http://www.aolnews.com/crime/articl...e-in-fatal-connecticut-home-invasion/19707576NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Nov. 8) -- A Connecticut man was condemned to death Monday for a night of terror inside a suburban home in which a woman was strangled and her two daughters tied to their beds, doused in gasoline and left to die in a fire.
Jurors in New Haven Superior Court voted unanimously to send Steven Hayes to death row after deliberating over the span of four days. The judge will impose the sentence.
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 with a fellow paroled burglar. They called the co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, the mastermind and said he escalated the violence. They also said Hayes was remorseful and actually wanted a death sentence.
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 they were killed.
Hayes will join nine other men on Connecticut's death row. But the state has only executed one man since 1960, so Hayes will likely spend years if not decades in prison.
Komisarjevsky will be tried next year.
Authorities said Hayes and Komisarjevsky broke into the house, beat Dr. William Petit, and forced his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to withdraw money from a bank while the rest of her family remained under hostage at home. Hayes then sexually assaulted and strangled her, authorities said. Komisarjevsky, who will be tried next year, is charged with sexually assaulting their 11-year-old daughter, Michaela.
Michaela and her 17-year-old sister, Hayley, were tied to their beds and doused in gasoline before the men set the house on fire, according to testimony. The girls died of smoke inhalation.
The crime was so unsettling that it became a key issue in the death penalty debate in the governor's race and led to tougher Connecticut laws for repeat offenders and home invasions. Gov. M. Jodi Rell cited the case when she vetoed a bill that would have abolished the death penalty.
To determine Hayes' punishment, 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.
The defense suggested prison would be more harsh than death for Hayes.
Now he gets to sit in prison for a couple decades on our dollar. I say one bullet would put this sub-human out of our misery forever.