Explicit cellphone photos of youngest Petit girl shown in court
(CBS/AP) NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Jurors on Wednesday in the Connecticut home invasion trial of Josh Komisarjevsky viewed graphic photographs he took with his cellphone of the youngest victim, 11-year-old Michaela Petit.
Pictures: Petit Family Murders
John Farnham, a state police investigator, took the stand Wednesday and testified that he found eight photographs on Komisarjevsky's cell phone after he was arrested in connection with the 2007 attack of the Petit family home. The brutal home invasion eventually killed Michaela, her 17-year-old sister Hayley and their mother, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, reports the Hartford Courant.Six of the cellphone images showed Michaela dressed in a skirt and a sleeveless shirt lying on a bed with her arms up above her head. Her face was covered with a cloth, which Komisarjevsky has admitted was a pillowcase, according to the state forensics science examiner, reports the paper.
The photos were taken from 7:27 a.m. until 9:14 a.m. on July 23, 2007, the day of the killings.
A photo, taken at 7:51 a.m., showed a close-up of the girl's private area. Other images, her laying on her back and one with her legs tied, reports the Courant.
Komisarjevsky is charged with sexually assaulting Michaela and Chief State Medical Examiner Wayne Carver testified that he found evidence of that in an autopsy.
According to testimony earlier in the week, Komisarjevsky told detectives that he took the photos and planned to send them to his accomplice Steven Hayes in case Hawke-Petit did not cooperate with Hayes' demands that she withdraw money from a bank. Hayes was convicted last year and is currently on death row.
Jurors on Wednesday also saw text messages between Komisarjevsky and Hayes.
"I'm chomping at the bit to get started," Hayes wrote, according to testimony. "Need a margarita soon."
After Hayes sent another text later, Komisarjevsky replied that he was putting his daughter to bed, adding "Hold your horses."
"Dude," Hayes responded, "the horses want to get loose. LOL."
The two men broke into the Petit home in the middle of the night, and Hayes later drove Hawke-Petit to bank to withdraw money, prosecutors said.
Hawke-Petit was strangled after she returned to the home. Michaela and Hayley died of smoke inhalation. The two girls were tied to their beds and left to die in a fire authorities say the men set after dousing the house with gas.
Komisarjevsky admits he beat Dr. William Petit with a bat and molested his younger daughter but he blames Hayes for the three killings. Hayes blamed Komisarjevsky for escalating what the men said was supposed to be a robbery. Prosecutors say both men are equally responsible.
Complete coverage of the Petit family murders on Crimesider