Conn.: Home Invader Sentenced to Death

(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) — A Connecticut man was sentenced Friday to die for killing a woman and her two daughters during a night of terror in their suburban home, a gruesome crime that unsettled the suburbs and halted momentum to abolish the death penalty in the state.

Joshua Komisarjevsky, 31, spoke in court and blamed his accomplice for much of the crime but spoke of regrets and the devastating consequences of his decisions. He said he has family and supporters who don't want him to die. (See the Top 10 Crime Stories of 2011.)

Komisarjevsky joins the accomplice, Steven Hayes, and nine other men on Connecticut's death row. The state's last execution in 2005 was the first since 1960, and Komisarjevsky will likely spend years, if not decades, in prison.

The two paroled burglars tormented a family of four in the affluent New Haven suburb of Cheshire before killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and leaving her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, to die in a fire.

The only survivor, Dr. William Petit, was beaten with a baseball bat and tied up but escaped.

Hayes was convicted in 2010 of raping and strangling Hawke-Petit and killing the girls. The girls were tied to their beds and doused in gasoline before the house was set ablaze; they died of smoke inhalation. Komisarjevsky was convicted of the killings and of sexually assaulting Michaela.

Petit called the crime a "personal holocaust" as he testified during the sentencing hearing. He said he wife was his friend and confidant, and a wonderful mother. He also noted that Hayley would be in medical school by now and that Michaela loved to cook and sing. "I lost my family and my home," he said. "They were three special people. Your children are your jewels."

Earlier, Jennifer's sister, Cynthia Hawke-Renn, said via video played in court that everyday items like gas, rope, bed posts and gas conjure horrific memories. "There is no escaping the horrors of that night," she said.

The sentencing, which was earlier recommended by a jury, concluded two long trials that subjected jurors to grim evidence including charred beds, rope used to tie up the family and autopsy photos. The 2007 attack led to the defeat of a bill to outlaw the death penalty in Connecticut and sparked tougher state laws for repeat offenders and home invasions.

In arguing for a life sentence, his lawyers said he was repeatedly sexually abused as a child by his foster brother and he never got proper psychological help as his problems worsened. He suffered from a mood disorder since he was about 9 that included bouts of profound depression, according to a defense psychiatrist.

See the Top 10 News Stories of 2011.