Steven Hayes was convicted of the murders of Hayley Petit and her mother and sister in court on Tuesday, making Hayes eligible for the death penalty, the Associated Press reported. The conviction comes at the end of three weeks of trial, with the jury deliberating for less than one full day, The New York Times reported.
Petit would have matriculated with the Class of 2011, but was murdered when Hayes invaded her home in Cheshire, Conn. in July 2007.
Hayes has been convicted of 16 of the 17 crimes that he was charged with including rape, murder and kidnapping and six of these crimes make him eligible for the death penalty, according to The Times. He was acquitted of arson.
The same jury that convicted Hayes will now begin the penalty phase to determine whether he will receive the death penalty. Deliberations, according to The Times, could last as long as a month.
The other alleged murderer, Joshua Komisarjevsky, will be tried separately.
Along with Hayes, Komisarjevsky allegedly invaded the Petits' Cheshire, Conn., home around 3 a.m. on July 23, 2007. At 9 a.m., the accused forced Hayley's mother, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to go to the bank and withdraw a large sum of money. She then alerted a bank employee that her family was being held captive.
When police arrived at the house, they found the Petit residence on fire. The suspects attempted to flee the scene, but crashed their getaway vehicle into two police cars, which had been positioned as a roadblock.
William Petit had been badly beaten, but managed to escape his home with severe head wounds and crawl to a neighbor's house, where he sought help. Autopsies of Hawke-Petit and her daughters showed that Hawke-Petit was strangled and her daughters died of smoke inhalation.
Hayley Petit had been admitted to the College as an early decision applicant and a women's crew recruit. She was active in high school activities and started Hayley's Hope, a fundraising organization that raised money for multiple sclerosis research. Hawke-Petit was diagnosed with the disease in 1999, and both Hayley and her sister Michaela were active in finding a cure.
