Conn. Home Invasion: Jury Chooses Death Penalty for Steven Hayes
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CBS/WFSB/AP) The jury for convicted killer Steven Hayes has sentenced him to death for his role in the 2007 murders of a Connecticut mother and her two daughters.
Jurors in New Haven Superior Court voted unanimously to send Hayes to death row after deliberating over the span of four days. The judge will impose the sentence.
According to CBS affiliate WFSB, jurors spent both Saturday and Sunday deliberating.
Last month the jury of 5 men and 7 women convicted Hayes earlier of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit, in their Cheshire home.
Dr. William Petit was the sole survivor of the home invasion. He spoke to the press after the sentence was delivered, saying that it was not about revenge.
"Vengeance belongs to the Lord," Petit said. "This is about justice. We need to have some rules in a civilized society."
As Judge John Blue stepped out briefly Sunday to attend church, jurors kept working. For the first time since getting the case back on Friday, there had been no notes, questions, or any testimony read back.
Hayes was convicted of six capital felony charges, three murder counts and two charges of sexually assaulting Hawke-Petit. The capital offenses were for killing two or more people, the killing of a person under 16, murder in the course of a sexual assault and three counts of intentionally causing a death during a kidnapping. He was sentenced to death for all six.