Yesterday, a jury sentenced Steven Hayes to death for his role in the brutal 2007 home invasion-turned-triple murder of a mother and two daughters in Cheshire, Connecticut. Jennifer Hawke-Petit was strangled to death while daughters Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17, died when Hayes and partner in crime Joshua Komisarjevsky, burned down the home. Dr. William Petit, who was beaten nearly to death with a baseball bat and bound, managed to escape and survived the tragedy. He said yesterday, "This is a verdict for justice... was really thinking of the tremendous loss … I was sad for the loss we have all suffered."
He also said, while choking back tears, "Michaela was an 11-year-old little girl. She was tortured and killed in her own bedroom, surrounded by her stuffed animals," and thanked the jury, "I appreciate the fact that there was seven women on the jury. This was a case of sexual predation … I liked to see women stand up for other women." (According to medical examiners, Hawke-Petit was raped while Michaela was sexually assaulted.)
Some of the jurors have been talking to reporters. They say that they were unanimous in wanting to sentence Hayes to death. Diane Keim said to WCBS 2, “I do not feel he’s been remorseful. In looking at the man who committed the crime, I looked at him as being a monster.”
Maico Cardona told truTV that the photographs of the victims haunted him, "I have a 10-year-old daughter at home. ... Michaela was the one factor, for me, that I could not get over." (He also "said he was plagued by a recurring nightmare in which an 11-year-old girl was 'screaming for my help, and I'm not able to help her.'") And Paula Calzetta said that the two-month trial was exhausting,"I thought I was doing really well. And we gave our guilty verdict, and I went home and just collapsed. I was sick for a week and a half." She said she focused on taking care of herself during the penalty phase. "It takes a toll on your body you don't even realize."
And 77-year-old juror, Herbert Gran, told the NY Times, "I’ve seen a lot, and been a lot of places. I’ve certainly seen death before. This was not easy. There was nothing easy about it... It was just so heinous and just so over the top and depraved. Here is a case where somebody doesn’t deserve to remain on the face of the earth."
