Steven Hayes was convicted on Tuesday of the 2007 murders of Hayley Petit who was to matriculate with the Class of 2011 her mother and her sister, and could now face the death penalty, the Associated Press reported. The verdict comes after three weeks of trial, with jury deliberations lasting less than one full day, The New York Times reported.
Hayes was convicted of 16 of 17 crimes, including murder, rape, assault and kidnapping. Six of these were capital crimes, which make him eligible for the death penalty, according to The Times. Hayes was acquitted of arson.
"There is some relief, but my family is still gone," William Petit, Jr. '78, father and husband of the victims, said after the verdict. "It doesn't bring them back. It doesn't bring back the home that we had."
The same jury that convicted Hayes is set to begin the penalty phase of the trial which will determine whether Hayes will receive a death sentence on Oct. 18, according to The Times. This phase could last as long as one month, The Times reported.
Testimony during the trial revealed that Hayes sent a text message that said "LOL" laughing out loud in anticipation of the invasion, according to The Times.
"[The case] touched a very, very sacred nerve in our country and across the world," Brian McDonald, author of "In the Middle of the Night," a nonfiction book about the invasion, said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "I think that the evidence was overwhelming and emotional, and I think the prosecution did a terrific job in beating that emotional drum."
Hayes offered to plead guilty in April if the state agreed not to seek the death penalty, The Dartmouth previously reported. Prosecutors denied the plea.
The other alleged murderer, Joshua Komisarjevsky, has pled not guilty and is awaiting trial.
The two trials have sparked statewide political debate about the death penalty, a matter that has dominated much of Connecticut's upcoming gubernatorial election. William Petit has lobbied for the death penalty and praised Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell for vetoing a June 2009 bill that sought to ban it.
"Thankfully, [Governor] Rell has a sense of what is required to maintain the fabric of our society," Petit told the Courant last year. "Finally, the victims have a reasonable voice and some consideration over the deluded thinkers who feel that rights should only be accorded to convicted felons. I want to thank Governor Rell for her moral courage and clarity to stand up for what is right and just with her veto of the bill to abolish the death penalty."
The trial faced a number of setbacks from its outset on Sept. 13, when presiding Superior Court Judge Jon Blue excused three of 19 jurors after each raised a different objection to serving on the panel, The Middletown Press reported.
On Sept. 21, a fourth juror who cited an inability to confidently assess the case due to "all the fumbling around with the evidence" was excused from the trial, The Press reported. The jury that tried Hayes consisted of the remaining 12 jurors and three alternate jurors.
Under Connecticut state law, "no person, charged with an offense which is punishable by death or life imprisonment, shall be tried by a jury of less than 12 without his consent."
Hayes' trial also faced several delays, including one that lasted two days after Blue was hospitalized in September for routine tests and observations, The Dartmouth previously reported.
The trial had previously been set back for six weeks after Hayes attempted suicide in prison on Jan. 30, The Dartmouth reported.
Hayes stockpiled his daily pills an antipsychotic drug and a tranquilizer and ingested them all at once, Thomas Ullman, Hayes's lawyer, told the Hartford Courant.
Hayes and Komisarjevsky allegedly entered the Petits' Cheshire, Conn., home at approxiamately 3 a.m. on July 23, 2007. At 9 a.m., the suspects forced Hayley's mother, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to go to a bank to withdraw a large sum of money. There, she alerted a bank employee that her family was being held captive.
When police arrived at the Petit residence, they found the house on fire. The accused attempted to flee the scene, but crashed their getaway vehicle into two police cars positioned as a roadblock.
William Petit was badly beaten and suffered severe head wounds, but managed to escape his home and crawl to a neighbor's house to seek help. Autopsies of the victims showed that Hawke-Petit had been strangled, while her daughters died of smoke inhalation.
Hayley Petit was admitted to the College as an early decision applicant and women's crew recruit. She was active in high school activities and founded Hayley's Hope, a fundraising organization that raised money for multiple sclerosis research. Hawke-Petit had been diagnosed with the disease in 1999, and both Hayley and her sister, Michaela, were active in finding a cure.
