February 11, 2009 4:29 PM
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Home Invasion Suspects' Parole Questioned
Steven Hayes, Joshua Komisarjevsky, Cheshire, Connecticut home invasion suspects (CBS/AP)
(CBS/AP)
State officials are re-examining their policies after learning two convicted burglars out on parole are accused of killing three family members during a home invasion and arson.
Robert Farr, chairman of the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Parole, said the panel went by the rules, because the suspects didn't have a history of violent crimes.
"That's why this is sort of shocking — because it doesn't fit a normal mode," Farr said.
Farr acknowledged the board did not have as much information as it should have had about the men's records, such as the transcript from a 2002 sentencing. In that hearing, a Bristol Superior Court judge called Joshua Komisarjevsky "a cold, calculating predator."
Farr also said the board has not been receiving transcripts of sentencing hearings, even thought it is supposed to get them.
The board was also unaware that Komisarjevsky had worn night-vision goggles and used a knife to slash window screens in his prior burglaries.
"If we'd had it, we would have a little better picture of the individual," Farr Matt Dwyer of CBS radio affiliate WTIC-AM. "I'm not suggesting these would have made any big difference. Maybe we would have kept them in a little longer, but at some point these guys were both going to get out."
Komisarjevsky, 26, of Cheshire, and Steven Hayes, 44, of Winsted, were arraigned Tuesday on charges of assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, arson, larceny and risk of injury to children. Bond was set at $15 million each. They are being held in separate facilities, and apart from other inmates.
The state medical examiner confirmed that Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, was strangled and that her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, died of smoke inhalation. The deaths were ruled homicides.
The girls' father, Dr. William Petit Jr., a prominent endocrinologist, was beaten and bound in the basement but managed to escape. He remained in serious but stable condition on Wednesday.
"He's doing OK physically. Emotionally he is devastated and still worried about others," said Petit's pastor, the Rev. Stephen Volpe.
Investigators were still uncertain why Komisarjevsky and Hayes chose the Petit family. They know the pair followed Hawke-Petit and Michaela home from grocery shopping Sunday night, then went to a Wal-Mart to purchase a rope and an air rifle, and waited in their car. But was there some connection with the Petits?
Law enforcement sources told the Hartford Courant that while on parole, Hayes was working for a landscaping company. Police were trying to learn whether that company had done work for the Petits.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Michael Dearington said he had not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty.
"I know the public consensus is they should be fried tomorrow," he said.
Dearington has only pursued the death penalty in one case, for the murders of a mother and two young children in 2000. The jury did not sentence the killer to death.
He would have ample grounds in this case: Connecticut law allows the death penalty for murder while committing first-degree sexual assault, murder during a kidnapping, murder of two or more people at the same time, and murder of someone under age 16, as well as in three other instances.
"There's five ways you can charge capital felony in this case," the state's most experienced and successful prosecutor in death penalty cases, Waterbury State's Attorney John A. Connelly, told the Waterbury Republican-American
Robert Farr, chairman of the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Parole, said the panel went by the rules, because the suspects didn't have a history of violent crimes.
"That's why this is sort of shocking — because it doesn't fit a normal mode," Farr said.
Farr acknowledged the board did not have as much information as it should have had about the men's records, such as the transcript from a 2002 sentencing. In that hearing, a Bristol Superior Court judge called Joshua Komisarjevsky "a cold, calculating predator."
Farr also said the board has not been receiving transcripts of sentencing hearings, even thought it is supposed to get them.
The board was also unaware that Komisarjevsky had worn night-vision goggles and used a knife to slash window screens in his prior burglaries.
"If we'd had it, we would have a little better picture of the individual," Farr Matt Dwyer of CBS radio affiliate WTIC-AM. "I'm not suggesting these would have made any big difference. Maybe we would have kept them in a little longer, but at some point these guys were both going to get out."
Komisarjevsky, 26, of Cheshire, and Steven Hayes, 44, of Winsted, were arraigned Tuesday on charges of assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, arson, larceny and risk of injury to children. Bond was set at $15 million each. They are being held in separate facilities, and apart from other inmates.
The state medical examiner confirmed that Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, was strangled and that her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, died of smoke inhalation. The deaths were ruled homicides.
The girls' father, Dr. William Petit Jr., a prominent endocrinologist, was beaten and bound in the basement but managed to escape. He remained in serious but stable condition on Wednesday.
"He's doing OK physically. Emotionally he is devastated and still worried about others," said Petit's pastor, the Rev. Stephen Volpe.
Investigators were still uncertain why Komisarjevsky and Hayes chose the Petit family. They know the pair followed Hawke-Petit and Michaela home from grocery shopping Sunday night, then went to a Wal-Mart to purchase a rope and an air rifle, and waited in their car. But was there some connection with the Petits?
Law enforcement sources told the Hartford Courant that while on parole, Hayes was working for a landscaping company. Police were trying to learn whether that company had done work for the Petits.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Michael Dearington said he had not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty.
"I know the public consensus is they should be fried tomorrow," he said.
Dearington has only pursued the death penalty in one case, for the murders of a mother and two young children in 2000. The jury did not sentence the killer to death.
He would have ample grounds in this case: Connecticut law allows the death penalty for murder while committing first-degree sexual assault, murder during a kidnapping, murder of two or more people at the same time, and murder of someone under age 16, as well as in three other instances.
"There's five ways you can charge capital felony in this case," the state's most experienced and successful prosecutor in death penalty cases, Waterbury State's Attorney John A. Connelly, told the Waterbury Republican-American
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