mikaela, 11, a tv cooking fan and the doctor in their central connecticut town of cheshire. they seemed to suit their home

>> you know, it's amazing how of the town of cheshire has supported dr. petit and his family.r the years. you know, the site where the house once stood is now a memorial garden. friends and neighbors put this together. they've got a beautiful garden you can walk through it, there's a bench you can sit down, can you reflect on the lives of these women that are no longer with us. and there's really no overt markers. i didn't remember seeing the name petit anywhere. but i went a couple of weeks ago and there's a stone marker that has the engraving of three roses, and it just says on it three angels. obviously referring to jennifer hawke-petit and her daughters michaela petit and haley petit. so a lot of support from the town. clearly they'd like to get this behind them. it's been three years. they have at least another trial to go. it's not the end of the beginning but it's getting there. >> do we know when this next trial will take place, when komisarjevsky goes on trial? >> they say sometime in 2011. so unfortunately this continues for this family because dr. petit will have to

two convicts out on parole broke into the home of a prominent doctor in cheshire, connecticut, and killed his wife and their two daughters in cold blood. only the doctor survived. today, the first of the suspects to stand trial was convicted of murder. he could get the death penalty. national correspondent jeff glor reports from the courthouse in new haven. jeff? >> reporter: katie, the jury today took only four and a half hours to deliberate. the reaction from inside the courtroom from family members was muted because they know this case is not over yet. the brutal murders of jennifer hawke-petit and her daughters haley, 17, and mikaila, 11, were described to a connecticut jury for nine days before they found co-defendant steven hayes guilty on 16 counts. the only survivor, dr. william petit, was asked if the quick verdict brought any relief. >> there's some relief, but my family is still gone. it doesn't bring them back. it doesn't bring back the home that we had. >> reporter: prosecutors say hayes, then 44, and 26-year-old joshua komisarjevsky, both parolees, broke into the petit home

two men broke into their home in cheshire, connecticut, beating him with a baseball bat.ing, to a pole in the basement. they then turned their attention to his wife and daughters. they tied 17-year-old hayley and 11-year-old michaela to their beds. meanwhile, dr. petit's wife, jennifer, was forced to drive to the family bank and withdraw $15,000. jennifer did as she was told. returning to her captor, steven hayes, in the family's waiting vehicle outside the bank. en route home, hayes stopped for gas, and yet again surveillance video shows him buying canisters of fuel, fuel that would be used to burn the girls alive in an attempt to hide the evidence of the crimes. >> in my 22 years of being a prosecutor i can't imagine anything that was as horrendous as the facts that we uncovered and heard about during this trial. if there ever was a case that deserves the death penalty, this certainly is one. >> reporter: the horror was far from over. mrs. hawke-petit, unaware that her youngest daughter lay raped and tied to her bed upstairs, was herself raped by hayes and then choked t

two convicts out on parole broke into the home of a prominent doctor in cheshire, connecticut, and killed wife and their t.w.a. two daughters in cold blood. only the doctor

. >> conn and the nation have been riveted by the facts of the cheshire, connecticut home invasion and the triple murder. the jury began deliberations in the stephen hayes case today. if convicted, he faces the death penalty. how do you feel about the death penalty? why or why not? >> i support the death penalty. there are crimes that are so heinous and tartabull that they merit it -- so heinous and horrible. i believe stephen hayes deserves the death penalty. i support it because it is a deterrent to certain kinds of crimes. for example, crimes against law enforcement officers, if police or fire fighters or others risking their lives on our behalf, corrections officers. i believe that they strongly merit punishment in some cases such as this one, which are so horrific. >> in question to you. >> i do support the death penalty. i agree with mr. blumenthal in his assessment on that. i want to go back to something you read in your prior question. he spoke about government contractors, many of the contractors have full health coverage for any accident that they receive in the ring, fully c

mikaela, 11, a tv cooking fan and the doctor in their central connecticut town of cheshire. quiet street pap home on a monday morning in july 2007 exploded in flames. two hot for firefighters to knock down. facts inside almost too ugly to understand. a picture later of a charred child's bed with ropes attached. >> we have three confirmed fatalities at this time. two are female. i don't want to speculate right now. >> reporter: mother and daughters, dead. >> this is charlie manson-like crimes. >> it's the burglar who breaks in the middle of the night at your home and attacks your family. i think it's everyone's worst nightmare. >> reporter: the jury that found steven hayes guilty of murder now deliberates the penalty. a mini trial and begins october 18th. contessa, at issue, whether to put hayes to death or not. >> we'll watch for the "dateline" special tonight. here you have mr. petit only a quarter ever the way through this incredible -- >> another trial to come, turning the deck over again. >> thank you, dennis. >>> tonight the family will appear on "date line nbc" at 8:00

reach back in your memory to recall a case just as chilling as the story of the petit family in cheshire house. >> it took a jury five hours to find a defendant guilty this weekend murdering mrs. petit and her two daughters who died of smoke inhalation, tied to her bed after two intruders set their home ablaze in a frenzy of violence and mayhem. reporter elaine griffin has covered the story for the hartford current. >> i think this is one of those case where is they people see themselves in a situation, it's a burglar who breaks in in the middle of the night at your home and attacks your family. it's everyone's worst nightmare. >> reporter: dr. william petit, the lone survivor badly beaten by the intruders now has to face another trial. dr. petit has been ask how he finds the strength to relive the horror again through the courtroom testimony. >> most of you out here are good human beings, i think you would probably all do the same thing for your family if your family was destroyed by evil. >> reporter: the other man accused of hayes accomplice is joshua komisarjevsky. >> he has told sto

robin, what's unbelievable is he lived in cheshire. >> and it's the debate whether to live or die. >> it's swung on this case. >>> go to juju chang with the other news. >> good morning, robin and george and good morning, everyone. we begin in afghanistan where there's word that potential peace talks are under way between key elements of the afghan government, the taliban and high-level officials from pakistan. this is seen as a preliminary but crucial step toward a possible settlement in the end of the war. any settlement, of course, would require the taliban to renounce al qaeda. >>> despite the talks, for the sixth time in the last week, militants have set fire to a nato convoy in pakistan. eight troops were destroyed. one driver was killed. >>> on the arabian peninsula, in yemen, a rocket attack targeted a motorcade. >>> the government of hungary says it could take one year to clean up sludge, following a dam break at a chemical plant. it swamped 7 villages over 16 miles. our alexander marquardt is in hungary. >> reporter: it's being called a toxic tsunami. a wave of noxious red fl