UPDATE: Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes
PETIT SEEKS NO-CONTACT ORDER AGAINST MURDER SUSPECTS, DEFENSE TEAM
by Alaine Griffin, The Hartford Courant
NEW HAVEN — – Defense attorneys for one of the suspects in a 2007 deadly home invasion robbery in Cheshire want to reach out to family members of the victims, but Dr. William Petit and his family have refused the offer and are asking a judge to block such contact.
State Victim Advocate Michelle S. Cruz and Hakima Bey-Coon, an attorney in the advocate’s office, filed a motion this week on behalf of Petit seeking a no-contact order against defendants Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, their lawyers and any other defense representatives.
Both men are accused of killing Petit’s wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their two daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, in a July 23, 2007, attack inside their Cheshire home.
Petit was beaten but survived. He is expected to testify at trial, which could start early next year.
Petit wants a judge to order defense attorneys and members of their team to stop contacting him and members of his family “whether direct or indirect, in recognition of
the victim’s rights to be treated with fairness and to be reasonably protected from the accused throughout the criminal justice process as guaranteed” in the state’s constitution.
Last month, Petit and members of his family received letters from Sarah Anthony, a North Carolina attorney who told the family that she was a victim liaison offering “a line of communication” between the defense team and Petit and his family. Anthony said lawyers for Komisarjevsky asked her to “assist in outreach” to Petit and his family.
“My promise is to get candid answers to your questions, to give voice to your concerns to the defense team, to offer responses and information, and to try and meet your needs within the judicial process in any other ways that I can,” Anthony wrote.
Jeremiah Donovan, a lawyer for Komisarjevsky, declined to comment Friday. Patrick J. Culligan, one of Hayes’ attorneys, also declined to comment.
Jeffrey A. Meyer, a professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law, said the defense may be using a liaison to establish a better line of communication with people who
are most important to the outcome of the case.
“The more sinister view is it’s a way for the defense to try and collect information from someone who may be a key witness at trial,” Meyer said.
In their motion, Cruz and Bey-Coon state that Petit and members of his family contacted the victim advocate’s office shortly after receiving Anthony’s letters. They said they did not want to receive any more communications from defense lawyers including “defense liaisons or any other individuals who purportedly advocate restorative justice principles,” the motion says.
The motion also seeks a timetable for trial proceedings “in recognition of the victim’s right to a timely disposition of the case.” A judge is expected to take up the motion Tuesday, when the suspects are due in Superior Court.
The victim advocate’s motion follows one filed earlier this month by prosecutors seeking a joint trial for Hayes and Komisarjevsky.
New Haven State’s Attorney Michael Dearington and Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Gary W. Nicholson filed a motion for a joint trial “for the purpose of sparing the remaining victim, family members, and witnesses the ordeal of multiple trials, and for the purpose of judicial economy.”
Komisarjevsky, 28, of Cheshire, and Steven Hayes, 46, of Winsted, both face charges of capital felony and multiple murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and arson in connection with the killings. Hawke-Petit was strangled and both daughters were left bound in their beds as the house was doused with gasoline and set afire.
Well, what do you make of that folks? I live about 15 minutes from where this happened, and you have no idea how huge a deal this crime was around here. Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes are no doubt two of the evilest people to come out of Connecticut since serial killer Michael Ross. For their defense team to be harassing Dr. Petit, no matter what their motives, is pretty disgraceful. I realize the only hope they have in this case is to save their clients lives – Komisarjevsky and Hayes were basically caught in the act, and they left a living witness, so a guilty verdict is a foregone conclusion – and the only chance of that happening is if Dr. Petit supports sparing them the death penalty, but there has to be a better way of going about things.
42 Comments »
Similar Posts:
- Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes
- UPDATE 3: Lamaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman, and Eric Boyd
- UPDATE: Israel Weingarten Sentenced To 30 Years In Federal Prison
- Henry Lee Stringer
- UPDATE: James Winquist and Eric Snow
- UPDATE: Shaun Earl Arender
- UPDATE: Steven Barker, Jason Owen and Tracey Connolly
- UPDATE: Stephanie Lopez, Andrew Walters, and Steven Lopez
If you’re a criminal defense attorney, you lose part of your soul with some cases in order to help uphold the scum’s right to a fair trial. That sometimes includes losing your ability to put basic human kindness ahead of the needs of your fucked-in-the-head client who you know should be killed outright but, dammit, there’s the law to consider.
Then again, ayin tahat ayin goes back WAAAAY farther than our modern laws. Tie ‘em to a bed in a wooden shack and douse the thing in gasoline as they watch. Then torch it. Barbaric, yes. I’m o.k. with that.
That’s just wrong. I don’t get it, I don’t get the whole crime. I don’t get how they could rape an 11-year-old. I guess that is what makes me different from scum like them. And how they can harrass the father now, that is disgusting.
***”Defense attorneys for one of the suspects in a 2007 deadly home invasion robbery in Cheshire want to reach out to family members of the victims”***
I think they did enough ‘reaching out’ to this family for a life time. I would sens a message back to them like “Hey, here’s a thought, why don’t you both plead GUILTY!!”
Just when I thought I heard it all…
I think I will start a website called “People You Will See in Heaven”, LOL- unfortunately those people were all killed by scumbags found on this site.
Just how much do the defense attorneys bill the victims for the laison officer in their pursuit to collect information from key prosecution witnesses ?
*snap*
Oh I see it coming.
it’s just the slap in the face, or rather frosting on the cake of all these pitiful shenanigans that these dumb ass defense lawyers been pulling on poor Dr. William Petit.
now that you have called it, I’d be more shocked not to see that happen.
Am i the only one who thinks that dr. william petit is a coward, why didnt he do something to free his family, while the robbers was in the bank, he must have been awake or else he couldnt get out when fire startet, he should had died protecting his family i would.
The man’s entire family was just murdered in the most horrible way imaginable, and you’re calling him a coward? Honestly, how many people are ever put into that situation? You have no idea what you would do, or how you would react.
Yep, you’re the only one. Komisarjevsky and Hayes poured the gasoline to start the fire on and around the three victims. Even if Dr. Petit was fireproof, he couldn’t have saved his family. When he woke up (from getting the living shit beat out of him, BTW), the upstairs was totally involved in fire, and all he could do was get out and hope they already had.
The more I think about it, the more offensive I find your take that Dr. Petit is a coward. It’s real easy to Monday morning quarterback his actions now, but the truth is you don’t know what you would have done unless you were facing the exact same situation as he was.
Perfectly said! Stefan is a complete & thoughtless idiot.
Wasn’t he beat into unconsciousness?
I believe he will be wrestling with the woulda shoula, coulda’s the rest of his life.
Being a doctor I highly doubt he’s a coward, that job takes guts in my opinion.
Stefan, that was an incredibly stupid and miserable thing to say. You don’t know what you would actually do. You can only say what you would hope to be able to do, and I am pretty sure that Dr. Petit would have said the same thing too. But the reality of the situation often brings circumstances that cannot be changed.
I would not wish you to be in a situation like that so you could learn for yourself, but I would suggest that you IMAGINE it and grow some empathy.
Dr. Petit is probably a shell of a man now, through no fault of his own. Because of two scumballs who thought that they had the RIGHT to take what was his, and to kill his family. I guaran-damn-tee you that the poor man relives the scene in his head every single day, looking for ways that he could have “done something else”. But no matter what he COULD have possible done, with 20/20 hindsight – none of it is HIS fault. NONE. It is entirely 100% on the shoulders of the men who committed the crimes.
This is different from a situation where a spouse or close relative is chronically beating or abusing other family members. in that case, the spouse bears some blame (or a LOT of blame) for not stopping it. But in this case, on top of the physical impediments to his being able to save his family, he had the added (and very disabling) mental surprise factor which would have completely overtaken his reasoning ability.
So, no. No one thinks he is a coward. But I guess a LOT of people think you are an asshole. Have a nice day.
I hope you’re just saying that to get attention you obviously never had growing up. I dare you to go through a fraction of what Dr. Petit has gone through and let me call you a “coward.” I’ll guarantee you wouldn’t be able to hack it.
Wow that was incredibly mean spirited. I wonder how heroic you would be after someone beats you into unconscienceness. This is NOT that man’s fault…..it is the fault of the two lowlife scumbuckets whose mugshots are shown above. Don’t you think he wishes he could have saved them? Try having a heart……
When this crime first happened it was a perfectly good question to ask, but now that the sequence has been established, it’s not a good one anymore.
BUT if it had not been for people like Stephan, Charles Stewart would have gotten away with his crime and someone else would be sitting in jail for it.
I thought the same thing at first – the possibility of a Stewart style escape. The wife was terminally ill, he daughters being so wrapped up in mommy that daddy is a virtual nobody…….. but rather than being the most eligible bachelor, or screwing every sympathy fuck he can get, he seems to be quiet, so such rules out your theory THIS LATE in the game.
Dr.Petit lost everything that meant the most..His family. And you say he is a coward. What would if you were in his place. How would you feel?
What would you do to protect your family from the same kind of monsters that invaded his. If somebody tries to invade my home, they WILL get a .40 cal surprise gift. and not just one No I will not take any prisoners…The Medical Examiner gets them, and the state is spared the expense of a trial.
And yes, a homeowner here in Las Vegas had his alarm go off, got his gun and shot at the goblins kicking in his door. 3 gals and 1 guy fled, but the 3 gals were caught right away and taken right to jail, and the guy was caught later. Remember, a gun in the hand is much better than a cop on the phone.
Dr. Petit was literally tied up and knocked out cold, left for dead after being beaten with a baseball bat. He regained consciousness just as his wife was being strangled, and when the house was ablaze, he had to hop out. Someone else managed to cut his bonds, but by then, it was too late.
Maybe you do not understand that an accelerant was used which means that the family was on fire before the duo was out of the house. By the time Dr. Petit crawled in a daze with broken ribs and skull fractures to a neighbor for help, he was more than likely smelling the flesh of his burning wife & children. Help me to understand how his name could be used in the same sentence with the word coward?
absolutely disgusting that they are ‘reaching out’ to the father/husband. they are only worried about their punishment. they have NO remorse whatsoever.
This implies that you know or are in communication with Josh and Stephen. Are you?
AND this implies that you are not fully aware of human body language. You don’t have to know someone to be able to see that they are remorseless and concerned only about the fact that they are going to be punished.
The more I read responses from the regular posters here, the more I want to bake you all cookies. Just sayin’, is all. ;)
Ooooooooooo!!! White chocolate chip macadamia are my very favorites! (Though I have an awesome recipe for chewy oatmeal with craisins that is quickly moving up the ladder of yumminess!)
I might not be considered a “regular” persay, but I could go for some snickerdoodle cookies. Awesome cookie, but even more awesome name. Snickerdoodle! Puts a smile on your face and cures the rumblies in your tumblies :)
I found a recipe for Snickerdoodle MUFFINS online once. Must find that again. I suggest you do too! The tops of them looked exactly like snickerdoodle cookies, but muffin fluffy!
MMMMMMM…Cookies! Chocolate chip is my favorite! YUMMM!
Let’s see, we have a guy who worked hard to get through school, worked hard at his job to obtain a nice lifestyle for his family. Then we have scum that won’t work, think everything is theirs for the taking and never did the world one bit of good, then we let the scum victimize the nice guy, kill his family and destroy his life and then we let the scum continue to harass, victimize and destroy the good guy. What is wrong with this picture? Where is the justice? I know all the liberal arguments about how we have to argue for the worst to preserve the rights for all of the rest of society but we have gone to far when we allow scum who are beyond any doubt guilty of a horrific crime to continue to victimize the victim through the court system. If a crime victim wants for some reason to talk to the criminal it should be up to the victim and the scum should NEVER be allowed to contact the victim ever,
Class envy at it’s best……..
Take from the “rich”……… there are plenty who are richer than I, but there are also plenty poorer than I….
So if it is OK from me to take from the richer, then it’s OK for those who I am richer than to take from me…….
Also some poorer people may have something I want… makingthem “richer” than I…..
Or if I blew my weekly check on booze and lottery tickets, then there’d be many “richer” poorer people because they sacrificed to accumulate wealth while I squandered my chance every week….
Never written here, but have been following the website for a few years now.
I chose to respond to this for two reasons. One, because this happened, oddly enough, about fifteen minutes from where I lived, too, and two, because I’m now intrigued as to where Max the Cat is from. :)
This family is, or was, essentially, my family. I am an eighteen year-old girl. My sister is thirteen. And I have two parents. Whether or not I admitted it or was able to at the time, this murder traumatized me, despite having no contact with or knowledge of the victims. Every night at 3:30 AM, when the attacks took place, I’d wake up and make sure the windows were locked and that the back door, where the murderers entered, was also locked and barricaded. I carried a knife. I consoled myself with the fact that our cars were not luxury vehicles and therefore not targets. I studied this case and tried to differentiate my family so as not to worry myself.
I eventually learned the definition of a random crime, but am still wary, especially around this time. In response to the update, however, I believe that any contact with the individuals is a play to the good will and forgiving nature of Dr. Petit, who has made peaceful efforts and not sought vengeance or violence towards the criminals, and can only give a lighter sentence to these filth.
PS- For the record, aside from being beaten, Dr. Petit was bound and barely made his way out of the house. It’s quite incorrect to call him cowardly.
If you live in CT, buy some pepper spray – it’s quite legal here and it’s a good defensive weapon. Should you accidentally spray a family member, the injury’s lasting effects are almost always minimal….. Should you get a creep, then you may have a few more seconds to inflict a more permanent injury while being in less danger yourself.
And Stefan is probably a troll. Ignore him.
What a horrific crime! This poor man lost his entire family and now he is again being terrorized by these two POS’s! The terror this family experienced is awful! I read the original post and was utterly disgusted. Hayes raped Mrs. Petit, and Komisarjevsky raped the 11 year old daughter! I hope they experience rape themselves in prison for putting these two victims through such a horrific experience.
I was also surprised to learn that Joshua Komisarjevsky had sole custody of a 5 year old daughter. After reading that information, I couldn’t help but wonder if he could have abused his own child when he was able to so easily rape a little girl that was only 11. This young girl was only 6 years old than his own 5 year old daughter. Does anyone know what has become of his 5 year old daughter? I hope that she was not abused by this sicko and that she is in a safe & loving environment.
Mr. Petit……I am so sorry for all that you have endured, suffered, and lost in your life. My thoughts are with you and I offer my sincerest condolences on the loss of your beautiful family. May they rest in peace!
Also in this state the legislature wants to get rid of the death penalty.. Dr. Petit has had to go to the State House and testify. While the state says that these 2 POS would still be eligible to die, anyone with brains knows that their defense attys would argue that they death penalty’s repeal should apply here as well.
Unfortuantely these 2 POS are in protective custody……. boredom is probably the hardest thing they are dealing with right now….
Maybe if we put these 2 on a strict Fast Food only diet they’ll be dead in 10 years or so……
Hell I’ll gladly buy them breakfast every day….
I live in CT as well, not very far from the crime scene…..
The house is torn down now, what becomes of the lot, I do not know.
The perps also rammed 3 police criusers…. 1 at the foot of the driveway and 2 more further down the road……
Also I did ask one of the defense attys, Audin Goggins, regarding how much she was getting – she had stated that she has a special rate when working for the state. Because this is a deah penalty case, the state is paying for special high power defense attys. Needless to say, Atty. Groggins never answered my question. Maybe I could find out if I file enough “Freedom of Information” requests, but I am sure she is counting on me not devoting enough resources to that cause. Atty Groggins is now holding a political office in Bridgeport CT as well……
I had this published in 2007
http://nibbleandbit.com/fopinions/cheshire.html
While I believe that everyone deserves a defense, these two were caught so red handed, I am wishing that they were executed in the spot!
Though I do not like the idea of the police becoming Judge, Jury and Executioner, I could understand how one would have snapped at the scene.
For these two bastards to be alive now shows just how fucked up the system is and the fact that someone thinks they deserve anything more thna an urn or a box proves what I stated will happen in my letter…….. Same thing happedned with Michael Ross – as he was being executed more poeple cared for him than his victims.
Also I saw the house and these guys were beyond evil….
Really…….. they could have more humanely killed the women before setting the fires…… that is if their only goal was to destroy evidence…… I know thatthe govenor can commute sentences, but in this case she should go to the jails and shoot them herself.
Or better yet – sell raffle tickets and allow people the chance to shoot at them – I’d buy a few….
Also in this state, esp back in 2007, the governor emphasisized cooperation with the bad guys as a way to stop the escalation of violence.
RINO Woman, M. Jodi Rell was so adamant about such, that if one beeped at someone who cut them off and he perp (the jack ass driver) decided to respond violently to the fact that someone objects to his ownership of he road, guess who could get in trouble for escalating the violence? Not only the guy with the gun driving like the owner of the world, BUT the horney honkey………
So given that culture the worst that SHOULD have happened should have been the rape and restraint of the women…. and within a day or two some concerned relatives, coworkers, friends or neighbors should have busted down a door and found the various members of the family restrained throughout the house.
BUT also under that train of thought, Mr. Petit would be found guilty of escalating the violence as he must of objected to the presence of the intruders……
It could also be said that if Mr. Petit had slept upstairs, Josh & Steve would have done their thing downstairs and left.
I seriously doubt that given they brought rope in with them…. it sounds like they were prepared to fight rather than take flight in the event of a conflict AT BEST. They may have entered the house as well with the intention of taking more than just the usual valuable materials (electronics, jewelry, cash), Joshua may have been going after Michaela’s Cherry – valuable and an escalation .. maybe home roberey was not giving him the same thrill anymore….
We are talking pure evil here….. Joshua may have assumed that Haley wasn’t a virgin….. after all what 17 year old girl is still a virgin???
This maybe also class envey at its purest. The Petit family being upper middle class …. the daughters at private school….. the only way Josh & Steve would be welcomed at that house would be if they were cutting the lawn…. So if the women weren’t going to give “it” to them, then they’d (Joshua) would have to take “it”.
Joshua & Steve should be in hell at the moment…… Or at least shitting a brick because they have just found out that there is a God….
I am sickened by just the idea that anyone could dare ask Dr. Petit to show some type of compassion to such daemons who showed no mercy for his family for hours on end.
Each act was a choice……
Joshua did not have to enter the house
They could have fled when they woke Dr Petit
They could have fled when they restrained Dr Petit
They could have fled after restraining the rest ofthe family
They could have fled after getting the money from the bank….
Maybe the Mrs. could have done something different as well, but once again she was living under the assumption that cooperation was the best thing…….. thanks once again to the culture of surrender that our leaders and our educational system have created……
If Mrs Petit rammed her car into a utility pole, how much trouble would she have gotten into?????
Would the headlines have read more like “Hostage Over Reacts” or “Vigilante Mothers Kills Family” or “Mother Kiils Family When She Takes Matters into Her Own Hands” (another thing that M.J. Rell discouraged).
So we can blame Mr. Petit for not being a man, we can blame Mrs. Petit for not doing more when she had the chance or we can blame the “society of surrender” and its Zero Tolerance for lack of cooperation and Zero Tolerance for those who tale smatters into their own hands.
That is utter insanity that zero tolerance is advocating, we have some craziness in Nebraska but we also do have some rationality having passed the conceal and carry law allowing a person who has gone through a training course to carry a concealed weapon…..As a police officer friend once told me, the problem is you have a nice middle or upper class person who lives by the rules, does not engage in violent or illegal behavior and believes that you can rationalize with people and cooperate and when they are the victim of a horrible crime their mind can’t take in what is happening and they don’t know how to react because a violent criminal isn’t rational, he understands at that moment violence and if he has made up his mind to do something he is going to do it. Why in the world does the justice system and people like your gov continue to believe that you can rationalize and make friends with and salvage these criminals?? I have zero tolerance for this kind of liberal BS that takes a hardworking family and destroys it and then lets the scum argue they had a bad childhood,, their mom hated them, their dad beat them, they never got a bike at Christmas or never had a pet, the rich kids in school teased them or whatever idiotic stupid argument that a defense attorney and defense psychiatrist can come up with.
The gov has slowed the Zero Tolerance talk quite a bit, butthe schools are ramming it down the kids throats……. and treating the parents like second class ignoramuses – after all who are the educated people with regards to the children??????
Needless to say my daughter had some problems with the school, but because my daughter’s mother had given me some crap in the past DCF has a case file. So I made a point of sending the school a letter and CC the state. i told the school that I was CC the state so that if my daughter has any bruises on her from any conflicts I would nt be automatically blamed by her mother (after all aren’t all fathers evil?)
Needless to say suddenly I was not so stupid, both principals wanted to talk to me……and listen to what I had to say….
The two perps are going to court today……. Nearly 2 years after the crime.
The prosecution wants both POS in one trial, but the defense is going for the divide, conquer and re-victimize approach.
What really upsets me about the delay is that the trial will take place in a newer culture which may lay some of the blame on Dr. Petit for not doing more to defend his property & family. Many have forgotten the “Zero Tolerance” Nazi that M. Jodi Rell was prior to the Cheshire Holocaust.
OR
The jury is not going to fully understand the depth of evil they face. The wife, Jennifer, fully complied with the demands of the perps hoping that cooperation would lead to a peaceable end to the situation as promosed by our governor. Jennifer followed the governor’s advice and she and her family suffered horrific deaths.
Today it is raining, God himself is crying.
I pray that lightning takes these two.
It looks like the only people that may get to execute these bastards are
1. Colonel Sanders
2. Ronald McDonald
3. The King
Now the defense attys are saying that their clients will plead guilty to all charges IF the death penalty is taken off the table……
Sure so in 20 years they can appeal the sentence?????
Govenor Rell will have my vote if she goes up to Max at Somers and shoots these two like fish in a barrel.
This crime is just sick. Cut off their penis’s and reattach them to their forehead. Pour kerosene on the groin area and light a match. Ask them if they need a cigarette…..
This crime was as depraved as crimes get. But another crime is this: Hayes and Komisarjevsky EACH had more than 20 burglary convictions, many for breaking into inhabited houses at night, yet they were still only lightly supervised and were free to rape and murder and burn. And surprise, surprise—they did just that. I guess those sessions where they sang Kumbaya with the social worker didn’t “take.”
If Connecticut had, not a three-strike law, but just a TWENTY-STRIKE law, this beautiful, productive, law-abiding Hawke-Petit family would be alive today. But the Connecticut legislature didn’t want to hear it. No. No. No. Keep givin’ ‘em chance after chance after chance—until they commit multiple murders. Then take action.
Connecticut is too damned civilized for its own good.
What? “Surprise, surprise”? I’m pretty surprised that a couple of previously nonviolent (though proficient) petty thiefs turned around and slaughtered a family. You’re not? I’m pretty sure that doesn’t happen too often. Hey, courts! Lock these guys up! They robbed houses! Clearly they’re going to go on to commit multiple murders!
Hasn’t anyone here heard of due process?! Yes, what they did was unspeakably horrible, and they’re obviously guilty and everyone knows it, but you want the government to just skip the trial this once and throw them in jail? What if the court makes a habit of doing that? How do you think that would turn out? Maybe we should just burn the Constitution.
There can be no exceptions in a constitutional democracy…everyone is entitled to a trial. It’s our privilege as Americans. It’s unbelievable that someone would even suggest otherwise.