I was just wondering if anyone else has been following this story about this awful tragedy. Family Slain

I feel sort of awful saying this, but I can't help but wonder if the husband/father was somehow involved. He was beaten, but not horribly. He was supposedly left bound in the basement, but managed to escape the smoke, which killed his two children.

Wouldn't the thieves be better off killing the husband, who poses the greatest threat, and having the best chance of fighting back? Whenever one of a group or family survives, and with relatively less injuries than everyone else, I tend to be a bit suspicious as to their level of involvement. He also gave a 20 minute eulogy at their memorial service today without wavering, according to the Hartford Courant. He's already out of the hospital???

Yeah, I live relatively nearby and it's big news here. It's horrible. The two assholes deserve to be tortured.

My neighborhood has been having problems lately with some petty kid robbers and some attempted kidnappings from a moving van driving around after midnight. All the scumbags across the bridge of my city are moving into the suburbs. Five years ago we didn't have drug deals going on, now we got that too.

Crime happens in Connecticut???

What a sad sad world we live in.

Connecticut really has a misconception about it. Cities like Greenwich don't make up the whole state. Look at Waterbury, Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven. We have the mafia, Diablos, wannabe Crips/Bloods, etc. HArtford constantly has driveby shootings. Some teenage football player got murdered a few weeks ago. New Haven and Bridgeport are cesspools. Downtown Waterbury is shit too, and a lot of the suburbs on the East and West sides are degradating more and more with the inner city migrating across the bridge.

Vercetti forgot to mention that the crazy chick from TLC set her Football-Star-boyfriend's Connecticut mansion on fire.

They don't play around up in See-Tee.

But it's okay, because in Heaven, everything is fine.

Amen to that!

That is really awful. By all the news reports this family was well liked in their community and all-round good people. Of course anything is possible, but I don't think the husband is involved. I saw a portion of the eulogy and felt he was sincere.

Also, I heard yesterday that the State of Connecticut is asking the death penalty for the first time in a very long time (if not ever) because this murder was so awful.


TIS

TIS, like I said, I can't imagine a father subjecting his children to the torture that these girls went through, especially because I read that the 11 year old was sexually assaulted, as well as their mother. However, the father was beaten (obviously not severely), bound and put in the basement. Somehow, he managed to escape the burning house while the girls died of smoke inhalation. And the thieves took the wife to the bank and had her take out $15,000. They did all that for a relatively low amount of money???

I just found it unusual that the father would have survived with (comparatively) minor injuries while his entire family perished. What was sad is that the employees at the bank became suspicious and called the police. The police arrived at the house just as the killers were leaving, which is how they caught them, but they were unable to save the girls. A few minutes earlier, and I wonder if they could have.

I didn't know the perps got caught. Well thank heaven for that. The hell that father must be going through right now. I can't even imagine.

He was possibly going to Hell anyway at the start of this thread.

Horrible!

That story in the Post positively ruined my sunday. I can't imagine the man leaving his daughters to be raped in tortured. I don't think he was in on it. They apparently left him for dead but he wasn't.

I hope those two bastards get killed in their jail cells to save the state alot of time and money.

I agree PB but brfore they get killed in their cells, hopefully bubba will find them and have his way with them.

Someone needs to talk to Don Corleone about these animals.

I volunteer

Oh yeah, Mig.

Guy on guy porn ain't my thing, but watching Bubba rip them both a new one would be worth the price of admission.

I was just reminded of this thread, which Babe started over three years ago. Time really flies.

Anyway: Guilty!!!!

I'm VERY rarely in favor of the death penalty (my biggest concern is an innocent person being accidentally put to death), but this is one of those rare cases where I'm all for it.

Conn. jury convicts man in deadly home invasion

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A paroled burglar was convicted Tuesday of murdering a woman and her two daughters during a night of terror inside the family's home in a well-to-do Connecticut town.

Steven Hayes, 47, was convicted of capital felony, murder, sexual assault and other counts by a jury that heard eight days of gruesome testimony. The verdict triggers the trial's second phase, beginning Oct. 18, in which the same jurors will decide if Hayes should be executed or face life in prison.

Prosecutors said Hayes and another ex-con, Joshua Komisarjevsky, broke into the family's house in Cheshire in 2007, beat the girls' father with a baseball bat and forced their mother, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to withdraw money from a bank before sexually assaulting and strangling her.

Then they tied the girls, ages 11 and 17, to their beds, put pillowcases over their heads, poured gasoline on or around them and set the house on fire, authorities said. The girls died of smoke inhalation.

The sole survivor, Dr. William Petit, appeared to hold back tears as the verdict was read. His head down, he sucked in his bottom lip.

"We did our best to keep our faith in God that justice would be served," Petit said afterward, adding he hoped jurors would use "the same diligence and clarity of thought" as they consider the penalty phase.

"There is some relief but my family is still gone," Petit said, his father and other relatives clutching him. "It doesn't bring them back. It doesn't bring back the house that we had."

Hayes showed no emotion as he stood for the verdict.

His defense admitted his involvement and conceded most of the evidence on the first day, but his attorneys blamed co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky for being the aggressor. Komisarjevsky faces trial next year and also could be sentenced to death.

Defense attorneys spent much of the trial focusing on Komisarjevsky's role. They pointed to graphic photos of 11-year-old Michaela found on Komisarjevsky's cell phone, and Hayes' attorney, Tom Ullmann, said Komisarjevsky escalated the violence at every critical point, starting with William Petit's beating.

Prosecutors rejected that argument, saying the two men were equally responsible for the crime.

The crime drew comparisons to "In Cold Blood," Truman Capote's chilling book about the 1959 murders of a Kansas family. It also led to tougher laws for repeat offenders and home invasions.

Last year, Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed a bill that would have abolished the death penalty in Connecticut, saying the state cannot tolerate people who commit particularly heinous murders. William Petit actively lobbied in favor of keeping capital punishment and thanked Rell for her veto, saying it was "what is required to maintain the fabric of our society."

Komisarjevsky spotted the mother and her two daughters at a supermarket, followed them to their Cheshire home, then returned later with Hayes, authorities say.

During the trial, authorities played text messages between the men hours before the crime in which Hayes messaged Komisarjevsky that he was "chomping at the bit to get started."

Authorities say the men were caught fleeing the scene.

Hayes, still reeking of gasoline, gave an emotionless confession to police in which he said he was financially desperate when the men hatched a plan to break into a house, tie up the family, rob them and flee. But Hayes said "things got out of control," a detective testified.

Hayes told authorities he sexually assaulted Hawke-Petit after Komisarjevsky, 30, told him he had to — to "square things up" — because Komisarjevsky had sexually assaulted Michaela, a detective testified.

A prison officer, Jeremiah Krob, said he overheard Hayes tell another inmate that he killed Hawke-Petit after Komisarjevsky told him he had to do it.

Hayes said Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted Michaela, took cell phone pictures of her that he tried to e-mail to friends and doused her in gasoline, Krob testified. Krob said Hayes admitted pouring gas on the stairs but told the other inmate he didn't believe he could be charged with arson because he didn't light it.

Jurors apparently agreed: After five hours of deliberations, they convicted him of 16 counts total, including two charges of sexually assaulting Hawke-Petit. He was acquitted of one count — arson.

William Petit told the jury he woke up on his couch the morning of July 23, 2007, feeling terrific pain and the sensation that blood was running down his face. He saw two people standing nearby.

"If he moves, put two bullets in him," Petit recalled one of the assailants saying.

Petit said the men took him to his basement and tied him to a post. Scattered around him were pillows and a quilt given to one of his daughters as a graduation gift.

Jurors, who saw photos of the victims, charred beds, rope, ripped clothing and ransacked rooms, wept at times during the eight days of testimony.

A medical examiner described a painful and panic-stricken smoke inhalation death likely suffered by Michaela. Seventeen-year-old Hayley's injuries suggested she was burned as she tried to flee.

When asked after the verdict how he would find the strength to continue to attend the penalty phase and then another trial filled with horrifying testimony, Petit said: "If your family was destroyed by evil, I think you would all try to do the same thing and be there for your family."

PB,

I just posted this on the Crime & Punishment thread. I thought there was an earlier thread. Anyway, I copied and pasted my response here too:
Such an awfully said story.


The Connecticut home invasion trial reached a guilty verdict on all but one of the counts.

This story is one I've only recently heard when they had a clip of the wife going to the bank to withdraw 15,000 for the invaders and telling the clerk that her family was held captive.


For those who don't know of this story in a nutshell, A man was tied up in his basement, beaten with a baseball bat, while upstairs his wife and two daughters were being beaten and one daughter and wife raped. He had to endure listening to their screams and remain helpless to rescue them. The house was set on fire with everyone dying except for the husband. frown I'm not certain how it came to be that he escaped. Anyone who has more details and/or corrections please feel free to add.
My heart goes out to this poor man. frown

TIS

It's honestly one of the most chilling crimes I've ever read about, and I'm a true crime buff!

You are not even safe in your own home!

This is the kind of crap that walks the streets these day.
Who in their right mind would think of doing these things to another person. They have to be sick. And we have to be sicker if we ever let these two walk the streets ever again.

And some of you wonder why people want/need to carry guns?

The line start here: I would sleep just fine after riding the world of these two pieces of crap. Then again a bullet is to quick for them.

I also commented on this is Crime and Punishment, TIS. I looked at my original post, and I've seen the father interviewed over the years, and I feel ashamed for ever suspecting him of participating.

The jury came back yesterday with a death sentence. I know that the death penalty is very controversial, but if it were ever fitting, this is the case for it. I saw one of the jurors on the news, and they just couldn't forget the girls.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/nyregion/09jurors.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Yeah, I realize that the death penalty shouldn't be selective, but I guess this crime was just too heinous for the jurors to overlook. As long as the death penalty is on the books (and that's really another discussion entirely), it had to be applied here.

I'm sure the defense will appeal the verdict huh?