NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A man was condemned to death Monday for a night of terror inside a suburban home where a woman was strangled and her two daughters were tied to their beds and left to die in a gasoline-fueled fire.
Jurors in New Haven Superior Court voted unanimously to send Steven Hayes to death row after deliberating over four days. Judge Jon Blue will impose the sentence Dec. 2.
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The judge, in thanking the jurors for their service, said, “You have been exposed to images of depravity and horror that no human being should have to see.”
Dr. William Petit, the husband and father of the victims, said the verdict wasn’t about revenge.
“Vengeance belongs to the Lord,” Petit said. “This is about justice. We need to have some rules in a civilized society.”
He also said it wouldn’t bring closure, saying whoever came up with the concept was “an imbecile.”
“It’s a hole with jagged edges,” he said. “Over time the edges may smooth out a little bit, but the hole in your heart, the hole in your soul is always there.”
The jury foreman, Ian Cassell, said that some jurors were initially “on the fence” about life or death for Hayes.
“But given the evidence and testimony and the letter of the law, that’s where it brought us,” Cassell said.
Hayes’ attorneys had tried to persuade jurors to spare him the death penalty by portraying him as a clumsy, drug-addicted thief who never committed violence until the 2007 home invasion in Cheshire, a wealthy New Haven suburb, with a fellow paroled burglar. They called the co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, the mastermind and said he escalated the violence.
But prosecutors said both men were equally responsible and that the crime cried out for the death penalty, saying the family was tormented for seven hours before being killed.
Defense attorney Tom Ullmann said Hayes, who had attempted suicide while incarcerated, smiled at the verdict.
“He is thrilled with the verdict. That’s what he wanted all along,” Ullmann said.
Cassell said jurors were divided over whether Hayes really wanted a death sentence, but that argument did not play a big role in the deliberations. He said an early jury note indicating divisions over a claim that Hayes was mentally impaired at the time of the crime was just a hypothetical example of a vote.
Hayes will join nine other men on Connecticut’s death row. The state has executed only one man since 1960, so Hayes, 47, will likely spend years, if not decades, in prison.
Komisarjevsky will be tried next year. Prosecutors rejected offers by both men to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences.
Komisarjevsky is charged with sexually assaulting their 11-year-old daughter, Michaela. He has blamed Hayes for escalating the crime. Michaela and her 17-year-old sister, Hayley, were tied to their beds and had gasoline poured on or around them before the men set the house on fire, according to testimony.
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