One person, who has been noticeable by his absence, has loomed large over the trial of convicted killer Steven Hayes: Joshua Komisarjevsky his alleged partner in the Connecticut home invasion and murder of a doctor's family. He won't go on trial until next year, well after Hayes' case is settled, but his words and actions are being used by Hayes' defense attorneys to try to save their client from the death penalty. One woman described meeting Komisarjevsky briefly in court today: "I thought I was looking at the devil...My skin crawled. My hair stood on end...That was my reaction. [He had] dead eyes. Completely dead eyes."

Yesterday, jurors heard excerpts from Komsarjevsky's prison journal, in which the accused murderer and rapist talks about how his "dark shadow was let loose.” The Times describes him as "self-serving, suicidal and grandiose" in recounting the horrific details of the home invasion, including beating William Petit with a baseball bat and raping 11-year-old Michaela: “The Petit family passed through their fear into the calm waters of abject terror.” He praised the "fearlessness" of the three women who were killed, while mocking William Petit for surviving: "Mr. Petit is a coward. He ran away when he felt his own life was threatened. Time and time again I gave him the chance to save his family." He blamed society, and his having been raped as a child, for the "scars on [his] soul;" he also claimed he didn't rape Michaela, but admits he had sexually assaulted her “by the legal definition.”

The defense attorneys were hoping to paint Hayes as a harmless, klutzy but dumb criminal who tied his boat to the sociopathic Komisarjevsky. But as criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Rikki Klieman told "Good Morning America" this morning, "I think it may backfire on the defense."