>> larry: let's dance this out, guys. guys. ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> larry: you go, girl! she's getting $15,000 to bring out to them. if the police are told, they will kill her, kill them and the husband. she is petrified. >> a vicious crime in a tranquil connecticut suburb. >> it is evil incarnate. >> two suspects whose actions

were beyond brutal. >> he swung the bat as hard as he could. before they tied anybody up, before the fire was set, joshua tried to kill dr. petit on the couch. >> reporter: i'm randi kaye in cheshire, connecticut. tonight, a cnn special report. what happened to a wife, a husband and their two daughters in a home that became a house of horror and terror? "pure evil, the killings in connecticut." for the petit family in this quiet connecticut suburb, there was never any hint of the violence that was to come. >> the epitome of the all-american family. a beautiful mother and two beautiful daughters. >> reporter: never any clue

their vibrant home on this road in the town of cheshire would soon become a house of horrors. their last day together as a family was a classic summer sunday. dr. william petit, a prominent connecticut doctor, a leading expert in the field of diabetes played golf with his dad. earlier that day, his wife of 22 years, jennifer hawke-petit, and her daughter, michaela, 11, had gone grocery shopping at this stop & shop supermarket. >> the younger daughter was going to make a special dinner for her family. so she and mrs. petit went to the stop & shop here in town. >> reporter: the holder daughter, hayley just graduated from a prestigious prep school. she wanted to be a doctor like her dad. as jennifer hawke-petit, a pediatric nurse, drove back from

the supermarket, she had no idea she was being watched. watched, police say, by two career criminals paroled from prison just weeks before. within hours, their worlds would collide. >> i often liken it to what armies do to countries when they take over, raping and pillaging and that's kind of what happens in that house. >> reporter: the two men allegedly walking mrs. hawke-petit and her daughter are joshua komisarjevsky and steven hayes. between them, they've been arrested nearly 50 times. on hayes' rap sheet, illegal possession of a firearm, burglary and forgery. komisarjevsky, 30, has a criminal past that includes 20 arrests for burglary and larceny. a connecticut judge once called him a cold, calculating predator.

he started breaking into homes at 13 but rarely stole anything, reportedly just listened to the sounds of the sleeping family and paged through family photos. brian mcdonald wrote a book about this case and received 20 letters from komisarjevsky. >> his parents are fervent christians and everything about his early life was about his christianity. he was part of this -- the christian brigade which is like the boy scouts but yet very early on in his life, 13, there was this evil side of him that had to be nurtured or explored. >> reporter: komisarjevsky grew up on a 65-acre estate less than two miles from the petit family. he was adopted as an infant. as a young boy, he says he was brutally raped by another foster child taken in by his family.

>> he said that he was forcibly raped. he made it absolutely clear in his letters to me that it wasn't exposing or fondling or anything like that, that it was -- i believe he said merciless rape. that made him think that all of this religious dogma that he was being force-fed was all garbage. >> reporter: in this letter, mcdonald says komisarjevsky sent him, he details the alleged assault. these are my first memories, i was 5 going on 6. month upon month, my personal hell went unnoticed at the hands of an older foster kid. >> humanity is cruel -- >> reporter: mcdonald reads from the letter where komisarjevsky refers to himself as this child. >> this child raped of his innocence, guilty of silence, dripping in sin, learned at an early age the art of repression. god is all-knowing, all-powerful and did nothing to protect this child. >> reporter: komisarjevsky and hayes, who both have a history

of drugs, first met a year and a half before the crime here at the silliman halfway house in hartford, connecticut. they were roommates for four months. they had gone their separate ways for a while until police say hayes called komisarjevsky. he needed help stealing money. komisarjevsky who mcdonald says has an obsession with young girls spotted 11-year-old michaela petit in the grocery store parking lot with her mother and chose them as their next robbery target. they followed them to learn where they lived. then went home. hours later, komisarjevsky was giving his daughter a bath and reading her a bedtime story. police say hayes then texted him. i'm champing at the bit to get started, need a margarita soon, hayes wrote. komisarjevsky responded -- i'm putting kid to bed, hold your horses.

hayes -- dude, the horses want to get loose, l-o-l. >> what kind of fantasies did they have before this? was this the playing out of some kind of fantasies they had during their life? >> reporter: around 3:00 a.m. the morning of july 23rd, 2007, investigators say komisarjevsky and hayes enter the petit's home through an unlocked door. dr. petit is asleep in a chair downstairs in the sunroom. komisarjevsky, police say, beats him bloody with a baseball bat before both suspects secure his hands and feet and tie him to a pole in the basement. >> he told me he swung the bat as hard as he could. he tried to kill this man before anything else happened in the house. >> reporter: dr. petit's wife

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it's the middle of the night, july 23rd, 2007. suspect steven hayes and joshua komisarjevsky are inside the petit home. police say komisarjevsky goes upstairs, surprises the girls and their mother, tying them to their beds. they then search the house for money. around 7:00 a.m., four hours after they entered the house, steven hayes leaves to buy a few jugs of gasoline. that's him paying for it, captured on this security camera video at this gas station about four miles from the house.

"in session" reporter, beth karas followed the case. >> they planned to do something with the gasoline or hayes wouldn't have been sent out to get gasoline. >> reporter: when hayes returns, they find a checkbook with reportedly more than a $20,000 balance. with threats, they force mrs. hawke-petit to drive to the bank. you're watching a wife a mother in a desperate attempt to save her family. that's jennifer hawke-petit on this bank security camera video in the small town of cheshire, connecticut. her husband, beaten, bound and gagged, is being held hostage, along with her two daughters, michaela, 11, and hayley, 17. mrs. hawke-petit tells the bank teller she needs to withdraw $16,000, ransom money. it is 9:17 a.m., she tries to remain calm. one of the two suspects, steven

hayes, is waiting outside. the teller alerts the bank manager who quietly calls 911. >> reporter: minutes later, mrs. hawke-petit leaves the bank with the ransom money. police are dispatched to surround the house. they're ordered not to approach the house. it's protocol in a hostage situation, police will explain later. they'll also say they had no reason to believe anyone was in immediate danger.

>> i think they get criticized either way. and i know that this is something that's going to haunt them for the rest of their lives. >> reporter: what police don't know is that joshua komisarjevsky has already sexually assaulted the youngest daughter, michaela. "true crime" author brian mcdonald received letters from komisarjevsky after t. >> of the two men, hayes and komisarjevsky, the picture has been painted based on the evidence that we know about that komisarjevsky was the one who did it more for a thrill. >> reporter: when hayes returns from the bank with michaela's mother, investigators say komisarjevsky insists hayes, quote, get his hands dirty by sexually assaulting mrs. hawke-petit. while police are outside, he

rapes and strangles her. by now, it's nearly 10:00 a.m. seven hours of terror. dr. petit recalls a sinister voice shouting to him in the basement, don't worry, it's all going to be over in a couple of minutes. in a burst of adrenaline, the desperate husband and father frees himself from his basement prison. he crawls to a neighbor's driveway, bleeding badly and calls out for help. by now, nearly 40 minutes have passed since the bank manager called 911. remember the gasoline hayes was seen buying earlier that morning? investigators say the suspects used it to douse the home with the girls tied to their beds. what they do next, according to investigators, is pure evil, nearly impossible to comprehend for the officers outside.

>> they hear some screams and then the place goes up in flames. >> reporter: hayes and komisarjevsky attempt to get away in the family's suv. they smash right into the waiting police cruisers. inside, police find jennifer hawke-petit's body on the living room floor. hayley's body is at the top of the stairs. she'd managed to free herself but collapsed from the smoke. michaela's body was still tied to her bed. >> when you look at how this happened and why and the torment that this family went through and the way they died at the end, in my 24 years in the criminal justice system, this is one of the few cases that gave me a nightmare. >> reporter: after seven horrific hours inside the

petit's home, joshua komisarjevsky and stz are finally taken into custody, charged with sexual assault and murder. dr. william petit, the only survivor, has lost his beautiful wife and his two girls. soon he will face the men accused of killing his family. w. [ exclaims ] ...with...stage presence. ♪ a new phone with dolby surround sound speakers. only from at&t. rethink possible.

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joshua komisarjevsky and steven hayes face the death penalty for capital murder in the home invasion of the petit family where jennifer hawke-petit was strangled and her daughters left to die in a fire police say the suspects set.

komisarjevsky and hayes may have been partners in crime, but they are to be tried separately in new haven superior court. steven hayes first. hayes' lawyer is trying to spare him the death penalty. >> hayes always said that komisarjevsky injected violence into this, that they were just going to get some money, get some jewelry. >> reporter: public defender thomas allman con saedz in his opening statement, what is known is that steven hayes kills and assaults mrs. petit, adding, no one was supposed to be hurt. >> jennifer hawke-petit wanted to believe that these men who had been holding her and her children and husband hostage for about six hours at that point, from 3:00 in the morning till 9:00 when the bank opened, that they were not going to hurt them. >> reporter: in court, dr. william petit, the only survivor, comes face to face with one of his family's alleged

killers. >> i think my testimony stands as truthful testimony. and beyond that, i really don't want to dignify the ravings of a sociopath who appears to be a pathological liar as well. >> reporter: dr. petit recounts waking up with blood gushing from his head. i felt something warm running down the front of my face, he tells jurors. he told the court the two suspects had a gun. that one said to the other, quote, if he moves, put two bullets in him. next, investigators share what they found on komisarjevsky's cell phone -- images of the sexual assault on petit's youngest daughter. some jurors begin to weep. dr. petit leaves the courtroom.

"true crime" author brian mcdonald received 20 letters from joshua komisarjevsky in prison. and interviewed him three times. did he talk to you about taking photos of michaela -- >> yes. >> reporter: what did he tell you about what he did to her? >> he said he took very suggestive pictures of michaela and he was going to use them, he said, to blackmail dr. petit. >> reporter: on the stand, investigators play out the victims' final hours. some of the most gripping testimony comes from an investigator who testifies hayes had sex with mrs. hawke-petit after he killed her. >> i still can't wrap my head around this. it is evil incarnate. >> reporter: steven hayes' defense lawyer tries to convince the jury his client killed hawke-petit at the request of joshua komisarjevsky. but pages from komisarjevsky's prison diary, misspellings and

all, presented in court, seem to suggest otherwise. komisarjevsky writes -- >> reporter: and in a surreal passage, komisarjevsky calls dr. petit a coward who ran away when he felt his own life was threatened and left his wife and children to die at the hands of madmen. >> his comments about dr. petit are quite interesting and inflammatory. some commentators have suggested that they really are an attempt to traumatize the last person left in the house, to retraumatize him in some way so he could still assert control over him. >> reporter: if these self-described madmen did kill three members of the petit family, the question is why? >> i think he saw michaela that

day at the stop & shop get into the mother's suv. i think he followed her home because of that. i think he marked that house because of that. >> reporter: you think she was the target? >> yes. >> reporter: in closing, hayes' defense team told the jury, things just got out of control. a psychologist testified that hayes was so filled with remorse after the murders, he wanted the state to kill him. after deliberating for four days, a jury gave him his wish and dr. petit met with reporters. >> michaela was an 11-year-old little girl, you know? tortured and killed in her own bedroom, you know? surrounded by stuffed animals. and hayley had a great future. >> reporter: in court, steven hayes was silent as the death penalty was read.

komisarjevsky is scheduled to go to trial in january. the house at sorghum hill drive is gone now, reyesed by dr. petit after the killings and fire. a memorial garden was put in its place, the physical reminders of what happened here are gone. but the memories remain of acts so vicious, many call them pure evil. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975.

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hello. i'm don lemon. here are your headlines. an icon of the democracy movement in myanmar has been freed from house arrest. she has been in prison or confined to her home by myanmar's ruling military regime for 15 of the past 21 years.

she's expected to speak to her supporters on sunday. medical workers in haiti are appalled at the number of patients dying and being hospitalized in the ongoing cholera outbreak. the lead doctor says his staff is seeing seven times the number of patients they did three days ago. those are your headlines. i'm don lemon. i'm trying to find out americans' feelings on the death penalty. >> i'm for it in the most heinous of case. >> i think it's a deterrent. >> eye for an eye, i think. >> are you family with the connecticut -- >> yes. >> and you support knit that case? >> yes, i do. >> why? >> because of grace. people change. >> life in prison. >> definitely they should be in some kind of prison. >> well, thanks for going out on a limb. >> we've got so many people in jail that's been falsely accused. >> think of how many people are

in prison that are on the death penalty that are clogging up our systems. >> you guys are all for it? >> all for it. >> it's been five days since justice was served in the petit murder case. three days since students ride in london calling the government's plan to triple their tuition crazy. buckle up, kids, we're about to tear through all of it. >> the man behind one of the most horrific crimes in the past decade headed to death row. >> dr. petit says even with today's sentences, there is no so much thing as closure. >> the hole in your soul is still there. president obama in india delivering a message of cooperation, hoping to return with something that americans desperately need -- jobs. >> he knew from india to jakarta. >> the president said he is

making progress. former president bush is back in the spotlight. he's written a book. >> i'm going to be dead when they finally figure it out. he's back, conan o'brien returning to the air. >> i don't know how much time i'm going to get here. >> everybody's been wondering what the mystery plume is in the sky off the california coast. >> the pentagon says, we have no evidence to suggest this was anything other than a con trail. >> 40,000 students have been demonstrating. >> the chairman of the bipartisan deficit commission calling for tax increases. >> this debt is like a cancer that will truly destroy this country. veterans day ceremonies at arlington cemetery. help is arriving for a carnival cruise ship stranded with 3,300 people on board. >> passengers finally starting to get off this thing. the president will arrive in japan. >> he left seoul, south korea,

the g-20 with no major brek breakthroughs. those are the biggest stories of the week. but here are the five things you need to know. number five, after eight months of political stalemate, iraq has a new government. prime minister nuri al maliki remains in power. talibana keeps the presidency. and the speaker of the iraqi parliament is locked in a massive power struggle with nancy pelosi. number four, new rules to protect you from the over-the-top draft in credit card fees. some banks tacked new fees on to checking accounts for things like printing checks and for mailing out statements that say essentially, you're being charged for us mailing out this statement. number three, this week, a european drugmaker says it's developing a pill with a chip inside.

it's for anyone to see. and for those of you taking levitra, you potentially got an antenna. number two, after the thwarted printer cartridge terrorist plot, now ink cartridges over 16 ounces are banned from inbound u.s. passenger flights. others see this as a last-itch jab at printers by the powerful pen and pencil lobby. number one, amazon.com got a barrage of complaints after listing this book. at first, amazon refused to remove it saying it doesn't censor. but it got taken down. you did it. you see something you don't like, something that isn't right, take action. don't just complain. do something, stand up and do something. you've got a voice. you used it this week. well, every year, protesters

flip out over the g-20 convention. what are they freaking out over and what is the g-20 anyway? i'll break it down for you next. [ male announcer ] at&t introduces a new windows phone. with beauty... ♪ ...and brains. ♪ a phone that gets you to the stuff you love faster. only from at&t. rethink possible. [ male announcer ] every day thousands of people are switching from tylenol to advil. to learn more and get your special offer, go to takeadvil.com. take action. take advil. was complicated, with a series of stepped altitude changes. [ air traffic controller ] okay, 245, proceed to your next cleared altitude. [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] today, truecourse flight management systems from ge allow for fuel savings, lower emissions

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welcome back. let's take a look at this picture. that's the g-20 meeting in south korea this week. talk about a good-looking picture. that might even be fridge-worthy. but who are these people and why do they meet? how on earth does it affect me and you? it's the subject of today's "you are here." when i hear g-20, all i think is bingo and some old lady winning 20 xwux at the local vfw hall. they're representatives from 19 countries plus the european union. together they make up 90% of the world's gdp, 80% of the world trade and two-thirds of the world's population. but how long has it been around? the first g-20 meeting was 11 years ago in berlin. the first summit with heads of state, that was in 2008. you probably remember. this is the group that got together at the height of the financial crisis to try to take

steps to prevent another one. so what happened at this g-20 summit? i asked cnn's ali velshi to sum it up. he said president obama didn't get what he wanted and the participating companies just punted on any agreement of anything substantial. what's an example of something the president didn't get? a trade agreement with south korea. the white house said it would create $10 billion in exports and 70,000 american jobs but it didn't happen -- meaning no job, although some critics have said it would have been a net loss of jobs. oh, those critics. and speaking of critics, you know all those protesters at all these summits? what's their deal? a lot of them believe even though the g-20 includes developing nations, it's still only the rich and powerful in all these countries represented at these meetings where it's no one's job to speak out for the poor. and that's where we are. all right, veterans day was thursday. but what does that mean to you?

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[ ted ] for years, i was just a brewer. until one of the guys brought in some fresh bread that he'd made from our pale ale. and from that first bite, i knew my business would never be the same. [ male announcer ] when businesses see an opportunity to grow, the hartford is there. protecting their property and helping them plan their employees' retirement. ♪ beer or bread? [ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses at achievewhatsahead.com. when we all become doers. when our mittens double as work gloves. and we turn every room into a project. but this year, let's trim the budget. get some help from martha stewart that we can't get anywhere else. and spread our money as far as our cheer. ♪

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so this week, our nation celebrated veterans day by taking off from work, putting around the yard and maybe catching up on the last season of "glee." seriously, do any of us really do anything anymore or veterans day to show our support for the troops? i crashed your lunch on thursday, veterans day, to find out. ladies, can i crash your lunch real quick? do you guys know what the federal holiday is today? what day is today? >> thursday. >> veterans day. >> why don't you support our troops? are any of you veterans? >> yes. >> i served in the navy for 20

years. >> what does this day mean to you? >> people still come up and say, thank you for serving and it means a lot. >> do you know any veterans? >> yes, i do. >> who? >> one, me. >> yeah, you're a veteran? >> yes, sir. >> you're 19. >> afghanistan. >> you were in afghanistan? >> six months. >> really? what would you like to receive in a care package? what do you need when you're over there. >> anything from home that shows that you have folks back here that actually care about you. >> do you think we do enough right now, legislatively for veterans, coming back from iraq and afghanistan? >> not really. >> no. >> we need to do more. we're not doing anything for them right now. >> it's a tough question. not really, but can you ever do enough? >> i think we're doing a lot. but there might be something more. >> you're an 18-year-old kid. you barely know anything about life. look at you. you just started shaving. are you joining the military? >> yes, i am. >> you are? >> joining the army. >> good luck to you, man.

thank you for your future service. you've already got the haircut. do five push-ups right now? 2, 3, 4, 5. you've got to keep doing them, man. good luck. the truth is, our best intentions and deepest thanks, no matter how sincere, do little to really support our veterans. any veterans group will tell you it requires legislation to protect our returning servicemen and women. i'm joined now by one such former service member, matthew hoe. he's now the director of the afghanistan study group who's also the first u.s. official to resign from his position in the state department in protest over the war in afghanistan. matt, you were out there. you served as a military member. you served as a civilian member. you got out. a lot of men and women are still there. and as you said, a lot of them will never come back. what can we do for the lucky ones, the ones that don't come home in body bags, the ones that

carry this war with them mentally and physically long after they leave the battlefield? are we doing enough? >> i don't think so. if you look at the numbers of vets that are unemployed, the number of vets seeking treatment for ptsd, if you look at the fairly shameful voting record of many members of congress on veterans issues and the fact that veterans issues did not come up in the recent med teidt election, i think we have a long way to go to help our vets and to ensure that they're given the care, treatment and the respect that they deserve. >> matthew, this week we learned that the president and his administration and the pentagon are backing off the july 2011 date announced last december. and we could be in afghanistan till 2014. you're the director of the afghanistan study group. i've read the study that you've

come out with. what do you think about this latest news that we could be there a total of 14, 15 years? what's your assessment of that? >> well, the first thing i think everyone needs to ask is, what does that get us? if we are successful four years from now in subgegaiting there are those that won't be affected by the large numbers of our combat troops occupying eastern and southern afghanistan. we need to consider the cost. if we can continue at this tempo, if we continue at this pace, we could be looking at a cost of about 2,500 american and coalition lives. thousands more afghan lives and roughly half a trillion dollars

if we continue at this pace up until 2014. >> why not give this plan, this new leader, general petraeus, some time to let it work? >> because the plan is really not that different than what we've been doing for the last five years or so in afghanistan. since 2004, 2005, we've been doing counterinsurgency in afghanistan. if your viewers have not seen the film, i urge them to watch the film. it's a great film. shows what life is like for an american infantryman in afghanistan. how dangerous. they're doing counterinsurgency. and the film was done 3 1/2 years ago. if you look at it, we have increased -- when i say we, it's nato and u.s., have increased troops by a factor of five-fold since 2005. and every year, as we increase troops, literally doubling

troops every year in afghanistan for the last five years, all we see is an increase in violence and decrease in support for the karzai government. the strategy we have has not been effective. we've not seen results that have been of benefit or that have lessened the conflict. so it is time to readjust our strategy and i'm not saying abandon afghanistan or cut and run. what we're advocating for is for a strategy that will bring about stability in afghanistan. >> matthew hoe, director of the afghanistan study group. thanks for your service. happy belated veterans day. >> thanks, pete. this week, president obama's deficit commission proposed to cut the military spending by 10%. that's a lot when you think about how much we spend. these cuts will affect our fighting men and women and their mission. here to explain how is michael o

o' hanlon. we're throwing around a lot of big numbers that can muddle our understanding of the situation. we're a nation at war. humanize these budget cuts for us? >> great question and credit to you for getting this debate going so promptly before this full report is etch all tven al out. to try to specify a little bit of where the money goes right now, there are two big chunks of money as you're probably aware. there's about $550 billion a year, which is essentially the core defense budget, just to raise the military, to buy the weapons, to pay the salaries of people who would be in the uniforms of the united states government anyway, whether we were in afghanistan, in iraq or not. then there's another almost $200 billion that we're spending on

the wars, including iraq, but mostly now afghanistan. so $550 billion plus $175 billion. separate those two pieces because the commission that you referred to is really thinking primarily about the first bigger number, the $550 billion. the war debate is a separate debate about how fast to downsize. obviously it's related but it's really separate. the 10% cut is from that core or peacetime budget that's going to be there whether or not we're in afghanistan. as you say, 10% is a fair chunk. but if we do it carefully, i think that's more or less doable without hurting the people in uniform. we have to wait for a couple of more years to really get it going because we have to start downsizing in afghanistan before we can make these cuts in good conscience. >> if you put aside the wars, that's hard to do, but you hear the right and the left, dennis kucinich, ron paul, we have military bases in over 100 countries. what about taking some of them,

bringing them home? how much would that cut? is it at all a reasonable reality in any way? >> it's a great question, but the answer is you don't save a lot of money unless when they come home, they are demobilized and no longer part of the military. i'm not talking about kicking individual people out because there's a natural attrition rate in the military. a couple of hundred thousand people leave per year. we recruit about the same every year. reduce the recruiting and you downsize the military without requiring any individual to leave. so i'm not talking about that. but if you disband their unit when they come home, you save a lot of money. if you just bring them back from a base that's already been well-established and sometimes partially paid for by the foreign government, for example, in japan or germany, you don't save that much. so you really have to either reduce the military operations themselves, iraq, afghanistan, or you have to reduce the size of the military or you have to change the way we modernize them

through new weaponry. bringing them home from bases that are well-established in peattime environments is not really going to save you much money. >> michael, not enough time. we'd love to keep talking to youchlt this is an issue that's so tough to talk about. we need to take a realistic look ate. which you do. and we appreciate you joining us. >> thank you. what does an iron man suit and a football coach have in common? i'll tell you next. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands.

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hello. i'm don lemon. here are your headline this is hour. an icon of the democracy movement in myanmar has been freed from house arrest. aung san suu kyi walked out of her home a free woman saturday. she was confined to her home by myanmar's ruling military regime for 15 of the past 21 years. she's expected to speak to her