at times.

Judge Richard Damiani sounded stern as he assured Victim Advocate Michelle S. Cruz that the criminal case was not lagging and was on schedule.

"Any indication that we are dragging our feet is an insult to me ... and the entire process in Connecticut," Damiani said. He said the average time in a capital case between the date of arrest and trial is three years and four months. With jury selection in Hayes' case slated for January, the time in this case is two years and five months, he said.

But Public Defender Thomas J. Ullmann, an attorney for Hayes, said the case could have already ended if prosecutors accepted plea deals. Four months after their arrests, Hayes and Komisarjevsky offered to plead guilty to all charges in exchange for life sentences, and they have offered the same guilty pleas at every court appearance, he said.

"We've been rejected every time," Ullmann said, adding that such a deal would mean no trial for the victims' family, fewer costs and the absence of possibly a decade or more of post-conviction court filings.

"It's only the insistence of the state that death be the ultimate punishment that has caused this case to last as long as it has," said Jeremiah Donovan, an attorney for Komisarjevsky.

Petit said outside court on Tuesday that the suspects should plead guilty, but that the court should decide the punishment.

Gary W. Nicholson, one of the prosecutors in the case, declined to comment after Tuesday's hearing about the defense team's offers.

"I think enough has been said," New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington said in the courtroom.

A judge has ordered both sides to refrain from talking publicly about the case.

Petit planned to read a multiple-page statement in court. The state victim's advocate last week filed a motion on his behalf asserting his rights as a victim. Petit was upset about unwanted contact he and his family received from members of the defense team and the pace of the case.

Initially, Damiani refused to let Petit read his statement. Then after lengthy words from Ullmann, Damiani changed his mind, prompting objections from Ullmann and Donovan. Petit then consulted with the victim's advocate's office and Dearington and decided not to read his statement in court.

Outside the courthouse, Petit offered only a part of his statement to reporters.

He said prosecutors wanted to move the case along quickly and were ready to go to trial in March 2008. He said defense attorneys are not acting with urgency and said Ullmann appeared to be blaming prosecutors and Petit's family for not taking the plea bargain.

"It was his client who helped kill three innocent people," he said. "So now we, the Petit-Hawke families, are the people, are the cause of this. We are the people costing the state money when all we are looking for is justice."

Petit said victims and their families receive little financial assistance from the state while millions are spent on the defense.

"People can't see it through the eyes of people who have been victimized," Hawke-Petit's mother, Marybelle Hawke said when asked about whether Komisarjevsky and Hayes should get the death penalty. "I'm a Christian, and I don't believe in killing people, but we do need to have a deterrent for crimes of this nature."

Hawke carried her own paperwork into court — a notebook of handwritten questions she wrote. "We don't have the opportunity to ask any questions and make any statements," Hawke said. "I don't think there will ever be."

Damiani declined to act on the victim's advocate motion for a no-contact order. Last month, Petit and members of his family received letters from Sarah Anthony, a North Carolina attorney and deputy director of the Durham, N.C.-based Fair Trial Initiative, according to the website fairtrial.org. The nonprofit specializes in training young lawyers how to handle death penalty cases including offering fellowships to recent law school graduates who work with underfunded lawyers in capital cases, the website says.

Anthony told the family that she was a victim liaison offering "a line of communication" between the defense team and Petit and his family. Anthony said lawyers for Komisarjevsky asked her to "assist in outreach" to Petit and his family.

Cruz said the letters caused the family "emotional harm."

Damiani said Anthony wrote a letter to the victim's advocate, saying she would go through the victim advocate in any future communication. Damiani said the defense attorneys agreed to have all similar contact go through the victim advocate. They also agreed that anyone contacting witnesses in the case would accurately represent who they are to the witnesses.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=20347412&BRD=2755&PAG=461&dept_id=592709&rfi=6

Support for Petit foundation runs strong
By: Richie Rathsack, Record-Journal staff
07/19/2009

      
   Richie Rathsack / Record-Journal

PLAINVILLE - Support for the Petit Family Foundation continues to grow as thousands of people turned out Sunday morning to honor the lives and aspirations of the family at the second annual GE 5K Road Race.

After the race and awards ceremony, many runners and organizers, such as Bob Heslin, stood in the General Electric parking lot in awe, reflecting on just how many people showed up for the race.

"I think it's just fabulous. We had a lot more people come this year," Heslin said of the nearly 3,000 people who signed up to participate. "Everybody comes out and supports the event. Dr. Petit was just elated."

Dr. William A. Petit walked around talking with runners, volunteers and supporters after the race, some who wanted their pictures taken with him or a quick hug.

"It seems like it went really well. In their lives, I think Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela touched a lot of people," Petit said.

Petit's wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were killed two years ago in an attack at their Cheshire home in which the house was set on fire. Petit was severely beaten, but escaped.
When something this evil happens, people want to help out to maybe make the world a little better of a place to live in," Petit said.
<snip>

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wfsb.com/news/20153111/detail.html
Petit Family Remembered 2 Years Later
Service Held 2 Years After Home Invasion

POSTED: 8:55 am EDT July 23, 2009
UPDATED: 7:41 pm EDT July 23, 2009
PLAINVILLE, Conn. -- Three members of the Petit family were being remembered at a memorial service in Plainville on Thursday.

A service to honor the lives of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and Hayley and Michaela Petit was being held at Our Lady Of Mercy Church on Broad Street.

Hayley Elizabeth Petit, 1989-2007
Michaela Rose Petit, 1995-2007
Jennifer Lynn Hawke-Petit, 1958-2007
Dr. William Petit Jr.
The service was held two years to the day that the three were killed during a home invasion at their Cheshire home. William Petit was assaulted and seriously injured in the incident.

William Petit was hugged by friends and family members at the 8 a.m. service.

"Bill has been through a lot," said Petit family friend Bernie Lidestri. "He hides his pain, but this is so hard."

Two paroled convicts, Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, have been accused in their deaths.

Komisarjevsky and Hayes are charged with capital felony murder, assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, arson, larceny and risk of injury to children. Hayes was charged in the sexual assault of Hawke-Petit, and Komisarjevsky in the sexual assault of Michaela.

Police said Hayes and Komisarjevsky entered the Petits' Sorgum Mill Drive home at about 3 a.m. They said once inside, they beat and bound William Petit and left him in the basement. Police said the pair then terrorized Hawke-Petit and her daughters for hours.

Police said they surrounded the home after Hawke-Petit was taken by one of the suspects to a bank and made a withdrawal around 9:30 a.m. Hawke-Petit was able to communicate to the teller that she and her family were being held hostage in their home, authorities said. The teller contacted police and police said Hawke-Petit was taken back to the home

Police said Komisarjevsky and Hayes set the house on fire before leaving the scene. They were arrested while attemtping to flee, Cheshire police said.

The medical examiner ruled Hayley and Michaela's cause of death to be from smoke inhalation and Hawke-Petit's to be from asphyxiation.
Hayley was 17 at the time of her death and had recently graduated from Miss Porter's School in Farmington. She planned to attend Dartmouth College. She also ran a charity called Hayley's Hope, which raised over $50,000 to fight multiple sclerosis, from which her mother suffered.

Michaela was 11 years old and loved to cook. She was a member of her school's student council and played the flute.

Hawke-Petit was 48 years old and was a nurse and director of the Student Health Center at Cheshire Academy.

Dr. Petit and his wife were married for 22 years.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iEym_cK579acqUBys6kL2S1PlEqQD99MASVG0
Conn. home invasion survivor faces long court case

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN (AP) – 3 hours ago

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — At 52, Dr. William Petit faces years — perhaps decades — of emotionally draining court hearings before the two men charged with murdering his family in a 2007 home invasion may be convicted and executed.

He'll have to listen repeatedly to the horrific details of the crimes against his wife, who was strangled, and two daughters, who were tied to their beds. All three died of smoke inhalation from a fire police say the intruders set as they fled Petit's house after holding the family hostage for hours. Petit, a prominent physician who was beaten during the ordeal, will sit feet away from the defendants as they assert their rights and file appeal after appeal.


As lawmakers weigh the future of the death penalty in some states, officials are giving greater weight to the effect of prolonged death penalty cases on victims' families. Petit realizes that the case might drag on for years, but he remains committed to seeing defendants Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky put to death.

Defense attorneys said this week in court that their offer to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison could have ended it all. But they said prosecutors refused because they want to win death sentences.

A trial could begin in January.

Petit countered that an attorney for Hayes was trying to shift blame to him and prosecutors for not accepting a plea bargain, "when it was his client who helped kill three innocent people."

Commissions in New Jersey and Maryland in recent years found that death penalty cases are more harmful to the families of victims than cases that end with life sentences.

"The commission finds that regardless of whether or not a survivor supports an execution, years of court dates, reversals, appeals and exposure to the killer is harmful to the family members of murder victims," the Maryland commission wrote in its report last year.

New Jersey repealed its death penalty in 2007, while Maryland has had a moratorium since 2006.

Across the country, relatives of murder victims say the plodding pace of a death penalty case in court is difficult.

Phyllis Bricker of Baltimore has sat through 26 years of court hearings since her parents were murdered in 1983. Their killer, John Booth-El, remains on death row.

"It's hard on the family, very hard," Bricker said. "Your life is on hold because you never know when another trial is coming up, another appeal is coming up."

One time, Bricker said, the defendant turned to her family and said, "See you next year."

Despite the protracted battle, Bricker said she does not favor a sentence of life without parole. She said that option did not exist at the time of the crime and she's skeptical prisoners would be kept behind bars for life.

The Rev. Cathy Harrington's daughter, Leslie Ann Mazzara, was killed in 2004 in California. A 2007 plea agreement was reached in which her convicted killer, Eric Copple, got life in prison.

"I could see us exhaling," Harrington said of her family at the sentencing. "I hadn't realized how tense we were. I didn't have any room to really grieve properly. I was so busy trying to get through this, never knowing when the phone rang who it was going to be."

Harrington has written an essay about her daughter for a book and is studying for a doctorate focusing on restorative justice. Her sons are building a cottage for abused children in Leslie's memory.

"I'm so busy. I'm tired, but I feel like I can maybe start to live my life now," Harrington said.

She said Petit has the right to favor the death penalty in his case.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky, who were on parole after serving prison time for burglary, are accused of breaking into Petit's home, beating him and forcing his wife to withdraw thousands of dollars from a bank before they strangled her. They've pleaded not guilty to capital felony murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and arson.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell in June vetoed a bill to abolish the death penalty, saying the state cannot tolerate people who commit particularly heinous murders.

Petit has taken on an active role, participating in fundraisers in memory of his family that benefit the causes they championed and lobbying lawmakers not to repeal the death penalty.

He thanked Rell for her veto and called capital punishment "what is required to maintain the fabric of our society."

A Quinnipiac poll released Nov. 7, 2007, less than four months after the killings found that 73 percent of Connecticut voters believed the two suspects in the Cheshire murders should be executed, while 23 percent said they shouldn't.

Gun permit applications in Cheshire, about 14 miles north of New Haven, jumped substantially after the Petits were attacked.

The General Assembly passed new laws that lengthen sentences for repeat offenders, revamp the parole system and create a new crime of home invasion.

Connecticut has 10 men on death row, including a few sentenced 20 years ago. Besides appeals, a lawsuit alleging racial disparity in death sentences is delaying executions.

If Hayes and Komisarjevsky are convicted and sentenced to die, their appeals could easily continue for decades. In 2005, Connecticut serial killer Michael Ross was the first person executed in New England in 45 years — even after waiving his appeals, Ross was behind bars for more than 20 years before he was put to death.

"It was a load off of our shoulders," said Edwin Shelly, whose daughter was Ross' seventh victim. "The hate is gone because there is no one to hate."

Raymond Roode, whose daughter also was killed by Ross, said he is glad Ross was executed.

"The finality of the death penalty is the thing that appeals to me," Roode said. "It doesn't matter how long it takes."

[MuffyBee]

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-parole-cheshire-0726.artjul26,0,6064083.story
After Petit Slayings, It Takes Longer To Get Out On Parole
 By DAVE ALTIMARI and MATTHEW KAUFFMAN  The Hartford Courant

July 26, 2009
Violent offenders are spending more time in prison before earning parole, following changes made in the two years since the brutal slaying of three members of a Cheshire family exposed inadequacies in the state's prisoner-release system.

"If somebody were to look at our process today and compare it to what it was prior to Cheshire, they'd see a remarkable change," said Robert Farr, the chairman of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. "Because of that awful case there has been huge changes to the system."

Now board members are flooded with paperwork, and case files are two or three times the size they were in the past, according to Farr.

Board members routinely read pre-sentencing reports, juvenile records and transcripts of sentencing hearings to ensure they don't miss key details, Farr said. Parole board members acknowledged that they approved the early release of Joshua Komisarjevsky, one of the suspects in the Cheshire case, without ever reviewing court records that would have shown a judge had described him as a "cold, calculating predator."

Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were both paroled following routine administrative hearings a few months before they allegedly broke into the home of William Petit and Jennifer Hawke-Petit in July 2007. William Petit was severely beaten and Jennifer Hawke-Petit and daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were killed. The two girls were burned alive as Komisarjevsky and Hayes fled the home, police said.

The two men are awaiting trials that could begin early next year. Both face the death penalty.

An analysis by The Courant of parole data provided by the state shows that since the Petit killings, convicts in prison on 12 of 14 felonies ranging from burglary and robbery to assault to selling drugs have served a greater portion of their sentences before being released on parole, compared with prisoners granted parole on the same charges prior to the Cheshirecase.

For example, before the Cheshire killings, prisoners released on parole following convictions for selling narcotics served an average of 58 percent of their sentences. Since the killings, they have served 68 percent before release. Prisoners convicted of second-degree burglary and later released on parole served 69 percent of their sentences before the Cheshire case and almost 74 percent since.

The Courant examined 14 felonies for which at least 10 prisoners have been released on parole since the Cheshire killings. Of those, only two showed prisoners post-Cheshire serving a lower percentage of their sentences before release — manslaughter and risk of injury to a minor. For manslaughter cases, however, prisoners released since the Cheshire case actually spent more time in prison, because those inmates had longer sentences on average than those who came before the parole before Cheshire.
<snip>

[MuffyBee]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/31/AR2010013102870.html

Conn. home invasion suspect has medical emergency

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
The Associated Press
Sunday, January 31, 2010; 9:34 PM

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A Connecticut official says a man charged with killing a mother and her daughters during a 2007 home invasion is facing a medical crisis.

Chief state's attorney Kevin Kane says Steven Hayes has "undergone some kind of apparent medical emergency."

A New Haven Register report citing unidentified sources says prison guards found Hayes unconscious in his cell Sunday morning and he was hospitalized in a medically induced coma.

Neither public defender Thomas J. Ullmann nor a University of Connecticut Hospital nursing supervisor would confirm those details.

Ullmann says jury selection scheduled for Monday has been halted.
Hayes and another man have pleaded not guilty in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley.

Hawke-Petit's husband, Dr. William Petit, was beaten at the Cheshire home but survived.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/01/connecticut.petit.slayings/?hpt=C2
Trial stirs painful memories of brutal home invasion
By Taylor Gandossy, CNN
February 1, 2010 4:46 p.m. EST

Dr. William Petit, with his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their two daughters, Michaela, left, and Hayley.

The Petit family's house has been torn down and replaced by a heart-shaped garden.


Joshua Komisarjevsky, left, and Steven Hayes could face the death penalty if convicted of capital murder.

Cheshire, Connecticut (CNN) -- A small, well-tended garden is all that remains at 300 Sorghum Mill Drive in this quiet town.

Even on a dreary, rainy January day, with little abloom, the spot is peaceful. It shows few signs of the horrifying home invasion that killed a mother and her two daughters there more than two years ago, robbing a man of his wife and children.

The killings shook the suburban community, prompted legislative changes in the state, and attracted the attention of the national media.

Two men broke into the home around 3 a.m. on July 23, 2007, and subjected the Petit family to a seven-hour ordeal, according to police. By the end, they had beaten up Dr. William Petit, strangled his wife, 48-year-old Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and set the home ablaze, authorities said. The couple's daughters, Hayley Petit, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11, died from smoke inhalation, authorities said.

The deaths occurred after one of the attackers drove Hawke-Petit to a Bank of America branch to withdraw money around 9 a.m., police said. She was able to alert a bank teller that the family was being held captive, and the bank teller alerted police, authorities said.

Media reports said that Hawke-Petit and Michaela were sexually assaulted. Prosecutors declined to confirm details because of a gag order in the case.

The men left the home around 10 a.m. and were taken into custody after crashing into two Cheshire police cruisers that had formed a barricade, police said.

Steven Hayes, 46, of Winsted, Connecticut, and Joshua Komisarjevsky, 29, of Cheshire, face charges that include felony murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and arson. They could face the death penalty if convicted.

The motive in the killings remains unclear, but its effect is plain.

"Because men murdered Michaela, she cannot make homemade sauce, play with her friends, or kiss me goodnight," Dr. William Petit told state lawmakers in March, during a hearing on whether the state should repeal the death penalty.

"Because men murdered Hayley, she cannot experience her college years at Dartmouth, row on the Connecticut River, or sit and chat with me. Because men murdered Jennifer, she can no longer comfort a student at Cheshire Academy, talk with her parents and sister, or sit with me on our porch.

"My family got the death penalty, and you want to give murderers life. That is not justice," he said.
My family got the death penalty, and you want to give murderers life. That is not justice.
--Dr. William Petit, to Connecticut lawmakers

The lawmakers voted to repeal the death penalty, but Gov. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill. Connecticut has carried out only two executions in nearly 50 years, the last in 2005.

Jury selection for Hayes' trial is under way in nearby New Haven, with three jurors selected as of last week, according to the New Haven Superior Court clerk's office. It is expected to take several months to pick a full jury. Evidence will be presented in the case in September. Komisarjevsky will be tried separately.

"It's probably difficult to find a juror who didn't know somebody who knows somebody who knew the family, who didn't feel at all affected by the case," said Yale law professor Steven Duke, who is not involved with the case.

"Nothing like that has probably ever happened in Cheshire, or anywhere around there in probably 100 years," he said.

"It's a very unusual case in many respects for a little town like this ... and it's pretty clear it's had some effects on the politics in Connecticut."

State Sen. Andrew McDonald, co-chairman of the Senate's Judiciary Committee, said the killings spurred lawmakers to change the state's criminal justice system.

"It was really a function of people who were very shaken, including legislators, about the tragedy," he said in a phone interview. Lawmakers "wanted to use that opportunity to reflect and act upon deficiencies that could be clearly identified and isolated within our criminal justice system."

"The Petit case is in my experience probably the most violent crime in my tenure," said McDonald, who was elected to the Senate in 2002. "This crime ... was unique in its violence and viciousness. It was particularly heinous, in my opinion."

Legislators called for hearings in January 2007 and passed a number of reforms during a special session the following year, McDonald said. One created a new crime of home invasion, a Class A felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

"The consensus in Connecticut was that an invasion of one's home can be, under some circumstances, much more detrimental to society and to a community's sense of well-being than a burglary of an office building," McDonald said.

The reform package also changed the makeup of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. It added a staff psychologist and grants the board permission to access an offender's records from juvenile court, which previously had been held confidential.

The legislation also bars the board from acting on a case unless it has all of the relevant records, according to a statement from Rell when she signed the bill.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky, who had criminal histories of burglaries but not violence, were on parole, but neither had been subjected to a full parole hearing before they were released, The Hartford Courant reported. They were released after "administrative reviews," which are performed by three board members, the newspaper reported.

Such administrative reviews, which did not require the appearances of the inmates, "were essentially abolished" with the 2008 legislation, said Robert Farr, chairman of the parole board.

He said the board did not have "the information that should have been available to them" when the paroles were granted to the two men, including the presentence investigation, a copy of court transcripts, and some police reports.

"The board didn't have any of that information," he said. "The process of parole hearings in Connecticut has changed dramatically."

The Petit family killings also highlighted a breakdown of communication among criminal justice agencies, McDonald said.

There is a "complete inability to share information electronically," he said. The state now plans to integrate the information, he said.

Despite being mentioned often during the state's death penalty debate last year, the killings did not change the opinion of Connecticut voters about the death penalty, according to Quinnipiac University polls from 2000 and 2009.

In 2000, the poll showed that 63 percent of voters were in favor of the death penalty; 27 percent were against it. Nine years later, ahead of the governor's veto of the bill to ban capital punishment, 61 percent said they favored keeping the death penalty and 34 percent opposed it.

Support for the death penalty in Connecticut becomes higher, however, when the question is tied to a specific case, said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Doug Schwartz. In a 2007 poll from the university, 73 percent of Connecticut voters said they would favor the death penalty if the Cheshire suspects were convicted of murder, he said.

In her June veto message, Rell used a quote that Petit had incorporated into his address to lawmakers.

"Dr. William Petit recently quoted Lord Justice Denning, master of the rolls of the Court of Appeals in the United Kingdom, who said: 'Punishment is the way in which society expresses its denunciation of wrongdoing: and, in order to maintain respect for law, it is essential that the punishment inflicted for grave crimes should adequately reflect the revulsion felt by the great majority of citizens for them.'"
It brings it all front and center again.
--Chris Gilleylen, Petit family friend

Revulsion and pain are certainly still felt in Cheshire, an upper-middle-class city of about 30,000 residents, just north of New Haven. The jury selection only worsens it, one former neighbor of the Petits said.

"It brings it all front and center again," said Chris Gilleylen, a friend of the Petit family.

She lives about 10 houses from where the family's house stood, she said, and is an organizer of the garden there now, called the "Three Angels Garden."

She also authored a petition that sought to first bar publication of a book on the killings because of a gag order in the case, and then to keep it from the town's library.

Seeing the house every day after the killings was "very, very stressful, very difficult," Gilleylen said. The garden, which includes some of William Petit's favorite flowers, helps, she said.

One small sign on the property notes that it is a "living memorial garden." The sidewalk below the garden slopes in one spot, an eerie reminder that it once marked the beginning of the family's driveway.

"It will be prettier in the spring," she said.


 




   

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/02/15/news/metro/a1-mon-hayesmed.txt

Medical error may have played role in Cheshire suspect’s OD

Published: Monday, February 15, 2010
By Randall Beach, Register Staff



Steven J. Hayes was able to hoard his medication in prison and then overdose on it because it wasn’t given to him in the proper form, sources have told the Register.

Hayes, awaiting trial for murder and other charges in the Petit family triple homicide, was found unconscious in his cell at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield on Jan. 31. He was taken to the University of Connecticut Medical Center in Farmington, but within 48 hours was returned to the prison and placed in the infirmary.

A source said Hayes had been suspected of “cheeking” (hoarding) his Thorazine and Klonopin, so it was switched to liquid form. Thorazine is an anti-psychotic drug and Klonopin is anti-anxiety medication.

But a medical person in charge of administering the medications allegedly then failed to mix the crushed pills and liquid, which allowed Hayes to hoard the drugs, according to the source.

Hayes’ overdose resulted in the suspension of jury selection in New Haven Superior Court for the past two weeks. Defense attorneys, prosecutors and Judge Jon C. Blue are scheduled to meet for another status conference Tuesday to discuss Hayes’ medical condition and the circumstances under which he is being confined.

Four jurors have been selected for the trial, which is supposed to start Sept. 13.

During a court hearing last Monday, one of Hayes’ attorneys, New Haven Chief Public Defender Thomas Ullmann, complained to Blue that Hayes was being denied medication and confined in a space that has bright lights on 24 hours a day. Ullmann called the conditions inhumane. He said because Hayes cannot sleep, jury selection must be put off.

After news outlets reported this, Ullmann was threatened via a comment on the Hartford Courant’s Web site, according to a Courant news story.

The comment reportedly said: “Ullmann, you’re finished. I know where you live I know where your family sleeps you dirtbag, it’s only a matter of time pal, I will see you, you can count on that.” It was signed “Truth_in_CT.”

State police are investigating the threat. Ullmann had no comment when reached Friday.

The Cheshire killings, which occurred in July 2007, have drawn intense publicity and strong emotions. Jennifer Hawke-Petit was killed during the home invasion, as were her daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17. Their father, Dr. William Petit Jr., was severely beaten but survived.

A co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, is scheduled for trial next year.

Hayes’ overdose raised questions about state Department of Correction policies and procedures regarding inmates who receive prescription medication.

Brian Garnett, a department spokesman, has refused to answer any questions about this, even when the queries did not specifically concern Hayes.

When asked about Hayes, including how drugs were administered to him and whether the DOC is investigating the overdose, Garnett cited the court-imposed gag order that prohibits attorneys and authorities from commenting on the Petit case. It’s not clear the gag order applies to Garnett.

When he was asked about the administration of drugs to any inmate, Garnett said, “I am exceedingly reluctant to talk in generalities about matters that are obviously connected with this (Hayes) situation.”

The Register then appealed to the office of Gov. M. Jodi Rell. A staffer there told the Register that if the DOC has a generic drug distribution policy that doesn’t fall under a state Freedom of Information exemption, it should be turned over to the Register.

The questions were: Who administers such drugs to inmates; is that person supposed to watch the drugs being ingested; is the inmate frisked periodically; and is his cell searched periodically for hidden drugs.

FOI Administrator Joan Ellis told the Register that those providing such services are employees of the UConn Medical Center. She suggested a person there to contact, but he did not return a phone call.

Ellis did cite some DOC directives covering such procedures. One of these states: “Psychoactive medications shall be administered only by physicians, registered or licensed nurses or others legally authorized.”

Another directive states: “The DOC, through its contracted health care provider, shall prescribe and administer psychoactive medication to inmates requiring such treatment in a safe and effective manner.”

The Register is still trying to find out if these procedures are being followed. Also, the Register is continuing to seek the information on frisking and cell-searching.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2010/02/16/news/doc4b7ade950bc24585788020.txt
Paperwork SNAFU delays court hearing in Cheshire triple-murder case
Published: Tuesday, February 16, 2010
NEW HAVEN — Court proceedings for Steven J. Hayes, one of the two men accused in the Petit family triple homicide, were delayed Tuesday because the necessary paperwork to have him taken to court was not completed, said Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue.

Hayes was supposed to be transported from MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield to Superior Court in New Haven Tuesday, so his attorneys and prosecutors could discuss his medical status and the circumstances under which he is being held.

“I’m not interested in assessing blame,” Blue said of the paperwork snafu. “My initial belief is there is plenty of blame to go around…all I can do is apologize to everyone,” for coming in to court Tuesday.

Jury selection will not resume Wednesday, but Hayes will be taken to court Wednesday for the status conference, Blue said.

Jury selection for the trial has been delayed since Jan. 31 when Hayes was found unconscious in his cell.

Hayes, of Winsted, is suspected of hoarding his daily doses of anxiety and anti-psychotic medication and taking them all at once. But within 48 hours of being taken to the University of Connecticut Medical Center in Farmington he was returned to the prison and placed in the infirmary there.

At an earlier court date New Haven Chief Public Defender Thomas Ullmann, complained to Blue that Hayes was being denied medication and confined in a space that has bright lights on 24 hours a day. He had asked for jury selection to be put off because Hayes cannot sleep.

Ullman’s complaints were not addressed Tuesday because Hayes was not brought to court.

Hayes and a co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, are accused of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17, during a home invasion in July 2007. Dr. William Petit Jr. was severely beaten, but survived.

“We’re just frustrated,” Petit said of the delay outside the courtroom Tuesday.

Hayes’ trial is scheduled to begin in September. Komisarjevsky is scheduled for trial next year.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.necn.com/09/12/10/Murder-trial-starts-Monday-in-Conn-home-/landing.html?blockID=309376&feedID=4206
Murder trial starts Monday in Conn. home invasion killing
Sep 12, 2010 9:19pm
NECN) - Steven Hayes' murder trial is set to begin Monday in Connecticut.

He and Joshua Komisarjevsky are charged with killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley and Michaela during a home invasion in Cheshire in 2007.

Doctor William Petit was severely beaten in the attack. He is expected to testify against Hayes.

The state is seeking the death penalty in this case. Komisarjevsky will be tried separately

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20425064,00.html
Doctor to Revisit Horror of Wife and Children's Murders
By Nicole Weisensee Egan
Monday September 13, 2010 07:10 AM EDT
Three years ago, Dr. William Petit, Jr., was the lone survivor of a brutal home invasion that left his wife and two daughters murdered.

Since then, the Connecticut physician has tried to "think about the good memories," he says, seeking to salvage something from their senseless deaths by starting a foundation to raise money for victims of violence and other causes.

But as early as this week, Petit will revisit the horror.

Petit is set to testify in a New Haven courtroom in the trial scheduled to begin Monday for Steven Hayes, 47, one of two men accused of holding Petit and his family hostage in July 2007 for hours, beating Petit, strangling his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and setting their house on fire.

Petit was left for dead in the basement of their Chesire, Conn., home. When police arrived, the suspects had fled, and the couple’s daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley, who had been tied to their beds, were dead from smoke inhalation.

The second defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, 30, will be tried separately next year.


Doing the Right Thing
Petit, who is expected to take the stand early in the week, told reporters last month that his focus during the trial will be on "doing the right thing, testifying to what I know and being the face of my family, since they can't be here to represent themselves."

Still, the prospect of talking about the murder of his family is taking its toll. "You can actually feel the stress level creeping up," he says. "It's very emotional. It conjures up lots of sadness, puts a lot of stress and strain on the family."

Petit has also become a very public advocate for the death penalty in Connecticut and has reacted strongly when Hayes's attorneys have challenged its constitutionality in court.

He also founded the Petit Family Foundation, which has raised more than $1.4 million in the last three years.

"It's very rewarding and satisfying that people care that much about Bill and want to help," says Ron Bucchi, treasurer of the foundation and one of Dr. Petit's closest friends. "It's a testament to him. I think it's a tragedy that has touched everyone somehow. I think it's one of those events that you just say, 'Why?' "

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/13/earlyshow/main6861220.shtml
Gruesome Conn. Murders to Be Relived
Crime Stoked Death Penalty Debate; Trial Set of 1 of 2 Men Who Allegedly Assaulted, Killed Wife, Daughters of Prominent M.D.
(CBS/ AP)  They were a model family living in an affluent suburb. William Petit was a prominent doctor. His daughter was on her way to Dartmouth, hoping to follow in his footsteps. His wife had multiple sclerosis and the family was active in efforts to raise money to fight the disease.

But a chance encounter with a career criminal at a supermarket in July 2007 destroyed the family, authorities say. Joshua Komisarjevsky spotted Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters at the store and followed them home, then returned later with his friend Steven Hayes and together they broke into the house and severely beat Petit and killed his wife and daughters, investigators allege.

The crime drew comparisons to "In Cold Blood," Truman Capote's chilling book about the 1959 murders of a Kansas farm family. It prompted a special session of the legislature and spurred more residents to buy guns and led to a continuing debate over the death penalty in the state.

Hayes heads to trial Monday.

Both defendants have offered to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences, but prosecutors, seeking the death penalty for both, pushed for trials, defense attorneys said, forcing the state to revisit the unsettling crime and its lone survivor to relive it in the courtroom.

Each has tried to blame the other for escalating the crime.
"It left the state shocked and people feeling vulnerable in the sense that it happened in a town where violence rarely occurs and it happened in a way that shook civilization, people's idea of civilization," said Rich Hanley, journalism director at Quinnipiac University.

Dr. Petit is scheduled to testify early in the trial, which is expected to last about a month.

Over the last three years, he has launched a crusade to have both men convicted and executed for their crimes, fighting proposals to ban the death penalty in Connecticut, observes CBS News Correspondent Betty Nguyen.

After a recent court hearing, Petit said he welcomed hearing the names of his wife and daughters in court.

"Most of the process tends to be one of depersonalization," Petit said. "I was actually pleased to hear their names to show it was personal, they were people, living people. They can't be there to give their side of the events."

Hayes and Komisarjevsky, two paroled burglars, are accused of beating and tying up Dr. Petit, taking his family hostage and forcing his wife to withdraw money from a bank.

Hayes, 47, is accused of sexually assaulting and strangling Hawke-Petit. Komisarjevsky, 30, is charged with sexually assaulting 11-year-old Michaela. The two allegedly tied Michaela and her 17-year-old sister, Hayley, to their beds, poured gasoline on and around them and set the house on fire, killing the girls, authorities say.

Dr. Petit managed to escape.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky fled the burning home in the family's car and were caught after ramming several police cruisers, authorities say. Hayes was wearing Hayley's school cap, police say.

The pair, each with more than 20 burglaries on their records, had spent time in the same Hartford halfway house. At the time of the killings, both were free on parole after serving time for 2003 burglary convictions.

Hayes' murder trial will be held in New Haven Superior Court. If the jury convicts Hayes, the same panel will weigh his fate in the penalty phase. Once the Hayes case is finished, Komisarjevsky's will be scheduled.
Hayes is charged with capital murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, burglary and arson.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have declined to comment on the case, citing a court-imposed gag order.

"The evidence seems to be overwhelming," says CBS News legal analyst Jack Ford. "The doctor will identify them, they're caught, basically, running from the house. So, the defense looked at this, probably saying, 'Here's our chance to try to save the lives of these guys.' So, they offered up themselves. They said, 'We'll plead guilty, end this thing right now, put us in prison without any possibility for parole, and everybody go home.' But, this has generated such emotional response. … I've tried five death penalty cases, and they're very different and very hard on everybody involved.

"This is a case that's so atrocious that I think even some people who are opponents of the death penalty would have second thoughts about this," Ford remarked to "Early Show" co-anchor Erica Hill.

"You could have a bizarre scenario here where they could go through the trial of these two men, the juries could find them guilty, probably will find them guilty, (based on) the evidence (we've seen), and -- (with) death penalties, there are two separate trials within one trial. A jury says 'guilty of murder' or 'not guilty' or guilty of something less. If they say 'guilty of murder,' they move to the penalty phase, another small trial within the trial, and say whether they live or die. You could get a scenario where a jury might say death penalty for these two guys, and then, down the road, with a new governor in Connecticut, you might have the death penalty repealed again. So, they might be taken off death row. So, it's a strange procedure but, at this point in time, prosecutors have said, 'This is such a horrendous case, we're going forward with this. We don't care if you want to plead guilty, you're still going to be looking at the possibility of the death penalty."

In a state full of well-to-do towns, Cheshire stands out. With a population of about 29,000, it has a median household income of about $100,000, according to the U.S. Census, and a median home value of about $320,000 this year, according to the Warren Group.

The town was designated the Bedding Plant Capital of Connecticut by the General Assembly because of its abundance of bedding plant growers, and Connecticut Magazine last year ranked it the fourth best town to live in.

The Petit home invasion and deaths have had an effect. Gun permit applications in Cheshire rose from 33 in 2006 to 81 the year of the crime to 125 last year, police say. More residents bought security systems and dogs.

"It's like the Lindbergh baby kidnapping," said Bruce Koffsky, a defense attorney who has tried death penalty cases, recalling the abduction and death of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh's toddler in 1932. "It has been burned into the consciousness of the community."

The Petit case led to tougher laws for repeat offenders and home invasion.
Last year, the legislature voted to repeal the state's death penalty, but Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill, saying the state cannot tolerate people who commit particularly heinous murders. Dr. Petit actively lobbied in favor of keeping capital punishment and thanked Rell for her veto, saying it was "what is required to maintain the fabric of our society."

Connecticut executed its first inmate in decades on May 13, 2005, when serial killer Michael Ross was put to death by lethal injection after he willingly halted his appeals. It was the state's and New England's first execution since 1960.

Petit has kept busy attending court hearings, lobbying and carrying on the charity work of his family. He has said he's coping by trying to recall good memories with his family.

"It's very emotional," Petit said after a recent pretrial hearing. "It conjures up lots of sadness, puts a lot of stress and strain on the family."

The family's house was torn down, but a remembrance garden was created in its place, filled with flowers in the shape of a heart and a brick sign that reads "Three angels."

"My heart breaks for Mr. Petit," said Mim Ramadei, 60, who was walking recently in the woodsy neighborhood filled with large colonials.

"He's a remarkable man," said her friend, Maddy Tannenbaum, a 57-year-old audiologist who lives nearby.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky were caught fleeing the scene and gave incriminating statements to police, authorities say. Hayes told police "things just got out of control," a detective testified last month.
Hayes' attorneys will focus on trying to spare him the death penalty, such as by pointing out his troubled mental state at the time of the crime, said Hugh Keefe, a defense attorney in New Haven who has no connection to the case.

"This case is all about the death penalty," Keefe said. "The evidence is overwhelming."

Hayes, who tried to kill himself in prison, told the judge in April that he wanted to plead guilty. He changed his mind under pressure from his attorneys. Previous12.

[trimmonthelake]

http://newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/petit_trial_day_1/id_29236
Petit Trial Court Diary, Day One: Deceptive Calm
by Katie Rohner | Sep 13, 2010 10:25 pm
A video played on the screen inside Room 6A Monday morning as a spectacular murder trial got underway in Connecticut Superior Court on Church Street—a video, like much of the rest of the day’s proceedings, imbued with an eerie, deceptive sense of calm.

The video played in the courtroom of Judge Jon C. Blue. Blue is presiding over the long-awaited trial of Steven Hayes, the first of two men accused of a murder the brutality of which startled the nation, the July 2007 murder Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters in Cheshire.

In the video, Hawke-Petit seemingly returned to life as she stood, looking tired but focused, at a Bank of America counter on the morning of July 23, 2007 and requested a withdrawal of $15,000 from the joint savings account she shared with husband, William Petit.

The teller, Kristin Makhzangi, listened to Petit’s patient explanation that her family was held hostage at home. She called the bank manager over to assist with the urgent transaction.

The video was the most powerful image of Monday’s proceedings. It was not a continuous feed, but more like a series of jerky, fast-moving stills of the transaction in progress. 

Two witnesses, employees of the bank, took the stand and testified about what was in the video.

Bank of American branch manager Mary Lyons spoke of how she checked other Petit family accounts that might cover this request and asked for ID. She testified about how, when Petit opened her wallet, shes could see only a picture of her daughters inside.

“I looked at the pictures, and we locked into each other’s eyes and I knew I had to help her,” explained Lyons
Both Lyons and the second witness used the same word to describe Jennifer Hawkes-Petit’s manner during the scene captured on video: “calm.”

Only the fact that “her hands were a little shaky” gave hint to the panic she undoubtedly was feeling, Lyons testified.

The victim on screen was calm. The defendant whose life is at risk in the courtroom was calm. The lawyer trying to save his life, the lawyer seeking to convict him, the witnesses who took the stand were all calm. Everyone but the judge, it seems, was calm.

Editor’s Note: Local attorney Katie Rohner will be keeping a courtroom diary of the Petit trial for the Independent.

The calm was a veneer covering wells of emotion, events with life-or-death consequences, and the strategies of the drama’s two legal teams.

At 9:23 a.m., the video abruptly ended with an empty frame where Mrs. Petit had been patiently standing, but now had suddenly disappeared.

Calm was the last emotion many of us expected to find in Courtroom 6A at the long-awaited onset of the trial against Hayes, who stands accused of 17 crimes including capital felony murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, burglary, and assault.

But beginning with a gentle drizzle all morning, the mood throughout the day remained low-key and sedate.
The specifics of these crimes are horrific and unfathomable, but it is the randomness of how the Petit family was chosen to suffer that strikes the greatest fear in our hearts. That fear seemed veiled or subdued Monday by the tone of professional calm surrounding the news trucks parked along the curb outside the courthouse, as well as the reporters lined up early inside for a seat in one of the first two rows set aside for them behind the defense table.

Judge Sets A Tone
The only source of nervous energy and anticipation came from Judge Blue, who unexpectedly appeared in the hallway before the courtroom was opened and casually answered a few reporters’ questions regarding the schedule as well as the gag order in place.  Later, the judge popped in and out of the courtroom at least a dozen times . He offered advice on seating. (It’s the law of the jungle, first-come first-served; perhaps the reporters could alternate seats like a volleyball team?). He equated the blocked visibility of the big screen used for exhibits to an obstructed view at Fenway Park. He reminisced about the standing-room-only experiences he enjoyed while seeing Broadway plays in college. He seemed to be trying to eliminate any tension and unease with gentle humor and conviviality; since I normally only see him sitting quietly alone at the counters of neighborhood restaurants during weekday lunch breaks, I found this side of him a bit surprising.

He smiled sweetly at each juror who was called in individually for a final assessment of their ability to sit on the jury. (Three were excused for bias or conflicts that arose since they were originally picked months ago). He greeted each one with a sincere “nice to see you again.”  Just as he was beginning to seem more captain of a cruise ship, than judge overseeing a murder trial,  Blue exclaimed to the jury, “Welcome aboard!” And the trial began.

Despite the emotionally-charged scenes underlying the case, the two attorneys—New Haven State’s Attorney Michael Dearington and Public Defender Thomas Ullmann—delivered low-key opening statements   While the opening and closing statements are not evidence, they are powerful tools of persuasion or, as Judge Blue explained to the jury, a “preview of the coming attractions.”

Dearington, standing still and looking directly at the jury, declineded to give an overview of the case due to the length of time that would entail. He simply stated his confidence in the jury to render a just and fair decision about “what, if any, involvement” the defendant had in committing the crimes for which he is on trial.

Dearington’s calm demeanor made sense, because the guilt phase of this trial is almost a formality.

In keeping with that notion, Tom Ullmann kept his statement short, reading most of it from his notes, and acknowledging that Hayes sexually assaulted and murdered Jennifer Hawke-Petit. He said that Hayes stated that it got “way out of control” and “no one was supposed to get hurt.”

Ullmann’s true objective at this trial is to try to save Hayes’ life by shifting the blame for the escalation of violence on Hayes’  co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, who will face trial in a few months.

In an almost hushed tone, Ullmann said that he and his co-cousel, Patrick Culligan, were “profoundly sad” by these events.

“Be The Change
One by one, each of the five witnesses Monday—nurse Mona Huggard, who worked with William Petit; the two bank employees, neighbor David Simcik, who found Dr. Petit lying beaten in his driveway; and Cheshire Police Officer Thomas Right—each calmly and methodically answered the questions posed to them.

Steven Hayes, dressed in khaki pants and a striped, short-sleeved shirt, quietly rocked from side to side in his chair and occasionally spun around to look at the clock on the back wall. William Petit, surrounded by a large contingent of his close-knit family, sat calmly, foot jiggling often. He chewed gum for a while, holding the pew in front of him with his left hand as if to brace himself. On his wrist was a pink and green wristband reading, “Be the Change.” On his lapel, and on those of his extended family, were pins in the shape of a heart. 

The somewhat sedate proceedings were punctuated a couple of times, when Lyons, the bank manager, choked up in recalling the calm Jennifer Hawke-Petit’s bravery; when Simcik, following his description of how he and his wife discussed the mundane task of disposing grass clippings at the transfer station, discovered William Petit in a mess of blood, initially recognizable only by his voice; and when Officer Right was asked what he found on the second floor of the Petit home after the fire was extinguished.

But, again, it was Lyons and the haunting image of that video of Jennifer Petit calmly trying to secure the cash needed to free her family that provided such a jarring juxtaposition of calm and utter fear. In Lyons’ 911 call, played for the courtroom, she told the dispatcher in a composed manner that Jennifer Petit was “calm,” but “could have been petrified,” and that Petit described the captors as “being very nice.”

Listening to this, we could imagine that Petit still held hope that the money would suffice to appease the captors and save her family, and that she went about that goal with a steady determination.  At that point, she could not know what we now know about how that morning would end.

[San]

Connecticut doctor whose family was killed takes the stand

By LAURA ITALIANO
Last Updated: 11:47 AM, September 14, 2010
Posted: 10:48 AM, September 14, 2010


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/connecticut_doctor_whose_family_eWPz3N9foeiSbXiWwlizKJ

NEW HAVEN -- "If he moves, put two bullets in him."

Dr. William Petit -- sole survivor of a 2007 Connecticut home invasion that left his wife and two daughters slaughtered in his flame-engulfed home -- took the stand this morning in the murder trial of the first of the crime's two alleged attackers, describing for the first time his family's nightmare of rape, arson and death.

It was a July morning, before dawn, when he woke suddenly from the sunroom couch of his home, 14 miles north of New Haven, where he'd fallen asleep the night before. First came the pain to his head. Then, in the darkness, he saw the outlines of two men -- both standing over him, one of them holding a big black handgun.

"One person said, 'If he moves, put two bullets in him," Petit told jurors.

Petit -- a respected endocrinologist, has been vocal in his support of the death penalty but essentially silent on the events of the 2007 morning when two burglary parolees broke into his tree-shaded colonial, clubbed him in the head with a bat, tied his daughters -- Michaela, 11 and Hayley, 17 -- to their beds, and forced his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to withdraw $15,000 cash from a nearby bank.

His testimony, long awaited as the only eye-witness voice to the horror, began slowly, at shortly after 10 a.m., with the mundane and now so poignant details of his family's charmed life before the horror.

"That's our house, here," the doctor said, his voice a study in control, as he used a laser pointer to indicate his home's location on an overhead screen showing an aerial view of his street.

He calmly gave jurors his daughters' birthdays and school histories. He described the older girl's reaction upon learning, in 1998, that the mother, Hawke-Petit, had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis -- an incurable neurological illness for which the mom, still a picture of health and blonde beauty in photos just prior to the attack, was taking medications.

"Hayley said that if she could raise enough money she could save her mother," the father remembered to jurors.

Petit testified before a packed courtroom in New Haven Superior Court -- where lawyers for Steven Hayes, 47, who prosecutors say has admitted to the attack, are fighting to save him from the death penalty.

"Things got out of hand," prosecutors say Hayes explained to cops after he and co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky, 29, were caught speeding away from the burning home in the Petit family SUV -- Hayes wearing Hayley's woolen hat on his head.

By mid-morning in what's expected to be day-long testimony, Petit began to delve into the dark details of the invasion.

"It was very strange. I remember thinking, or feeling, 'Ow. Ow. Ow.' " he told jurors. "There was something warm running down the side of my face."

He saw the gun -- figuring it was a 9 mm semi-automatic by it's size. Petit has treated several police officers for diabetes, he explained to jurors in the grim testimony's only laugh line so far. "It was always a bit unnerving," he said. "I'd say, 'Wow, that's a big gun.'" Petit then looked at a 9 mm semi in evidence, and pronounced it "consistent."

The men bound him with plastic ties, threw a cloth over his head, deepening his darkness. He heard something of their prowlings. He heard nothing from his wife and girls, but birds begin to sing: must be dawn coming, he told jurors he thought.

Eventually, the two men walked him downstairs to the basement and tied him to a support pole, he told jurors. He bled profusely, and slipped in and out of consciousness, he told jurors.

The men would come back, demanding valuables. "We have no safe," he told them.

"Somebody, the same person at some point, said, "If you give us what we want, we won't hurt you."

At one point, his wife's voice wafted down to him from the kitchen, saying she'd need to get her purse and his checkbook in order to go to the bank. She would make the trip to the bank with Hayes driving their SUV, returning with $15,000, according to yesterday's testimony.

The guilt phase of Hayes’ murder trial is expected to last some four weeks, and, if he is convicted of any of six capital felonies in the indictment against him, will be followed by a penalty phase to determine if he will be put to death by lethal injection under Connecticut’s death penalty law.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20016411-504083.html
September 14, 2010 4:30 PM
Dr. William Petit Takes Stand, Describes Wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit, Daughters in Conn. Murder Case
Posted by Naimah Jabali-Nash Leave Comment


http://abcnews.go.com/US/dr-william-petit-testifies-trial-familys-alleged-murderer/story?id=11633236
Dr. William Petit Takes the Stand, Tells of His Family's Slaughter
Pleasant Day Ends With Rapes, Beating, Two Men Setting Conn. Home Ablaze
 09/14/10

[trimmonthelake]

http://newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/petit_trial_court_diary_day_two_the_/id_29270
It Kept Coming Back To “The Girls”
by Katie Rohner | Sep 15, 2010 8:06 am
(1) Comment | Post a Comment | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Legal Writes

William Petit and “the girls.”
 Bound at the ankles by hard, plastic “zip ties,” disoriented from a severe head wound,  William Petit “rolled” up the driveway of his neighbor, David Simcik. “Dave, Dave, Dave,” he called.

Lying on his side, Petit banged on the garage door. When it opened, his neighbor did not recognize him beneath the blood and swelling.

“Dave, it’s me, Bill.  Call 9-1-1.”

A plainclothes policeman appeared seemingly within seconds. Gun drawn he asked Petit, “Who’s in the house?”

“The girls,”  Petit cried.

The policeman, dressed in a heavy, black SWAT uniform, yelled two more times, “Who’s in the house?”

Twice more Petit cried, “The girls are in the house.” Finally, the policeman told Petit to “stay down, you’re a witness”—to which, Dr. Petit beseeched “the girls are in the house.” 

Three years after two men brutally killed his wife and two daughters and nearly killed him, William Petit told that story Tuesday to Room 6A of Superior Court on Church Street in downtown New Haven. He was indeed a witness.

He told that story, and many others, about the day of the triple murder and the family it abruptly destroyed.

Amid all the matter-of-fact recitation of bloody, unimaginable fact, it again kept coming down to “the girls,” Petit’s wife Jennifer and his daughters, Hayley and Michaela. It came back to memories and anecdotes that belong in scrapbooks and family-table stories, and they proved as powerful Tueday as the bloody facts of the triple’s murder’s commission.

Petit testified in the second day of the the Cheshire home invasion and triple murder trial of accused co-murderer Steven Hayes.

Prosecutor Michael Dearington first guided Petit through a series of questions regarding how long he lived at 300 Sorghum Mill Drive in Cheshire and the nature of his medical practice. Then he turned the questioning to the events of July 23, 2007. Petit took a deep breath.

Petit and his wife had been married 22 years in 2007. The jury heard Petit describe Jennifer’s training and career as a registered nurse, specializing in pediatrics, and her diagnosis in 1998 of multiple sclerosis. He recounted Michaela’s fiftth-grade year at St. Margaret’s-McTernan School in Waterbury, where she progressed from Brownies to Girl Scouts, participated in school sports, and played two instruments.

The jury heard most of all about Hayley, who had just graduated from Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, where she played three sports, co-captained the basketball and crew teams, was nominated student leader of sports, and excelled in French, English, and Biology. He recalled how 9-year-old Hayley, learning of her mom’s illness, started a group called “Hayley’s Hope” in order to raise enough money to cure her mother and help others with MS. This memory, coupled with her early-decision acceptance to his alma mater, Dartmouth, appeared to forge a special connection between father and daughter.

Next Dearington led Petit through the last day he spent with his wife and daughters: He had “asked the girls” if it was OK to play golf with his father in Farmington that afternoon whlie they went to the beach. He called them to check on dinner plans and was instructed to look for corn or vegetables at a farm stand.

The girls, for their part, would pick up ingredients at the local Stop-n-Shop. That visit that would turn out to have tragic consequences.

Michaela, who loved cooking, helped prepare the meal. While “the girls were chatting at the table,” Petit shifted to “what Jen called the Florida room,” which is where he would later be beaten awake by strangers around 3 a.m

Petit remembered alerting the girls to the start of one of their favorite programs, “Army Wives,” at 10 p.m. Like any other indulgent dad, he relinquished the room and falling asleep in the room next door. 

Jennifer, Hayley, and Michaela were savagely assaulted and murdered the day after they went to the beach and made dinner for dad. But the jury, and others present in the courtroom, also caught a poignant glimpse of this family’s everyday life in all its warmth and familiarity. There were photos of Hayley’s worn sneakers, Jennifer’s pocketbook, souvenir glasses that held spare change, the strand of pearls he bought that “must be Michaela’s because hers were not finished,” whereas Hayley’s complete strand was safely draped over a small statue on his bureau so “then we would know where it was.”

A picture of an IPOD station that he bought “for the girls for Christmas” was in the SUV in which the defendant attempted to flee the burning Petit home on July 23.

Perhaps convenience and routine prompted the shorthand, “the girls,” that Petit used often when speaking of Jennifer, Hayley, and Michaela. But as he described himself as ” the guy around the house surrounded by women,”  it was clear that this was the identity that gave Petit his greatest comfort and pride, and offered some of the most searing testimony heard in Courtroom 6A.


Previous installment of the Petit Trial Court Diary:

• Day One: Deceptive Calm  http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/petit_trial_day_1/

[Sister]

My family got the death penalty, and you want to give murderers life. That is not justice.
--Dr. William Petit, to Connecticut lawmakers

What a brave man!

[San]

Conn. horror home invasion detailed in 911 calls and surveillance video

By LAURA ITALIANO
Last Updated: 7:49 PM, September 15, 2010
Posted: 4:57 PM, September 15, 2010

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/conn_horror_home_invasion_detailed_cztNqVMOpWMwT6GckNdCKO

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- She's trying desperately to save her family. And maybe she could have, had cops only acted more quickly.

Newly-released video shows the astonishing calm and resolve of Connecticut mom Jennifer Hawke-Petit as she withdrew $15,000 cash ransom from her bank, clearly and carefully informing the teller that men are holding her husband and daughters hostage back home, threatening to kill them all.

But cops in wealthy Cheshire, CT failed to immediately chase Hawke-Petit's car, in which she had been driven to the bank by one of her attackers -- despite knowing immediately its description and location, according to shocking testimony today.

Worst of all, throughout that half-hour of watching and waiting, fire vehicles were not called to the scene as a precaution, leaving cops to fight the sudden inferno at first alone, without gear -- with a single

By the time fire trucks arrived -- finally summoned only at the first sign of smoke -- a full 40 minutes had elapsed since the valiant mother stood before the bank teller, composedly telling her tale of horror.

Her body by then lay raped, strangled and charred beyond recognition, barely indistinguishable from the family room couch it was propped against, according to crime scene photos so graphic, they brought five jurors, men and women, to tears yesterday.

These revelations -- which suggests the family could have been saved but for police hesitancy -- came on day three of testimony in the murder trial of crack addict Steven Hayes, charged as one of the two monsters who launched a reign of rape and murder against the Petit family on a Monday morning in July, 2007.

Here's the chilling chronology of inaction, according to trial documents and testimony:

9:17 a.m. Hawke-Petit, 48, receives a time-stamped receipt for the $15,000 ransom withdrawal. The terrified mom has bravely, despite her captors' death threats, told the teller and the manager that she, her husband Dr. William Petit, and their daughters, Hayley, 17 and Michaela, 11, were being held hostage in their home.

9:21 a.m. Bank manager Mary Lyons calls 911, relaying Hawke-Petit's story, specifying that the mom appeared "petrified," and giving the vehicle's location and description as it left the parking lot.

9:26 a.m. First details of the "possible" hostage situation, and the bank employees' description of Hawke-Petit's vehicle, as allegedly driven by Hayes, are broadcast on police radio. Captains begin deploying a half-dozen marked and unmarked police vehicles around the perimeter of the Petit home.

9:27 a.m. One of the captains tells the units not to approach the house. No fire, ambulance, state police or other emergency authorities have yet been contacted.

9:44 a.m. Another of the captains, Robert Vignola, puts out a radio transmission indicating the perimeter is still being set up -- and that no one is to even call the house until that perimeter is ready.

9:54 a.m. A police radio dispatch indicates someone -- Petit, the victim father, as it turns out -- was calling out for help in the invaded home's back yard. Petit, who would be the sole survivor of the invasion, had broken free from the basement, and -- bleeding profusely from blows to the head, and with his ankles still bound -- had rolled his body across two yards to summon help.

It was at this moment, Vignola testified in New Haven Superior Court, that Hayes and his co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, 29, peeled out of the driveway, driving Hawke-Petit's SUV. Inside, fire began to sweep through the house -- fueled, prosecutors say, by gasoline sprayed through the living room by the two men.

Only after the SUV crashed into a police cruiser one block away, and a plume of smoke began to rise from the rear of the home, did Capt. Vignola call the fire department, according to his testimony.

As fire trucks arrived, so did Lt. Jay Markella -- he'd have been there earlier, he told jurors, but his pager wasn't working. Meanwhile, upstairs, the rising torrent of choking smoke claimed the lives of the two girls.

Asked, during cross examination by public defender Thomas Ullman, why so little was apparently done, Vignola noted that there were no external signs of violence at the home, and that there had been initial "confusion" over what was even going on.

"But the bank manager had said (to police) that Mrs. Petit was petrified?" asked the defense lawyer.

"That's correct," the captain conceded. But police were following state protocol, he insisted.

"It's been our training in Connecticut since 2001," he said. "We were building on information we had. There was no violence. The information from the start was very confusing. I was establishing a rescue team," he insisted.

"I had no idea if there was any act of violence. If there had been any indication of violence, I would have been the first one through the door."

"Not excusing what happened, the fact was, you were too late, correct?" the defense lawyer asked.

Prosecutors' objection to that question was sustained by the judge.

"Michaela was lying on the bed -- her hands were bound with, like string or rope, and they were over her head," the police lieutenant testified of finding the younger girl's body. The cop demonstrated with his hands, holding them as if bound together, fist to fist. As the cop held his fists to his face, as if cowering, the father began to rock and sob in his front-row seat, the only emotion the stolid, grieving widower has displayed during the trial.

Testimony in the heartbreaking case continues tomorrow.

[San]

The more I read about this story the more madder I get.  I blame the police.  They could have saved this family.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/09/16/Detective-testifies-in-triple-murder-case/UPI-38861284636997/
Detective testifies in triple murder case
Published: Sept. 16, 2010 at 7:36 AM
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- A detective says he would have been "the first one in the door," had he known violence had occurred in a hostage incident that left three dead in Connecticut.

Cheshire Detective Capt. Robert Vignola was the lead officer at the scene of the triple-homicide; he said he followed protocol when he arrived, and began setting up a perimeter around the home, the Waterbury Republican-American reported Thursday.

Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two children were killed on July 23, 2007. But, they were still alive when Vignola arrived on the scene, the jury in the trial of defendant Steven Hayes was told.

Hayes and co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky allegedly strangled Hawke-Petit; daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, died of smoke inhalation.
If we had any information that there was any violence, I'd be the first one in the door," Vignola testified Wednesday at Hayes's trial. "I had absolutely no idea."

Police caught Hayes and Komisarjevsky as they fled the home, which the two allegedly set on fire with the two girls still alive.

Their rescue may have been hindered because police were unsure if another suspect remained in the home; firefighters initially didn't enter the residence for that reason, the newspaper said.

The husband and father of the victims, Dr. William A. Petit, was the only survivor of the home invasion.