i'm don lemon. good night. what's your emergency? >> my name is mary lions, i'm the banking center manager. we have a lady who is in our bank right now. who says that her husband and

children are being held at their house. the people are in a car outside the bank. she is getting $15,000. to bring out to them. that if the police are told, they will kill her children and the husband. her name is jennifer petit, p-e-t-i-t. >> okay. is she still in the bank? >> yes, she is. >> okay. she's being held -- or -- >> her husband -- >> her husband and family is being held? >> yes. >> at their house? >> yes. they're tied up. she said they drove her here. i'm trying to look and see where she has gone. wait, i see her walking now. she is petrified. >> tonight, police removed the body of one of the victims after a home invasion leaves a mother and her two daughters dead. the suspects, 26-year-old joshua komisarjevsky of cheshire, and 44-year-old steven hayes of winsted were caught while trying to escape in the petits' car. the only question that remains, why did this happen to the petit

family? >> there's not one word that i can use to describe our town. but it's a phenomenal town. >> it's known as the betting capital of connecticut, for betting plants. it was historically a farming community, a lot of family farms. and as the state of connecticut grew, as the cities surrounding the town of cheshire grew, it

became a bedding community, which is probably the way most people think of cheshire. returning to tonight's top story, a mother and two daughters dead, their father severely injured, after a home invasion stunned the town of cheshire. >> the suspects set the house on fire. >> jennifer petit, her cause of death, asphyxiation from strangulation. her daughters, hayley and michaela, died from smoke inhalation. >> i had a phone call here monday afternoon from billy's sister.

and i said, hannah, it's about the girls, isn't it? and she said, these two men came in, what they think was 3:00 in the morning, and they beat billy really badly with a baseball bat. and his head's all split apart. and then they proceeded to do all these awful things to the girls. and they tied them to their beds. about 9:00, jen was made to go to the bank and withdraw money. and then when she came back from the bank, they set the house on fire and killed them all, so that they could try to cover up their tracks, i guess. but they got the two guys.

and all i could think was, who cares if they got the two guys? we don't have our loved ones anymore. and that's all we had. the hardest thing i think i've ever had to do in my life was to tell my parents that one of their other children, their only other child, was dead. and their two grandchildren, two of their four. >> she quickly told us that the home was set on fire, but bill escaped. and we went to the hospital and got to see bill for the first time. he was badly beaten, and he tried to apologize to us for not saving our daughter. and our grandchildren. and we had to convince him that he was in no condition to be able to save anyone.

and we were grateful -- >> that he was alive. >> that he was alive. >> right. >> this is the last picture we had together. my sister, she was beautiful. and she was usually like the lead in the plays at school. she was on the homecoming court. she was captain of the trojanette team. so she really was kind of like a winner person. >> bill was a committed, dedicated doctor, would leave at 7:00 in the morning and not be back home until maybe 9:00, 9:30. >> when jen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, hayley wanted to raise money, because she felt if she didn't do anything, it was possible her mother could die. >> hayley was able to raise a little over $50,000, being a

spokesperson for the ms society here in connecticut. receiving awards for that. although you would never know it. >> michaela sometimes shied away from adults, but if she saw someone was having a difficult time, she went to hem and tried to help with whatever she could. >> their lives were just centered around a sense of socialability, justice, and if i didn't smile about it, i would have to cry. >> well, first of all, thank you

for all coming out today to honor the memory of the girls. i would really like to say thank you to people from all over the state of connecticut and all over the country. we have been surrounded with love and cards and flowers and prayer. from east to west, from north to south. i met jen at children's hospital in pittsburgh. she was a new nurse, and i was the know it all third year medical student. i was trying to correct jen on how to take the blood pressure the correct way. since i had about three minutes of experience at that point.

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joining me on the phone, the police for cheshire. was it when police showed up they found the house on fire and caught these suspects? because they were caught leaving the burning house.

>> yeah. it worked out so officers arrived on-scene just as the suspects were leaving the residence. >> okay. i don't know how far we should go back, but -- i'm a very detective-like person. i like to know details. and until i know the details around things, it's hard to figure things out. i would like to know why my sister and steven hayes weren't stopped at the bank. why she wasn't held at the bank. there were some police officers that, off the record, said to people in the town that they heard the girls screaming in the end. did they try to enter, did they not try to enter? and why weren't there policemen

looking in the windows? my sister had no blinds on her windows. i just want the facts. and nobody has told us what really happened. >> and today, a state prosecutor said he'll seek the death penalty for komisarjevsky and hayes. today the state charged the men with six counts each of capital felony murder. >> right from the first time that we met, steven hayes was suicidal, depressed. just doesn't really understand how this all happened. his record is lengthy. he's got all these burglaries. most involve car burglaries. in this state, burglary includes the break-in of a car. and they were all daytime. he would sit and watch, people

would park their cars, they would go walking on a trail, break into their car and take a laptop or a radio or a phone. so you were not dealing with someone who had the kind of classic history of violence and all of a sudden stepped into the big-time in terms of the next level. you just didn't have it. there was no reason that anyone would ever look at that history and think, well, this guy is going to do something really bad one day. >> the first time that i found out about my dad, i was probably about 5 years old. he would, like, take me to the movies, and he really tried to be that father figure to me. but for whatever reason, he just couldn't stay out of trouble. and so when he went back to jail, like, he would write to me and i would write back. and that was our way of communicating. when i first found out about the incident, i just came back from the police academy.

and my mind was just like -- i told him to call me if something was wrong. i needed to talk to him. i needed to get answers from him. what made him get together with this one guy and do what they did, whose idea was it, was it just one or was it both or did it just happen? it's just like there's no easy answer. and i might not like the answer i get. but it's all just why. >> the details of 26-year-old joshua komisarjevsky's past are more in depth and some say even more disturbing. his rap sheet -- >> we were right in the kitchen here. and we got a call from my brother, ben. and he said, i think josh has been involved in this home invasion. and i said to him, i said, home invasion? this was a murder. and josh was involved?

you see the name spelled out, the komisarjevsky name. and you sit there, and you hold your head in your hands. and you can't believe it. and you want to cry. this young man is a monster. and that is not the way that we as members of this family behave. when we drove up to cheshire, my brother's house was just swarmed with media, knocking on the door, trying to get statements from them. i think it's hard for anybody to be able to deal with that kind of a situation. but probably more so for them, because they were individuals who basically had withdrawn from many aspects of public life. they ultimately posted a notice on the outside of their door. but that was it.

and from that time on, they have had nothing to say. >> it was so disappointing, because i knew i was the last person therapeutically that met with josh, and to really paint a picture of him in a different light. i saw someone who created some beautiful designs. these sketches. i mean, this kid was amazing. how am i going to go in there and tell them that this was a good kid and that i was really

close to him? after what he did. >> joshua was a little skinny, frail kid. i saw him behind the bars. he had on his cream-colored jail uniform. he was slight. he was polite. he's adopted. he went from regular school special ed to home school. this whole package didn't make sense to me. >> burglary, burglary, burglary, burglary and burglary. genius. and he is a genius, in some respects. with a photographic memory. and attention to detail that no normal mind could possibly retain. he told of every burglary he did. he knew every item he took, passports, what dumpsters he threw it in. joshua could get into a third floor, steal things, know which denominations of bills he took a year later, two years later. tell you where each wallet was, where the pants were, on the floor, bed post, closet. stay there for hours, not get caught. joshua used relatively sophisticated equipment for a burglar. night vision goggles, latex

gloves. after he would rob the house, he would stay there on occasion, and listen to the people breathing. and go from room to room, listening to the occupants breathing. for no apparent purpose. that was the frightening part of it. he robbed state troopers' houses, which takes some guts. and i said, judge, he needs to be watched. this kid is sick. you're never going to see him again or he's going to be the worst criminal to pass through these doors, because that's the kind of mind he's got. >> komisarjevsky was arrested for 18 home invasions. and the warning bells in there should have been ringing very

loudly. under a ten-year-old law, prosecutors are supposed to order a transcript of the sentencing proceeding and send that along to the parole board. i used to be a prosecutor. i helped write this law i'm talking about. because i knew that it's at the sentencing that you really find out everything you need to know about this offender and the crime. the problem is, none of this ever got to the department of corrections. none of this ever got to the parole board. so from the point of view of the department of corrections, they got first time ever incarcerated inmate, young, white, bright, home schooled, remorseful. never identified as a person with high mental health needs. because he didn't come across as that type of person. he was a real manipulator. the typical sentence for the burglary is a maximum of ten years in prison for each offense. komisarjevsky could have been locked up for two lifetimes.

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lieutenant, good morning, sir. >> good morning, dan. first of all, the cheshire police department and the response to the initial call was absolutely outstanding. they did a stellar job. the chief and all those personnel and cheshire pt

deserve a lot of praise and credit. >> people are asking about a time line. you know, when did this occur, when did that occur. we don't detail that information. that's not something that really the public really needs to be concerned about at this point in time, and has more of an impact on the case itself. you know, the type of injury, the scene that one may try to ebb envision in their mind, we're not going to detail that. we're not going to discuss how someone died. over and above, manner and cause. which we'll give manner and cause of death. but we're not going to get into great, graphic, detailed description. we're not going to talk about assaults, we're not going to talk about weapons.

it's starting to pan out, the state's claim is pretty strong. overwhelmingly strong. and that what's at stake at this case is life or death. you have the gasoline aspect of it. you know, the sexual assault. horrible crime scene photos. you have the right defendant. you have the right perpetrator. what do we do? isn't this the case that death is warranted? and i can't accept that. once you allow the death penalty to go forward, then the next case comes along, and it's okay for the next case, because that crime was horrifying. and what if that's a mistake, what's if that's an innocent guy? and this notion of that -- though if you execute somebody, you know, you'll save money.

you know, that's the furthest thing from the truth. you know, we have pretty much a blank check. so i'm reminding everybody. listen, steven hayes is ready to plead guilty to all of these charges and take a sentence of life without the possibility of release. it will be over now. you know. there would be -- the case would be done, there wouldn't be any appeals. we would stop spending all this money. we would not have to traumatize everybody with the facts of this case.

>> as a united methodist minister, i am a minister of a church at large that is opposed to capital punishment. that has put me between a rock and a hard place. >> we certainly don't approve of torture of people. but we feel that there has to be some justice in how people are dealt with when they are so inhumane in their treatment of others. >> you know, it just makes me want to cry. jennifer, hayley and michaela,

they were kind and they were sweet. they looked out for other people. they cared about other people. and spent their time helping people. so for them to suffer, you know, horrific, horrific deaths seems incredibly injust. it would seem incredibly injust for anybody. but obviously, they're the three people i knew and loved the best in the world. and it just -- contra -- contra -- the opposition of the just absolute evil that attacked us versus the goodness they represented. it's just worlds apart. a benign visit to the grocery store to get milk,

bread, toilet paper. oh, and "people" magazine. because a family my brother killed is on the front cover. and my brother's picture is in it. he raped a woman. he choked her to death. he poured gasoline on two little girls. and he set them on fire. how does a person do that? mid november. he peed funny, so they threw him back and paroled him five months later. personally, they're stupid, because they don't get it. you don't care enough about the people in your society to put these type of people back out on the street. and i want to say that it's really tough for me to say, because one of those people is my brother. >> who is steve? he's manipulating, he's

deceptive. and that's my brother. >> monday, when i saw it on the news, all i heard was that there was the home invasion and what not. and it seemed like something steve would do. >> but he never -- >> smashing of the police cars and the breaking and entering and stuff like that. >> but the killing, the raping and the burning? >> that could have been josh. i don't know who was the mastermind. >> well, obviously, neither one of them, because they got caught. and they did something -- >> well, being a mastermind doesn't mean you don't get caught. honestly, you know, it is. it's -- it is the equivalent of the perfect storm. >> dear caroline, good evening, sweetheart. when i wake every morning, the sun is just starting to rise. its light dances across your picture, radiating your beautiful eyes and pretty smile. it's the best part of the day. a calming mix of hope, beauty and tranquillity. take care, caroline, smile.

someone is thinking of you. strength and honor, sincerely, joshua. ps, miss you. we called joshua the hopeless romantic. that was the biggest side i loved about him. joshua and i did have a very sexually active relationship. and he did like to tie me up. and, of course, i was the submissive one. and sometimes i was the dominant one. but most of the time, i was submissive. joshua always asked me, is this too tight? are you okay? joshua always was concerned. joshua was definitely a soul mate, and that's what killed me the most.

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to this addict, drugs are not my main problem, i am my main problem. what i like about getting high is to escape my feelings. i have self medicated so much, i don't know how to feel anymore. this is his own words. he's writing this. unresolved anger controls me. it haunts me, day and night. sometimes to the point of obsession. even scary fantasy. >> a day or two before the crime occurs, steven saw that his life was once again going downhill. and he says that he locks himself in a hotel room with crack cocaine and heroin and goes on this drug binge with a desire and hope he would kill himself.

he leaves the hotel room feeling like he's failed at this suicide attempt, leaving him, in his view, more desperate. he shows up at an aa meeting in hartford, and there's joshua. and joshua started talking to him about ways to make some real money. >> good morning, everyone. >> good morning, this. >> this is a continued hearing in a matter of complaint brought by the hartford currant against the town of cheshire. >> we applied through the town of cheshire for more material right after the crime took place. we finally got new information yesterday, a complete transcript with the time of the initial call from the bank official regarding mrs. petit being at the bank, saying she might be held hostage to the time the suspects were arrested outside

the petit household. and our review of this document, which is heavily edited, to protect potential witnesses of the town, has told us, raises the possibility that officers on alert could have maybe stopped this car with the suspect and mrs. petit as they were coming home from the bank. perhaps could have beat them back to the house, could have separated the two suspects at that time. and maybe things would have had a different outcome. and what's still out there, no one knows what the initial 911 call said, what the bank official said to police when she called. what were they told? was it clear? did they know they had a hostage crisis? >> there's always more information that is yearned for. either in a journalistic sense, a due diligence reporting sense. and sadly, in a salacious sense. so it is hard to say no, i don't have anything to tell you right now. over and over again. >> upon arrival at the victim's

residence, the first officer observed the private residence fully engulfeded in flame. >> yeah, it worked out so officers arrived on-scene, just as the suspects were leaving the residence. >> i get really tired of the stories that say, oh, by the time the police showed up, the house was already in flames, and that's not true at all. >> when billy came out of the house, he was pretty sure he saw men in the woods hiding behind trees, and we think those were all the police officers. and he was calling out to a neighbor, while hopping across the yard, tied and badly beaten. >> that should have raised the police eyebrows to say, what are they doing in there? we need to get in there and find out. that's why i wrote letters to

the police. i felt like, and i expressed in my letter, that their goal was to catch the men, whoever were guilty. and above and beyond the saving of lives. and i felt that their priorities were very much askew. >> we have asked a lot of questions, written a lot of letters. but they have not sat with me and they have not sat with my parents to tell us what happened and what unfolded and why and how. i believe that truly they think they did something wrong. i have heard all kinds of things, that it was a small town, and they hadn't had the experience in the past. i think they were afraid. >> i just can't say enough good

things about how proud i am of the extraordinary effort of our police officers and our firefighters. they're extremely well-trained, they're a great group of professionals, and i think today exemplified the finest of what the police and fire were all about in this community. and i can't thank them enough, because without their great work, this could have been a far worse tragedy. we were very, very fortunate. >> i was just literally shocked when i heard him say that, and that there were no further casualties or something. and i thought, you know, how bad does it have to be? i mean, i thought it was awful. and he was commending them on what a great job they had done. and i was sorry. but i didn't feel they did a great job. i mean, if they had done a great job, nobody would have died. >> as you look through this dispatch, you can't help but walk away thinking there was

another tragedy within the tragedy that occurred to the petit family here. initial call comes into the police department, 911. and this is the call that was actually from the bank manager. >> i will watch and see what kind of car she gets in. i'm in the office with the lights off. my teller says she saw the driver, he had a black hood over -- a hoodie and a baseball cap on. >> i'm going to keep you on hold for a couple minutes, all right? >> okay. >> some police officers were actually at the scene within second or minutes of when steven hayes and jennifer petit get back to the house. they had the phone number of the house early on.

nobody made a call. nobody knocked on the door. 9:56, two suspects are moving into chrysler. 9:57. there is a fire also at the scene. initial call comes in at 9:21. this is over a half an hour later. they were actually at the scene for 30 minutes. the strangulation of jennifer petit occurred. the rape of jennifer petit occurred. the pouring of gasoline occurred throughout the house. and the actual setting on fire of the house.

all of this is taking place while the police are watching the house, setting up their perimeter. it's really outrageous.

state lawmakers are considering a bill to change the death penalty law in the hearing that dr. petit gave. >> they love the slogans such as don't kill in our name and the like and thus death penalty proponents value the their own life other than the victims. >> for me, if you are for the death penalty, this is the poster child no, question about it. if you are against the death penalty, this is the poster child for it, and him and saddam hussein, right, hard to argue the case, but it is not a philosophical debate anymore. this is reality. and the ordeal you have to go through once it is a death penalty case is considerable. it is a guaranteed multiple years' ordeal just in terms of

the trial. after the conviction, scores of years of appeals and frustration, an all of this time the focus is on the murderers and they become mini celebrities. >> you have to go into gruesome detail about what happened, because the prosecutor must prove that the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors and the aggravating factors are cruel and heinous, and in other words, you have to prove that compared to other triple murders, this one is much worse. once this gets under way, people are not going the like what they see, and it is just starting to get under way now.

>> it'll probably be two years before they even start selecting of the jury. getting pretty old. i hope that i live long enough that i can attend the trial. i want to see justice done. >> a thief in the night, i have come to steal not jewels and money, but your personal safety, privacy and security. i violate your inner asylum of intimacy, and i piss on your optical illusion of peace and

innocence. i feast on your animosity. the petit family passed through their fear and into the calm waters of abject terror. to see that fear on another's face means that the pain in me is real. shock waves of myself's hopelessness reverberates through my rocked soul at the realization that i crossed life's bridge of life's bridge of dark, timeless, depravity. roll the video. the allergy muddlers.

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roll the video. >> sure. >> one, two, three, four, five. >> there are two suspects but steven hayes goes on trial today. he is looking different than his mug shot. no handcuffs on him in front of the jury, and it is because the case has gotten so much publicity that picking an impartial jury could be difficult. >> inside of the courtroom today, what sort of state that

komisarjevsky seem to have? >> well, this morning the judge told him -- >> from the courthouse, i don't think that cheshire is a 15-minute drive. everybody knew this drive, timmy mcveigh and terry nichols knew this, and talking to the prospective jurors, everybody knew the conclusion based on the publicity and the conclusion was clear that he was guilty. 75% also expressed the opinion that joshua should die. i never had a jury selection where people would jump out of the seats yelling, "i will kill him now." >> it is about 11:00 this

morning, 9:00 a.m. pacific time that one of steven's attorneys called and they wanted to check on him this morning, as he was unresponsive and steven is lying in a coma induced by a medical team. they are not sharing why. you know, the attorney said that he could very well die. we are expected to be back in court tomorrow. they can't proceed without him in the room. >> steven squirreled away nine or so doses of thorazine and klonopin, and you might question how this could happen. about a year before this, steven hayes had made a suicide attempt and one of the thing they found in his cell was a suicide note. i quote, i am sorry. all i want to do is die. it is the only way to end the pain i go through everyday 24/7

and more important the pain that trial will bring to others. time to go to the last undiscovered country, although i am not the monster that josh is, i am one nevertheless. a coward, because i could not do what was right. looking back on my life, i was nothing but a self-centered asshole who cared only of himself. but the ironic facet to this is that i have always had the ability to change, but cowards don't change. they become me. >> the judge actually toured his cell yesterday. it is called a safe cell which will protect him from harming himself. he learned a lot. he wears something called ferguson clothing which is an inmate wears if they are in jeopardy of killing themselves, because they can't tear up the clothes and use it as a noose. >> it is surreal. the entire prosecution is geared

to killing steven hayes. and so here he is trying to kill himself, and we won't let him do that, because we want to extract our pound of flesh. it is really a sick kind of process in my opinion. >> tragedy at trial, front page. >> right now, both sides are inside of this courtroom and all eyes are on what is going to happen in the opening arguments. heavy, heavy security around steven hayes brought in by authorities on the convoy of vehicles. >> there is no cameras allowed

in the courtroom so you won't see what is going on in there, but tweeting is allowed. >> a juror has been excused, because she said she could not be fair, because she heard news reports of steven hayes' suicide attempt. >> this jury will end up making two decisions. one is the guilt or innocence of the defendant, and if they find him guilty, then they would have to decide if he should get the death penalty for the crime. >> going into the courtroom, steven hayes was off to my left. i look at him and i think, i still can't believe that you did this. i said as soon as i found out that my sister died, just come into me, and be a part of me. so i kept staring at him, and sometimes i think that is that a part of her saying stare at him and don't take your eyes off of him, like he cannot be trusted.

>> i'd like to say a few things to these guys. i'd like them to answer me the question do they know what it is to be terrorized? >> after waiting more than three years the petit and hawke families are ready for this trial to begin and hopeful that justice will prevail. we think of jennifer, haley and michaela of every second of everyday. >> it is a system, you know. and you know people say that it's the best system in the world, but it's a maddening system at best. people spend at lot of time parsing words instead of really

trying to get to what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. but it is the system we have, and so we are hoping, hoping that the system we have will give us justice. >> today's date is july 23rd, 2007. statement taking place at the cheshire police department headquarters. thomas komisarjevsky, do you know why you are here? >> for home invasion that went terribly wrong. >> okay. you went to stop&shop in cheshire. >> i was waiting for a contractor to make payment. while waiting i saw a mother and daughter, and for whatever reason i chose to follow the mom and the daughter to their house

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on the night of july 22nd, josh and steven were texting each other. steven texting josh about when are we going to get going, and it was kind of like an excitement about going to burglarize this house.

he drives down to cheshire, and he and josh go to a bar. and then they start looking for this house that josh knows about from when they were shopping at stop&shop earlier. it has always been my opinion that he was attracted by the young girl michaela rather than the money or the mercedes. >> josh was born into a family with a history of mental problems and adopted by a family who had no ability to cope with mental problems, and so he was doomed by biology and then by fate. when josh was 3 years old, the family took into the home two foster children, a girl and a

boy. and josh underwent really horrible and extensive sexual abuse at the hand of scott. i think that it started out playing a little sex games and having him pose naked and then proceeded to full-scale anal intercourse and to josh being burned with cigarettes. against the background of all of this, josh is in a church in which it is taught that there is evil in the world, and probably the greatest abomination of all is homosexuality, and so you have a 5-year-old, a 6-year-old, a 7-year-old listening to this, and thinking to himself that i am fundamentally evil. i have engaged in that kind of activity and not really able to tell anybody about it. >> there's a theme that i saw in

steven's life of betrayal. steven had been sexually abused as a child. which led him to become more emotionally disconnected from people. the turning towards drugs and the desperate state of mind that he found himself in -- all of this helped to explain how steven could have done what he had done. we made our way to the house and put on face masks and donned rubber gloves, and we noticed that the daughter was sleeping downstairs. i could see through the window motioning to strike him and get it over with. i hit him in the head with a

baseball bat, and he let out this unearthly scream. i just kept hitting him until he finally backed up into the corner of the couch. i proceeded up the stairway and so i put my hand over the mom's mouth and shook her gently awake. i followed suit with the youngest daughter. i tied her hands and feet and put pillowcases over the occupants' heads so that they couldn't see us. then i went into kk's room and sat down and we were talking about school and summer plans.

>> did she tell you kk was her name or did you make that up? >> no, that is how her mother referred to her as. >> i met josh when i was 13. josh's parents started attending the church that we went to. the evangelical bible church. and we dated. we were in a relationship for about two years. we started dating when i was 14 or 15, and then our relationship was ended by the church. throughout the whole course of our relationship, we were trying not to have sex. that was the goal. it felt deeply, deeply sinful.

our church community was our home school community and josh's family and mine as well had a very specific idea of good and evil. the devil was understood to be an entity that you could know. so if josh had anxiety, it was the devil. if he did something wrong, it was because he was being used as an agent of the devil. josh spoke some to me about the sexual abuse that had happened to him, but there wasn't even a way for him to tell me without weeping. josh had terrible anxiety attacks. his home was not ever safe for him. the safe place was being away and hiding in the woods. he was trespassing and sneaking

around spying on people long before it was a criminal offense. i think that he envied people, and he would daydream about being them. >> they find beer in the refrigerator and drink throughout the night. steven finds jars of quarters and coins and they found the bank of america book. they are waiting for the morning. however, steven worries that he is going to leave dna ed in the house, and he starts obsessing. josh tells him fire destroys everything. >> we will get the people out and burn the house down and get

them somewhere and then get the hell out of here. that is what steven was thinking about. >> steven goes into the garage and he finds containers and he starts driving to find a gas station. >> when steven gets back with the gasoline, josh had changed the clothes of michaela because of the activity that he was involved with in terms of sexually abusing her, and part of that occurred while steven was out on the gas run. because we know that, because of josh's photographs that he took on the cell phone, before the bank. the first set of photographs showed mikayla and leg shots and genital area shot, but they were

clothed. the last shots at the bank were much more graphic, and really awful, awful, awful photographs and the kinds of things that you never forget. because they become emblazoned in your mind. it shows the level of depravity of joshua komisarjevsky. >> joshua was committed against the wishes of his parents, committed and spent two weeks at elmcrest. he was clearly in terrible shape. suicidal. >> the records are very clear that joshua wanted to try the medication, and joshua wanted the therapy, but the parents rejected it.

not only did the parents reject it, but they immediately took him up to the christian store. >> people would say that he was seeing demons and he believed that, and prayed that they would go away, and people would gather around and lay hands on him, and pray on him, and speak in tongues over him, and exorcism was part of our lives when it came to dealing with anxiety. he ended up breaking into my room at the discipleship house to come and see me. he was essentially excommunicated for doing that. his whole life, everything, it was just gone overnight. there was no addressing that perhaps this was a desperate kid who actually didn't, wasn't wrestling with the devil, but he had experienced trauma and was losing his grip.

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morning rolls around. they untie mrs. petit, and steven takes her to the bank. mrs. petit is at the bank, and it is taking longer than he thought. >> i went down to check on the

daughter and i went into kk's room and one thing led to another. i ended up performing oral sex on kk. >> her hands were tied but her feet weren't. >> did you take pictures of her? >> yes. she asked if she could take a shower. >> i had let her get dressed again, but before she asked to take a shower. >> how was that? >> i took scissors and cut her shirt off and her skirt off. >> no one disputes that he committed the crime, and eventually he tells the police officer that while hayes is gone, he goes upstairs to sexually assault kk and at that point the judge stops the tape

and he says that the juror is having trouble with the evidence, and they will stop it for the day and continue tomorrow. a very difficult day in court here, la toya. >> komisarjevsky was calling my young niece kk like who are you to be calling her that name and that term of endearment. and okay, you show me again that baseball bat that you hit billy with, and i will show you how it feels. you want them to lose a daughter, and you want their house to burn down, and you want them to see how it feels, and other times, you think, who am i? like this is wicked. how could i wish this on anybody.

>> steven is becoming anxious. he calls joshua. joshua e tells him that everything is going to be fine and the plan is going to work. after a period of time, mrs. petit comes out of the bank with money. when they arrive back at the house, steven is under the belief that the crime is over. now they can leave. but joshua tells steven that they have a problem. he had left dna with one of the children, and he had to kill them and they're dead and that petit had died from the injuries and now he had to get his hands dirty and killed mrs. petit. >> i believe steven, but from the first time that josh talked

to the police, he tried to save himself by blaming steven for all of the horrific stuff that occurred. >> steven had come back to the house, and he had the money in his hands. he says very sr. matter of factually, okay, you are ready, and we can go now, and burn the house down. i am like, we are not killing anyone. there is no way. well, then, you know, i'll kill the two daughters and you can kill the mom. i was like, i'm not killing anyone. no one is dying by my hand today. and finally, he was like, i will take care of all three of them. hero: if you had a chance to go anywhere in the world, but you had to leave right now, would you go? man: 'oh i can't go tonight' woman: 'i can't.' hero : that's what expedia asked me.

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steven tells me that he felt betrayed by josh. he felt dragged into this horror of a crime, and he also felt in a crazy way betrayed by mrs. petit, because he looks out the

window, and he sees police cars. and he realizes that mrs. petit must have informed bank officials. he is triggered into this state of rage. he strangles jennifer hawke-petit and pulls down her pants and rapes her after he strangles her. >> i hear a noise down in the basement. >> which is where the dad is. >> which is where the dad was and i jump up screaming to steven that the father just took off. i could see behind steve that the mother was lifeless on the floor and her pants were down around her ankles. >> steven hears josh telling him

that they have to leave and spread the gasoline and get out of here. >> then he went downstairs to get the bottles, and said, you can't be seriously contemplating burning these two girls alive. i went to kk's room and there was no gasoline there, so she was still in her bed. i closed the door. . then i went down to the oldest daughter's room. i closed that door and i went downstairs. >> why did you close the doors? >> i didn't even think about untying them. then he comes downstairs and throws one of the empty bottles into the kitchen. >> empty bottles of gasoline? so he went back up with another

bottle of gas. >> with another bottle of gas. he is stumbling with this oversized pack of matches and i can still see the person in the grass watching him. the entire kitchen just erupts in a sea of flame. i turn my back to the door and i got myself into this position, because there was no reason for them to die. >> all of these family members who have had to relive the horror of what happened inside of that home the night they were all tied up has been heartbreaking to watch inside of the courtroom. the images have been devastating of the crime scene. >> when it is all put out in front of you, it is very

gruesome. it's insane to just hear. it has affected the whole town. and it is like the whole town is just reliving it again, and it is not easy for all of us. >> these are pictures of like the accelerant pattern that they showed how they went from like where haley's body was upstairs into her bedroom and on to her bed and then down the hall and into mikayla's bedroom and on to bed. when i finally put the fire detective on the stand, i saw mikayla was tied, and she had gasoline dumped on her while she was alive and alert. and that at least haley i know was probably burning while she was breathing. and that was just a really hard thing to learn, because i never really knew if the girls were

alive when they were burning or not. and it kind of was made true to us that, that was the case with haley that she had walked while she was on fire, because she fell down in the front of her which was more burned than the back of her. i was crying and i just felt like i wanted to get out of that courtroom and scream and just say, you know, i can't believe what is going on in there. i just -- it is making me so angry, and i can't understand why somebody couldn't have ventilated that house for the girls while they were still alive. i want it to be so different. >> finally, seeing the defense giving tough questioning to the cheshire police officers who initially responded to the call of that home invasion, the officers said they followed protocol, and dr. william petit has always supported the actions of the cheshire police department. one captain testifying that the

incident did not make sense at first, and he said, it still does not make sense today. >> steven admitted to killing the mom. he admitted to raping the mom. he admitted to spreading gasoline, and so it is not like he was trying to get himself out from under it in any way. and i think that it haunts him, really haunts him as to why he didn't walk away. steven is in an isolation cell 24 hours a day. he has nightmares. he has nightmares about his own

kid burning. this is the way his ip cars ration will last forever. so, you know, i don't know why we have to kill someone who is in a position like that. it is like being buried alive. >> we, the defense team always believed that joshua never had the intention to kill anybody. after he bashed dr. petit's head several times, later on he got a towel and wiped the blood away from dr. petit's head and then he got two pillows and put them behind his back and got two cushions and the explanation which is in his confession is that he did so, because he thought that dr. petit was not comfortable enough, and he was concerned about his comfort. what occurred with mikayla is absolutely unexplainable. such a horrendous crime

committed on such a young girl. people go the jail for a long time for crimes like that, but you don't get the death penalty. when joshua was apprehended, pulled from the car, he was straight with the police. and when steven hayes was pulled from the car and he gave a phony car and when asked if anybody else was in the house, he said he didn't know. and steven hayes said there is a woman inside and i believe she is dead, and there are two girls upstairs and he expressed to the police that there was urgency to the situation which was obvious because at this time the house is burning. with me, this is inconsistent with somebody intending to kill somebody. 20? new purina one true instinct has 30. active dogs crave nutrient-dense food. so we made purina one true instinct.

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i actually got to see steve twice the past two sundays. when i first saw him, i wanted to cry, because i have not seen him so long, but i just didn't

want to cry in those circumstance, because you had all of the guards standing on top of you, and you can't talk about the trial, because like you know that the phones are pretty tapped. and i know that family wants him to be dead, and it all to be overwith, but like my side of the family, we just want him to like take responsibility for what he did without the consequence of the death penalty. that won't bring anyone back. what happened happened and his death is not going to bring about much justice. >> steven hayes walked into room 6a for the first time and he saw a familiar face, his brother matthew and the first time that we believe a hayes family member has been in court.

>> prosecutor michael darren said that these two beautiful girls and loving mother were killed because steven hayes wanted money. the defense attorney marcus ullmann argued that the death penalty is the harshest penalty that can be given. >> it is finally in the hands of the jury. >> attorney gary nicholson did not mince words as he spoke to the jury in the closing argument s this morning saying that joshua komisarjevsky is no shrinking violet, and he played a starring role in the crime. mickelson hammered the point that komisarjevsky was the first in the house, and the first to

use violence and had plenty of time to leave the home. he gave hayes directions back to the house when he went to buy gasoline. >> it is not fair, is it? >> no. >> you know, all i think of is the impact of our girls could have made upon the world. of course, none of that will ever come forth from joshua komisarjevsky. >> what's the jury weighing? aggravating factors against mitigating factors. no verdict today, but we do expect a verdict by the end of the week. >> we are good. you guys come in. >> oh, lord, we gather around

the table as family and friends. we stand at a place in the trial where we wonder what will take place. but we pray, oh, god, that we will be able to be strong enough to accept whatever the outcome may be. that it would be your will that would be done. for we ask it in the name of christ, amen. >> amen. >> this is all about death and life without parole. >> really, it does seem like the most kind humane thing that you could do for a person is to allow them to just die. i thought of how, how much that challenges the jurors. >> a lot of pressure has been placed upon their shoulders.

i'm glad i'm not in that room. >> yep. >> never get those pictures out of their heads for the rest of their lives. >> you know, it has been very traumatic for everyone. >> this is a case that has just rattled people. a lot of people say that if there is a case that warrants the death penalty, this is it. wait a minute i want to read you something that we are getting -- we are getting word on and you might be able to explain it to us. the jurors are standing and the clerk is reading the verdict form. count four, no statutory mitt gators and both aggravators are

proven, and the defendant is sentenced to death, sunny. >> death penalty verdict. >> death for the monster who slaughtered the connecticut doctor's family. >> and tonight, a connecticut jury has done something rare. >> they have recommended death for steven hayes. he is convicted of raping and murdering a mom, jennifer hawke-petit and her two daughters haley and mikayla. >> the verdict was devastating. steven wanted the death verdict, and we did everything in our power to prevent that in spite of his own efforts to kill himself.

>> this case gets attention in australia. it got attention in europe. you know this is any town, america, and any family america, and when you saw how it was shattered in a few hours, i think that it is kind of -- >> i am glad he is guilty of the second count, count five is death. did he intentionally cause the death of a person under the age of 16 years old. count ten is death. that is that he intentionally caused the death of jennifer hawke-petit, the mother. okay. count 11 is death. >> a couple of marshalls came up behind joshua in cuffs and really no reaction at all. given the public outrage to the horrendous crimes, we could not get a fair jury here, and that is why we filed a motion to change the venue and it should

have been granted, and that is one of the main appellant issues. i believe that the death penalty is barbaric and in line for countries like yemen and iraq and iran. i don't know what purpose it serves other than revenge. >> thank you very much. >> denise, yes, we will have continuing coverage of the death penalty that has been given to joshua komisarjevsky. >> we are satisfied that the defendant has been judged to be the murder, and the rapist and criminal that he is. we have been criticized over the years that this is vengence and blood lust, but this is about justice. we want to go forward with the petit family foundation and try

to create good out of evil and hope the defense did what they thought they should do. i thought a lot of it was particularly distasteful. i saw picture after picture after picture and every time the pictures went up i thought charles manson was a baby once, i'm not sure if this is particularly relevant. >> i would like to thank our justice system as well as the jury members, listening to things they would have much rather not heard and seen. i believe without our defense attorneys we could not have the outcome that we've. so, we have to even be appreciateive that there are defense attorneys that will take cases like this and i believe god's will has been done. >> i don't want to answer any questions. i feel so sad.

i don't know if any of the other defense attorneys -- >> there will be automatic appeals. there will be appeals upon appeals, this will go on for years and years and years. >> we offered to plead guilty to every charge so long as his death was not the result. so joshua would have been sentenced to life without the possibility of release, would have happened three weeks after the crime had taken place. josh would have disappeared into the great abyss of the penal system and would never have been heard from again. that was not serious enough punishment for the state. and then, of course the state was being goated on by dr. petit and so we had to go through three years of haze and joshua.

and just forcing the people of connecticut to relive that crime day after day after day, it coursened the social fabric of connecticut, it would have been better to put the guys in jail and throw away the key. >> the most difficult thing that you deserve more than justo flexibility and convenience. so here are a few reasons to choose university of phoenix. our average class size is only 14 students. our financial tools help you make smart choices

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>> the most difficult thing that i had to do in my life was to bury my own child and two grandchildren. i don't think there will ever be

closure for our family. jennifer was too much of a giving, loving person. and i don't think that we will ever, ever, if we live another 100 years will ever want to forget her, if closure brings forgetting, i don't want that closure. ♪

>> at the end, we just thought, this is incredible, and we all linked hands.