Earlier this week, Steven Hayes was found guilty on 16 of 17 counts related to the brutal 2007 home invasion of a Connecticut family which led to the murder of three people. Jurors will decide whether of not to give Hayes the death penalty when sentencing starts Oct. 18; some are wondering just how persuasive defense attorney Tom Ullmann, who saved a man from the death penalty a few years ago, can be. But the other storyline now emerging is that of Hayes' partner in the crime, Joshua Komisarjevsky, whom Ullmann accused of being the mastermind of the plot.
Komisarjevsky goes on trial next year, but already sickening details have begun to emerge about him: his ex-girlfriend told Inside Edition yesterday that she fears that she was Komisarjevsky's muse. Caroline Mesel moved to Arkansas while she was dating Komisarjevsky, just prior to the home invasion; she told IE he was desperate to raise $15,000 to bring her back. "He's like, 'I would even rob a bank, you know, to get the money for you,'" she told them. She also said that she talked to Komisarjevsky a week after the crime, and he bragged about beating up William Petit with a baseball bat: "Kind of like, 'Oh, he was such a big guy but I took him out.'"
In Hayes' trial, Komisarjevsky's name has come up many times—he's been attributed with first targeting the Petit family, and linked with the rape of 11-year-old Michaela via DNA (and cell phone pictures). His lawyer, Jeremiah Donovan, is also facing contempt charges for holding a press conference in the middle of Hayes' trial.
When Mesel first heard about the crime, she felt instantly responsible, and held no sympathy for her ex: "I did go through that whole guilt thing, like this is my fault. Maybe if I was in Connecticut, they would still be alive today. Because I could probably have probably prevented it....I get so mad thinking about it. I kind of wish I could do to him what he did to the girls. I kind of wish he could feel what they went through."
