Connecticut home invasion killer seeks new trial

HARTFORD, Conn.-- One of two men who killed a mother and her two daughters in a 2007 Connecticut home invasion is seeking a new trial, saying recordings of non-emergency police phone lines were withheld from the defense, the Associated Press reports.

Lawyers for Joshua Komisarjevsky asked the state Supreme Court last week to hold an evidentiary hearing, reverse Komisarjevsky's convictions and order a new trial.

The Hartford Courant reports that 41 taped calls from three internal Cheshire, Conn. police lines were not turned over to the defense before Komisarjevsky's conviction in the 2007 killing of Jennifer Petit and daughters Hayley and Michaela.

Among the recordings were calls in which police told SWAT team members a hostage negotiator not to go to the scene, according to the Hartford Courant.

His lawyers say the recordings would have proved a defense theory that the police response to the Cheshire home invasion was inadequate‑-an effort to question the credibility of police witnesses.

Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes are on death row for the killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela.

Prosecutors say the recordings were given to the defense and don't raise any significant appeal issues.