Man gets death in triple-killing home invasion
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A jury yesterday sentenced a Connecticut man to death for the murders of a mother and her two young daughters in a brutal home-invasion robbery three years ago.
Steven Hayes, 47, was sentenced on six counts, including killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley, in the course of a single action and killing a child younger than 16.
Hayes looked straight ahead -- as he has throughout the entire trial -- as the jury of seven women and five men issued the sentence after 17 hours of deliberations.
Outside the courthouse after the verdict, Hawke-Petit's father, the Rev. Richard Hawke, said, "There are some people who do not deserve to live in God's world."
Dr. William Petit Jr., who survived the attack on his family, said, "This is a verdict for justice." But he added that as the verdict was read: "I was really thinking of the tremendous loss. ... I was sad for the loss we have all suffered.
"Probably many of you have kids," Petit said, pausing to choke back tears. "Michaela was an 11-year-old little girl. She was tortured and killed in her own bedroom, surrounded by her stuffed animals."
Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, is the daughter of the Rev. Richard and Mary Belle Hawke of Slippery Rock. She met her husband in 1985 on a pediatric rotation at Children's Hospital when he was a third-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh and she was a new nurse.
Richard Hawke is a former district superintendent of the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, based in Cranberry.
Jennifer Hawke-Petit was a nurse and co-director of the health center at Cheshire Academy, a private boarding school. Her father, a United Methodist pastor, was the Pittsburgh district superintendent from 1978 to 1984. The family lived in Dormont and attended Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park. They later moved to Greenville in Mercer County, where she went to high school.
Hayes was convicted Oct. 5 of breaking into the Petit home in July 2007, beating Petit and tying up and torturing the family as Hayes and another man, identified by prosecutors as Joshua Komisarjevsky, ransacked the home for cash and valuables for seven hours.
Testimony during Hayes' trial showed that at one point in the break-in, Hayes forced Hawke-Petit to go to the bank to withdraw money. During that time, according to testimony, Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted Michaela.
Petit thanked the jury for doing its job, and said, "I appreciate the fact that there was seven women on the jury. This was a case of sexual predation ... I liked to see women stand up for other women."
When Hawke-Petit and Hayes returned from the bank, Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit. The house was doused with gasoline and set on fire as the intruders fled, testimony showed. Hayley and Michaela died of smoke inhalation.
Komisarjevsky, 30, of Cheshire, Conn., is scheduled to go to trial next year. He faces the death penalty if convicted of the killings.
Asked if he thought there would be closure now, Petit said, "There's never closure. There's a hole ... with jagged edges ... that may smooth out with time, but the hole in your heart and the hole in your soul" remains.
"This isn't about revenge," Petit said. "Vengeance belongs to the Lord. This is about justice."
Hayes was sentenced to death on all six possible death-penalty counts. He will be formally sentenced Dec. 2.
Once the sentencing date was set, Judge Jon C. Blue looked over at Hayes.
"The defendant may be taken down," Blue said.
New Haven public defender Thomas J. Ullmann shook Hayes' hand and patted his arm before a judicial marshal led him out of the room.
"He's thrilled," Ullmann said of Hayes. "He's very happy with the verdict," Ullmann said to reporters outside the courthouse.
Ullmann declined to say why he thought Hayes was thrilled and he refused to discuss what he talked about with Hayes. But he said he saw Hayes smile as the verdict was read.
"That's what he wanted," he said, adding that Hayes wanted to commit "suicide by state" with an execution.
"He's tried to kill himself before," Ullmann said. "The jury gave him what he wants."
