January 27, 2012 12:24 PM

Conn. home invasion killer Joshua Komisarjevsky is sentenced to death

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Joshua Komisarjevsky

(Credit: WSFB)

(CBS/AP) NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Joshua Komisarjevsky was sentenced on Friday  to death for killing a woman and her two daughters during a brutal Connecticut home invasion in 2007.

Pictures: Petit family

Komisarjevsky, 31, spoke in court and blamed his accomplice, Steven Hayes, for much of the crime but spoke of regrets and the devastating consequences of his decisions. He said he has family and supporters who don't want him to die.

Komisarjevsky joins Hayes and nine other men on Connecticut's death row. The state's last execution in 2005 was the first since 1960, and Komisarjevsky will likely spend years, if not decades, in prison.

The two paroled burglars tormented a family of four in the affluent New Haven suburb of Cheshire before killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and leaving her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, to die in a fire.

The only survivor, Dr. William Petit, was beaten with a baseball bat and tied up but escaped.

Hayes was convicted in 2010 of raping and strangling Hawke-Petit and killing the girls. The girls were tied to their beds and doused in gasoline before the house was set ablaze; they died of smoke inhalation. Komisarjevsky was convicted of the killings and of sexually assaulting Michaela.

Petit called the crime a "personal holocaust" as he testified during the sentencing hearing. He said his wife was his friend and confidant and a wonderful mother. He also noted that Hayley would be in medical school by now and that Michaela loved to cook and sing.

"I lost my family and my home," he said. "They were three special people. Your children are your jewels."

The sentencing, which was earlier recommended by a jury, concluded two long trials that subjected jurors to grim evidence including charred beds, rope used to tie up the family and autopsy photos. The 2007 attack led to the defeat of a bill to outlaw the death penalty in Connecticut and sparked tougher state laws for repeat offenders and home invasions.

Complete coverage of the Petit family home invasion on Crimesider

21 Photos

Petit Family Murders

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Add a Comment See all 66 Comments
by julianpenrod January 28, 2012 12:11 AM EST
And still the insistences on denying the suspicious flaws in the "official story".
If they were so contemptuous of life, why did they only "bludgeon" Dr. Petit and not kill him outright?
When they sent Petit's wife into the bank to get the money, why didn't she stay there? Did she really feel they would go back to her address, which she could have given the police from the bank, kill her family then run? Why did the bank manager supposedly go into her office and call the police from beneath her desk? Did she think the criminals couild see her in her office from outside in the car? Did she think they wouldn't see her as calling from beneath her desk as suspicious?
Why did the police wait half an hour before moving in on the scene?
And so many seem so willing to accept Petit'sd total disinterest during the enbtire trial. They used an imbecilic dodge of his being issued a "gag order" by the judge not to show any emotion during the trial, and those who itch constantly for someone they are officially told they are allowed to hate, so they can avoid hating themselves for ruining their lives, never questioned it.
It's the dull-witted acceptance by so many of whatever they're told to believe that faciltiated crimes from JonBenet Ramsey to the New World Order's fabricated events of September 11. Notice how little evidence they needed to get behind the invasion of non-aggressor Iraq. The fact that there is more to the story of the Petit situation than is admitted is palpable, the refusal to acknowledge it a crime by the malleable against themselves, their fellows and God. If they continue to be so suicidally gullible, they will endanger the world with the crimes they will allow the NWO to commit and get away with.
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by markmazza January 27, 2012 9:57 PM EST
How can you have mercy in a case like this; and what's more, why should you have any in a case like this? I consider myself a forgiving person when people make mistakes, but this is nothing more than an animal that needs to be put down.
Reply to this comment
by commenter777 January 27, 2012 8:20 PM EST
I would pay a lot of money to be able to be the person that gets to end this ******s existence. The piece of **** doused gas on those girls and then lit the house on fire after raping the 11 year old little girl??? Death by injection is way too good for it. It is also going to live for many years in prison before it gets capital punishment. It is going to get free medical and dental. If it gets a toothache it's going to get free dental care then go back to it's cell and watch tv or read a book. It makes me SICK!!!
Reply to this comment
by jeannettelj January 27, 2012 7:41 PM EST
Sentenced to death? In what 10, 15, or 20 years all paid for by the tax payers? Give me a break. This guy will have it better that he ever did on the "outside." Free food and free medical care for however many years it takes to finally carry out his death sentence. The system needs to change. I am not a young woman but I hope that I am still alive to see these two animals get their due.
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by noloyalisti January 27, 2012 6:49 PM EST
I read a few more of the post from the violent and primitive eye for an eye Sheeple. We have a serious underlying problem in America that we don't want to face. We need to fund and improve our commons so that we do not have to read stories like this (ie we could AVOID a lot of the crime and violence in the first place).

But that would take a real country set up for the 99% instead of the Top 1% who love death and violence. They make gads of money on it. Shame, shame, shame on us.
Reply to this comment
by fedup12 January 27, 2012 7:34 PM EST
loser never had a family member tortured and killed.

way to go political on this ********.
by djseavy January 27, 2012 6:46 PM EST
The real deterrent the death penalty could have is if you die the same way you kill your victims. Being "humanely put to sleep" is far too kind. I realize we have capital punishment, not capital torture, but why should we extend so much concern for someone that did what he and his partner in crime did? I'm not a fan of the death penalty, but if we're going to have it, use it. Don't let people sit on death row for decades, and don't make the punishment so sterile that we show more concern for the condemned than they showed for their victims.
Reply to this comment
by noloyalisti January 27, 2012 6:45 PM EST
Again, 30m years of failed Reaganomics has gutted public education and we have never had a good health care system that deals with ALL Americans.

If we have the Top 1% pay their fair share for the first time since before Reagan, we could make sure that people's need are taken care of before profits.

We will avoid many, many more horrific crimes like this because we will be caring for everyone like we should. We could give people like this psychiatric care that they need and save lives.
Reply to this comment
by jediservant January 27, 2012 8:45 PM EST
Very stupid comment. To a liberal it is always someone else fault.
by realtimecoffee January 27, 2012 3:23 PM EST
by Riverjump January 27, 2012 1:54 PM EST
He has family and supporters that don't want him to die. Better watch them..
--
I guess I can understand family wanting to spare him, but 'supporters'?? Who in the hell would support this guy?
Reply to this comment
by Riverjump January 27, 2012 3:49 PM EST
If it was your brother or sister? You'd want him spared. The rest of us? Sorry dude but... You committed terrible stuff for nothing. Now you pay. The worst part for we that will still be here is why? How can one be driven to take folks lives like that? Or at all? Jeez I'd give ya a few bucks if ya need it.
by commenter777 January 27, 2012 8:13 PM EST
Hi Riverjump: I have a gun aimed at a puppy's head and I'll shoot if you don't find a way to get a lot of money to me. :)
by idiotforreading January 27, 2012 3:17 PM EST
Death is too good for this scum. Immortality is a better punishment.
Reply to this comment
by Coyote1952 January 27, 2012 3:13 PM EST
Let him Burn!
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