Steven Hayes, 47, who was convicted in
October of 2010 of 16 counts, including nine counts of
murder and capital murder, and four counts of kidnapping, was handed
a decree of death after 18 hours of deliberations by a 5 men seven
women panel of jurors in New Haven Connecticut.
According to
prosecutors and law enforcement reports, on July 23, 2007,
Hayes, along with Joshua Komisarjevsky, invaded the home of Dr.
William Petit in Cheshire, Connecticut, where they beat Dr. William
Petit unconscious and raped and strangled his wife Jennifer
Hawke-Petit, 48 to death.
Before Hayes and Komisarjevsky's
crime spree ended, they sexually molested Petit's 11 year old
daughter Michaela, and then in a further brazen act, tied Michaela
and her 17-year-old sister Hayley to their beds and doused in
gasoline, before setting the house on fire causing the girls to die
of smoke inhalation. Dr. Petit who managed to escape to a
neighbors home, was the only survivor in the deadly attack.
In
a weak attempt to justify Hayes' actions, defense lawyers presented
testimony that Hayes was suicidal several and had waged a longtime
struggle with substance abuse. But, prosecutor Michael Dearington
told jurors, "Drugs don't necessarily lead to violent crimes"
and that drugs were no excuse.
Outside court, Petit called the
decision "appropriate and just."
"I thank the
jury for doing their job," he said, adding later "I think
in a civilized society people need to be held responsible for their
actions ... especially when they're viciously violent.
Judge
Jon Blue of the New Haven Superior Court will formally sentence Hayes
on December 2, where he will join 9 others on Connecticut's death row
for what could be decades, since the state has only executed one man
since 1960.
