Although Steven Hayes is on death row, the only survivor of a deadly home invasion said that there would never be closure on the case. Hayes, a convicted killer, murdered a Connecticut woman and her two daughters in July 2007. The survivor, Dr. William Petit said that “justice has been served” after a jury voted unanimously to send Hayes to death row according to foxnews.com.
The Web site continued to say; “There’s never closure. There’s a hole,” Petit said of the home invasion that left his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and daughters, Hayley and Michaela, dead.
Jurors in New Haven Superior Court suggested death for Hayes who, along with co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky, broke into Petit’s home and tormented the family for seven hours before murdering the victims. The sentence will be imposed on December 2.
Komisarjevsky, who will be tried next year, is charged with sexually assaulting 11-year-old Michaela.
Hayes’ attorney tried to convince jurors to free him of the death penalty by depicting him as a “clumsy, drug-addicted thief who never committed violence until the home invasion with a fellow paroled burglar,” according to the site. Hayes was penitent and wanted the death sentence.
Hayes will join nine other men on Connecticut’s death row. Since the state has only executed one since 1960, he will most likely spend his time in prison.
The case was so disturbing that it became a major issue in the death penalty debate in the governor’s race and led to harsher Connecticut laws for repeat offenders and home invasions. Governor M. Jodi Rell mentioned when she vetoed a bill that would have eliminated the death penalty.
The defense suggested a prison sentence for Hayes because it will be a harsher punishment. Hayes has admitted to repeatedly trying to kill himself after the crime because of being overwhelmed by guilt.
He also admitted to being fearful of isolation in prison for the remainder of his life. He did not testify in the trial or penalty phase but told a psychiatrist he wanted to “look like a monster” by taking the stand and expressing no remorse so the jury would sentence him to death according to Fox News.
The jury weighed “so-called aggravating factors cited by prosecutors, including the heinous and cruel nature of the deaths, against mitigating factors argued by Hayes’ attorneys.”
Although the attorneys focused a great deal on Komisarjevsky, he blamed Hayes for escalating the violence by strangling Hawke-Petit.
Throughout the trial, jurors heard eight days worth of “gruesome testimony, saw photos of the victims, charred beds, rope, ripped clothing and ransacked rooms.”
Hayes was convicted of sex capital felony charges including killing two or more people, the killing of a person under 16, murder in the course of a sexual assault and three counts of intentionally causing a death during a kidnapping.
Along with being charged with three counts of murder and two charges of sexually assaulting Hawke-Petit.