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Man sentenced to death in Connecticut
A man has been sentenced to death in Connecticut for the murders of a woman and her two daughters in their home.
By Jon Swaine in New York
Published: 8:36PM GMT 08 Nov 2010
Steven Hayes has been sentenced to death in Connecticut Photo: AP
Dr. Petit, left, with his daughters Michaela, front, Hayley, centre-rear, and his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit Photo: AP
Steven Hayes killed Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, after invading their house and holding them hostage in July 2007. He acted alongside Joshua Komisarjevsky, who is to be tried next year.
William Petit, the father of the family, was tied up in the basement while his wife and one of his daughters were sexually assaulted. Dr Petit, who attended almost every day of Hayes's trial, escaped before his house was doused in petrol and set on fire.
CCTV in a local bank captured Mrs Hawke-Petit in distress while attempting to withdraw $15,000 for her captors during her ordeal. She asked the bank clerk to contact the police, who arrived soon after but remained poised outside the house until it was ablaze.
The crime drew comparisons to the brutal killing of a family in Kansas in 1959, which was described by Truman Capote in his book 'In Cold Blood'. Lawyers for Hayes, a serial burglar, tried to portray Komisarjevsky as the ringleader. His prison journals, featuring excruciating details of the crime, were read in court.
However a jury found that all six of the charges of which Hayes was found guilty required the death penalty. A judge must now officially impose the sentence. According to the Death Penalty Information Centre, the northeastern state of Connecticut has carried out only one execution since the re-establishment of capital punishment in the United States in 1976.
