Home Invasion Jury Hears Chilling 911 Tapes

(CBS)  Chilling bank surveillance tape played in a Connecticut court Wednesday showed Jennifer Hawke Petit minutes before her death, reports CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano.

Petit is seen as she withdraws $15,000, nervously alerting a teller that she's getting money for men holding her family hostage. As Petit walked away, the bank manager called 911.

911 Tape (Bank Manager): We have a lady who is in our bank right now who says her husband and children are being held at their house. That if the police are told, they will kill her children and the husband.

By the time the police encountered the suspects outside the Petit home, 33 minutes later, Petit and her daughters - 11-year-old Mikayla and 17-year-old Hayley - were dead. Petit had been raped and strangled. Her daughters died after inhaling smoke as their home was set on fire. Her husband -- who had been beaten and bound - barely escaped to a neighbor's house.

911 Tape (Neighbor): I got Bill Petit here,whose hurt, my neighbor.

911 Tape (Officer): You two, get in the house, get in the house. I need the 101 here now. Head injury.

Questions in court centered around why the police took so long to try to rescue the family. An officer testified that they were following hostage protocol.

Dr. William Petit was the sole survivor of the brutal home invasion. Earlier this week he testified the men - Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky - were strangers who threw him in the basement almost immediately.

The suspects wanted to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences, but Petit would not agree.

Since his family was killed, he has advocated to keep the death penalty in Connecticut. Though the legislature voted to get rid of it, the governor vetoed the bill. This case is now viewed as a referendum on the death penalty.

[mb91764]

let me start we a little story of a friend of my,a female.This guy that kept harassing her,treat to kill her.Well,we go to the police fill out complaint and all that stuff.He got serve ,got out of jail.Keeps coming atfer her.I go talk the cops and ask them to do something before she get kill.They say"well we have wait till he does do it to arrest him"In other words you got to wait till he kills my friend to really lock him up.And that is the true story.I believe the way the laws are sit up to protect the crooks civil rights,and you are just a victim that got in the way.there are way to many time when the police could have step in but some stupid rules keep there hands tye.Have not notice even when a crook is caught and its clear that he the it.Theres come his defense lawyers holler about his civil rights being voilated.This two guys will never face true justice,because in this nations only the crooks have civil rights, victims are just that a victims.

[documemts]

I hear what your saying. What you say is true. The police protect the "community" but they won't do a thing to protect you. Your on your own.

[OthugoisaLOSER1]

Taking someone like THESE two THUGS out would NOT BE DIFFICULT AT ALL!!!!!!
I hate to say it but AFTERWARDS You could see me with a VERY BIG GRIN on my face.........

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money06]

Okay, I couldn't really make out the small picture in the headline crawl. Initially, I believed they were showing a picture of one of the killers in this case and thought, 'Oh my God, David Spade is a murderer!'

[mswolfestock]

They should be "Drawn and Quartered." This form of execution goes back to the Middle Ages, or maybe the Inquisition but I think it would be appropriate for these two sub-humans.

Each of their arms and legs would be tied to one of four horses. Then the horses would be commanded to walk away from one another, thus pulling them into four pieces, or quartered.

Otherwise if this can't be arranged, just put them in the exercise yard of any prison and let Prison Justice take its course.

[MalloryDavis]

mswolfstock: The type of behavior of these two will get them honor in prison. No such thing as 'prison justice' for these crimes. Child molesting is mete with prison justice.

[valopinion]

It's not the teller's fault........but had she refused to issue the money due to lack of identification, even the killers would believe that she would need to go back home for it before being able to withdraw the money and that could have bought VALUABLE TIME.

[koko98-2009]

This is one protocal that needs to be scrapped immediately.

[guyfrompa46]

These scum should be killed immediately.

[guyfrompa46]

ffddlin - You're pathetic

[Idahonative]

why he made a good point

[Idahonative]

do u think they need to live after this?

[valopinion]

What this family endured is EVERYONE'S WORST NIGHTMARE only it was terribly real for them. Simply put, the killers lives deserve the same regard that they showed for their victims. Rapists/murderers are the vilest forms of life on this planet and the sooner we eradicate society of this filth, the better off EVERYONE will be. Sparing their lives would be nothing short of defecating on the graves of the victims. They do not deserve one element of human decency shown to them. Why didn't they just let the one who tried to kill himself succeed??????

[cepe10-2009]

The cops who intentionally did not respond for half and hour should be facing the death penalty.