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[Rain falling]

[Thunder]

MAN: Cheshire Emergency.

WOMAN: My name is
Mary Lyons.

I'm the banking
center manager.

We have a lady who is
in our bank right now

who says that her
husband and children

are being held
at their house.

The people are in a car
outside the bank.

She is getting $15,000
to bring out to them,

that if the police
are told, they will kill

the children
and the husband.

Her name is Jennifer
Petit--P-e-t-i-t.

OK. Is she
still in the bank?

Yes, she is.

OK. She's being
held or...

Her--her husband--
husband and family
is being held?

Yes.
At their house?

Yes. They're tied up.

She said they
drove her here.

I'm trying to look
and see where
she's gone.

She went outside
but I don't--

oh, wait, I see her
walking now.

She is petrified.

♪

[Police radio]

And we have--

Again, facts like that
I can't comment on.

And a male survivor.

MAN: Upon arrival at
the victims' residence,

the first officer observed
two male subjects

exit private residence
and also observed

the private residence
fully engulfed in flame.

The suspect vehicle
rammed the Cheshire
police officer's car

and continued
on Sorghum Mill Road.

WOMAN: Tonight, police removed
the body of one of the victims

after a home invasion
leaves a mother and her
two daughters dead.

SECOND WOMAN: The suspects,

26-year-old Joshua Komisarjevsky
of Cheshire

and 44-year-old
Steven Hayes of Winsted

were caught while trying
to escape in the Petits' car.

Now, the only question
remains that why

did this happen
to the Petit family.

♪

There's not one word
that I can use to
describe our town,

but it's
a phenomenal town.

[Crowd cheering]

MAN: It's known as the bedding
capital of Connecticut,

for bedding plants.

SECOND MAN: It was historically
a farming community,

a lot of family farms, and as

the state of Connecticut grew,

as the cities surrounding
the town of Cheshire grew,

it ultimately became
a bedroom community,

which I think is probably
the way most people
think of Cheshire.

♪

WOMAN: Returning now
to tonight's top story.

A mother and her two daughters
are dead,

their father severely injured,
after a home invasion

stunned the town of Cheshire.

SECOND WOMAN: The suspects
apparently set the house on fire

as well as some of the victims.

THIRD WOMAN: Jennifer Petit,
her cause of death

has been asphyxiation
from strangulation.

Her daughters
Hayley and Michaela
died from smoke inhalation.

♪

WOMAN: I got a phone call here
on Monday afternoon

from Billy's sister, and I said,

"Hannah, it's about the girls,
isn't it?"

And she said,
"These two men came in

"at what they think was
3:00 in the morning

"and they beat Billy really
badly with a baseball bat

"and his head's all split apart,

"and then they proceeded to do

"all these awful things
to the girls,

and they tied them
to their beds."

"About 9:00, Jen was made
to go to the bank

"and withdraw money and then

"when she came back
from the bank,

"they set the house on fire
and killed them all

"so that they could try to cover
up their tracks, I guess,

but they got the two guys,"

and all I could think was,
"Who cares if they got
the two guys?

"We don't have our
loved ones anymore,

and that's all we had."

Wild lingonberry.
Have you ever
had that?

Lingonberry.

It's from England,
somewhere.

CYNTHIA: The hardest thing
I think I've ever had
to do in my life

was to tell my parents that
one of their other children,

their only other child,
was dead,

and their two grandchildren,
two of their four.

MAN: She quickly told us that
the home was set on fire but

Bill escaped.

We went to the hospital and got
to see Bill for the first time.

He was badly beaten and he

tried to apologize to us
for not saving our daughter

and our grandchildren.

And we had
to convince him that

he was in no condition
to be able to save anyone

and we were grateful...

that he was alive.

that he was alive.

This is the last--sort of
picture that we had together.

My sister--she was beautiful,

and she was usually, like,
the lead in the plays at school.

She was on the homecoming court.

She was captain of
the Trojanette team.

So she really was
kind of like a winner person.

DONALD: Bill was
a committed,
dedicated doctor.

Would leave at 7:00
in the morning

and not be back home
until maybe 9:00,
9:30.

CAROLYN: When Jen was diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis,

Hayley really wanted
to raise money because

she felt like if she
didn't do anything,

it was possible that
her mother could die.

MAN: Hayley was able to raise
a little over $50,000

being a spokesperson for the MS
Society here in Connecticut,

receiving awards for that,
although you'd never know it.

GIRL: I hardly knew about Hayley
helping with MS,

and that was just because
she was just so quiet
about everything,

and she could have bragged
about everything she did.

I mean, she was
a straight-"A" student.

I think about her all the time.

It's hard not
to think about her.

You'll find just something
to relate to her about.

♪

MARYBELLE: Michaela sometimes
shied away from adults,

but she saw somebody was
having a difficult time,

she went to them
and tried to help

with whatever she could.

♪

DONALD: Their lives were
just centered around

a sense of sociability, justice.

And if I didn't smile about it,
I'd have to cry.

MAN: Apparently,
these two losers followed

Jennifer Hawke-Petit
and her 11-year-old daughter

to the Stop and Shop
on Sunday night.

They followed them.

And the first Cheshire police
officer to arrive at the scene

heard at least one of the girls
screaming from inside the house.

SECOND MAN: Those animals,
what they did

to those poor people
of Cheshire,

I can't even believe that
they're gonna give them
a trial.

What kind of laws do we
have in this state

where they don't just
execute those animals?

Well, Tony, the reaction
by the public certainly

is for that,
but it is...

[Gunshots]

To destroy a family the way
those two did--heinous.

My verdict--fry them.
Hang them.

Do whatever you gotta do.

Make sure they ain't gonna
walk this earth again.

♪

WOMAN: Can we switch?

Yup.

You need more?
Yeah. I'm gonna need
a little more.

I don't think evil like this has
happened since "In Cold Blood."

I really don't.
Not that I know of.

And we went from being a quiet,
peaceful town in New England

to overnight people installing
alarm systems

and panic buttons
and panic rooms.

♪

WOMAN: People in town
refer to it as Cheshire's 9/11.

You know, life was one way
and then it's another.

♪

MINISTER: God has promised
to be with us through thick

and through thin.

All other ground
is indeed sinking sand.

♪

Well, first of all...
thank you

for all coming out today to
honor the memory of the girls.

I'd really like to say
thank you to...

people from all over
the state of Connecticut

and all over the country.

We've been...

surrounded with love and cards
and flowers and prayer

from east to west
and north to south.

I met Jen at Children's Hospital
in Pittsburgh.

4 Med.
She was a new nurse

and I was the know-it-all
third-year medical student.

I was trying to correct Jen on
how to take the blood pressure

the correct way.

[Laughter]

I had about 3 minutes of
experience at that point.

[Laughter]

But it became clear
pretty quickly that

she knew more about pediatrics
and how to care for kids

than I had ever known.

One of the nice things...

CYNTHIA: Billy had
never smelled smoke.

He had never seen a fire.

He had said that
the only thing he ever heard

of my sister was her, like,
pleading nicely

with these two men--"Can you
please let me get my purse,

or they'll know that something
is up at the bank."

He had his legs tied together

and he hopped up the outside
basement steps

and he said,
"But sometimes I wish

"I would've just
gone to the inside

"because then maybe,
even if I had died in there,

I could've done something."

And I said, "No, Billy.

"You couldn't have
done anything.

"Attached to a pole with your
hands and feet tied

"in the basement with about
6 to 8 3- to 4-inch

openings in your skull?"

And we knew that the police

did not help my brother-in-law
out of the house.

So the chances that he lived
surviving the blood loss

are just miraculous in my mind.

WOMAN: Joining me
on the phone right now is

Lieutenant Jay Markella,
the public information officer

for the Cheshire
Police Department.

Thank you for joining us.

JAY: Thank you
for having me.

WOMAN: Very little detail
coming out, though,

about exactly
what happened.

Was it when
police showed up

that they found
the house on fire

and caught these
suspects?

Because they were caught
leaving the burning house.

Yeah. It worked out
so officers arrived
on scene

just as the suspects
were leaving
the residence.

OK. I don't know how far
we should go back, but--

I'm a very
detective-like person.

I like to know details,
and until I know the details

around things, it's hard
to figure things out.

I would like to know why my
sister and Steven Hayes

weren't stopped at the bank,

why she wasn't held at the bank.

♪

There were some police officers
that, off the record,

said to people in the town
that they heard the girls

screaming in the end.

Did they try to enter?
Did they not try to enter?

And why weren't there policemen
looking in the windows?

My sister had no blinds
on her windows.

I just want the facts.

And nobody has told us
what really happened.

MAN: And today,
a state prosecutor said

he'll seek the death penalty
for Komisarjevsky and Hayes.

Today, the state charged the men
with 6 counts each

of capital felony murder.

MAN: I was driving back from
the Adirondacks with my wife,

coming through the Berkshires,
not a care in the world,

and I get a cell phone call.

Probably why I turned pale
was because,

you know, I had
a sense as a lawyer

where this was headed
right from the beginning.

You know, capital case,
death penalty case,
high profile.

And in my own head,
I knew right away

that that case was
coming in to this office

and that I'd be involved.

[Siren wailing]

Steven Hayes
and Mr. Komisarjevsky

were coming into Meriden court
for arraignment.

Right from
the first time that we met,

Steven Hayes was
suicidal, depressed,

just doesn't really understand
how this all happened.

His record is lengthy.

He's got all these burglaries.

Most involve car burglaries,
and in this state, burglary

includes the break-in of a car.

And they were all daytime.

He'd sit and watch.
People would park their cars.

They'd go walking on a trail.

Break into their car and take
a laptop or a radio or a phone.

So you were not dealing
with someone who

had the kind of classic
history of violence

and all of a sudden
stepped into the big time

in terms of
the next level of violence.

You just didn't have it.

There was no reason that anyone

would ever look at that history
and think,

"Well, this guy's gonna do
something really bad one day."

♪

GIRL: The first time that
I found out about my dad

I was probably about
5 years old.

He would, like, take me
to the movies

and he really tried to be
that father figure to me, but

for whatever reason, he just
couldn't stay out of trouble

and so when he
went back to jail,

like, he would write to me
and I would write back

and that was our way
of communicating.

♪

"Dear Alicia, hello, honey,
and how are you doing?

"I haven't heard from you
in a while

"and neither has Grandma.

"I want so bad
never to hurt you again

"and I feel like I am
because I'm still here.

"Every day, I wake up wondering
if today will be the day

"that my name is called.

"The stress is
almost unbearable...

When I first found out
about the incident,

I just came back
from the police academy.

And my mind was just like--
I told him to call me

if something was wrong.

I needed to talk to him.
I needed to get answers
from him.

What made him get together
with this one guy

and do what they did?

Whose idea was it?

Was it just one

or was it both or
did it just happen?

It's just like,
there's no easy answer,

and I might not like
the answer I get,

but it's all--
it's all just "why?"

♪

WOMAN: The details
of 26-year-old
Joshua Komisarjevsky's past

are more in-depth, and some say
even more disturbing.

His rap sheet reveals a...

MAN: We were right
in the kitchen here

and we got a call
from my brother Ben,

and he said, "I think
Josh has been involved

in this home invasion."

And I said to him,
I said, "Home invasion?

This was a murder.
And Josh was involved?"

So you see the name
spelled out,

the Komisarjevsky name,

and you sit there
and you hold your head
in your hands

and you can't
believe it.

And you want to cry.

♪

This young man's
a monster,
and that is not

the way that we as
members of this
family behave.

We spent all of our time
in Cheshire

and we lived in a home
that was a home of arts
and letters.

This is my aunt
Vera Komisarjevsky,

one of
the foremost actresses
on the Russian stage,

and there's a theater
in St. Petersburg

that's named after her,
and this is my father

Theodore Komisarjevsky,
theater director,

architect,
costume designer.

♪

When we drove up
to Cheshire,

my brother's house was
just swarmed with media

knocking on the door,
trying to get statements
from them.

I think it's hard
for anybody

to be able to deal
with that kind of
a situation,

but probably
more so for them

because they
were individuals
who basically had

withdrawn from many
aspects of public life.

♪

They ultimately posted
a notice on the outside
of their door,

but that was it,
and from that time on,

they've had
nothing to say.

♪

MAN: It was so disappointing,
because I knew

I was the last person,
therapeutically,

that met with Josh
and could really

paint a picture of him
in a different light,

and I knew that the media
and most people's opinion of him

would go against what I saw
and what I knew.

Josh just wanted to do
better things with his life.

Staying clean,
reconnecting with his family,

and possibly going forward
with an education

to become an architect.

♪

I saw someone who created
some beautiful designs.

These sketches.

I mean, this kid was amazing.

This is something
that's unnatural.

This is pure talent.

♪

He had to have practiced this
and worked on this for years.

♪

But when we talk about the--
just the pure evil,

how am I gonna go in there
and tell them

that this was a good kid,

and that I was
really close to him,

after what he did?

Joshua was a little,
skinny, frail kid.

I saw him behind the bars.

He had on his cream-colored
jail uniform.

He was slight.
He was polite.

He's adopted.
He went from regular school
special ed to home school.

This whole package
didn't make sense to me.

Burglary, burglary, burglary,
burglary, and burglary.

Genius that he is, and he is
a genius in some respects,

with a photographic memory
and attention to detail that

no normal mind
could possibly retain,

he told them every burglary
he did.

♪

He knew every item he took,
passports,

what dumpsters he threw it in.

♪

Joshua could get into
a third floor,

steal things, know which
denominations of bills he took

a year later or two years later.

Tell you where each wallet was,

what kind of pants
they were taken from,

where the pants were--on
the floor or on the bedpost,

in the closet.

Stay there for hours,
not get caught.

♪

Joshua used relatively
sophisticated equipment
for a burglar--

night vision goggles,
latex gloves.

After he robbed a house, he
would stay there, on occasion,

and listen to
the people breathing,

and go from room to room,
listening to
the occupants breathing,

for no apparent purpose.

That was the frightening
part of it.

He'd rob state troopers' houses,
which takes some guts.

And I said, "Judge,
he needs to be watched.

"This kid is sick.

"You're never gonna
see him again or he's gonna be

"the worst criminal
to pass through these doors,

because that's the kind
of a mind he's got."

♪

There's no obvious flag here.

WOMAN: No obvious flag.
The new chairman of the Board

of Pardons and Paroles says

that the two suspects in the
brutal Cheshire home invasion

and triple murder
were capable of doing

what they allegedly did.

There's no evidence that we've
seen yet that they were

recently--failed any drug tests.

They were both employed.
They were both living

in what appeared to be
stable households.

♪

MAN: Komisarjevsky was
arrested for 18 home invasions,

and the warning bells in there

should have been ringing
very loudly.

Under a 10-year-old law,
prosecutors are supposed to

order a transcript of
the sentencing proceeding

and send that along
to the parole board.

I used to be a prosecutor.

I helped write this law
I'm talking about.

Because I knew that
it's at the sentencing

that you really find out
everything you need to know

about this offender
and the crime.

The problem is
none of this ever got

to the Department
of Corrections.

None of this ever got
to the parole board.

So from the point of view of
the Department of Corrections,

they got first time ever
incarcerated inmate.

Young, white, bright,
home schooled, remorseful,

never identified as a person
with high mental health needs

because he didn't come across
as that type of person.

He was a real manipulator.

The typical sentence
for burglary

is a maximum of 10 years
in prison for each offense.

Komisarjevsky could have
still been locked up

for two lifetimes.

It was possible.
It didn't happen.

♪

[Rain, thunder]

WOMAN: I went to Bank of America
to open a new account

and Mrs. Petit was
at the counter.

All I saw was white blond hair
and a white piece of paper.

The teller handing it
to the manager

and the manager really just
running right behind me
to her office.

And she just left.

It's very delicate.

3 lives were taken
that should not have been.

Things happened
in a manner that--

and I'm not saying the police--

because when you have
a hostage situation,

you wait until--
you have to assess,

but she was screaming
for her life.

"He's in the basement."
Conscious.

Bound by the ankles.
Daughter loose upstairs.

Very strong girl.

How did it happen?

Cheshire Police.
No one is talking.

No one.

MAN: Lieutenant,
good morning, sir.

LIEUTENANT:
Good morning, Dan.

First of all,
the Cheshire
Police Department

in their response
to this initial call

was absolutely
outstanding.

They did a stellar job.

The chief and all
those personnel
and Cheshire P.D.

deserve a lot of
praise and credit.

MAN: People are asking
about a timeline, you know,

when did this occur,
when did that occur?

We don't detail
that information.

That's--that's--that's
not something

that really the public
really needs to be

concerned about at this
point in time

and it has more of an impact
on the case itself.

You know, the type of injury,
the scene

that one may try to envision
in their mind,

we're not gonna detail that.

We're not gonna discuss,
you know, how someone died

over and above manner and cause,

which we'll give manner
and cause of death

but we're not gonna get into
great graphic
detailed description.

You know, we're not
gonna talk about assaults.

We're not gonna
talk about weapons.

MAN: Say what we don't know.

What happened.

And the next--

the ensuing
half-hour.

Yeah.

Between the time
Hayes and
Hawke-Petit

returned home?

Mm-hmm.
And the time--

I don't want to say,
"The first
Cheshire police."

No.
They were arrested

coming out of
the house?

Time they
were arrested.

Yeah. "That may
only be answered
at trial."

MAN: If you can answer
some of the questions,
go ahead and do that.

Yup.
And then...

MAN: There's
so little information
and there's so many

rumors and innuendo circulating.

People are clamoring
to find out what happened.

The "Day" possibly proposed

that William Petit was
somehow involved.

Speculation.

The sooner,
I think, we get all
the information,

the sooner folks can
really start healing,

because the unknown is
just as frightening

as what happened, in a way.

You have all these people
saying all this stuff, you know?

Just tell us what happened,
and then we can deal with it.

It's almost like
not knowing is--

kind of keeps that wound
open, you know?

I don't know.
It's gonna be a while

till we see trial, so...

♪

THOMAS: It's starting to
pan out that the state's claim

is pretty strong,
overwhelmingly strong.

And that what's at stake
at this case is life or death.

You have the gasoline
aspect of it.

You know, the sexual assault.
Horrible crime scene photos.

You have the right defendant.
You have the right perpetrator.

What do we do?
Isn't this the case
that death is warranted?

And, um...and I can't
accept that.

Once you allow the death penalty
to go forward,

then the next case comes along,

and it's OK for the next case

because that crime
was horrifying,

and what if that's a mistake?

What if that's an innocent guy?

And this notion of that,
if you execute somebody,

you know, you'll save money.

You know, that's the furthest
thing from the truth.

You know, we have pretty much
a blank check.

So I'm reminding everybody,
listen,

Steven Hayes is ready to plead
guilty to all of these charges

and take a sentence of life
without the possibility--

at least it'll be over now.

You know?
There'd be--the case
would be done,

there wouldn't be any appeals,

we'd stop spending
all this money,

we would not have
to traumatize everybody

with the facts of this case.

♪

♪

DONALD: As a United Methodist
minister,

I am a minister of
a church at large

that is opposed to
capital punishment.

That has put me between
a rock and a hard place.

We certainly don't
approve of torture
of people, but

we feel that
there has to be
some justice in

how people
are dealt with

when they are
so inhumane

in their treatment
of others.

♪

WILLIAM: You know,
it just makes me want to cry.

Jennifer, Hayley, and Michaela,

they were kind
and they were sweet.

They looked out
for other people,

they cared about other people,
and spent their time

helping people, so for them
to suffer, you know,

horrific--horrific deaths
seems incredibly unjust.

I mean, it would seem
incredibly unjust for anybody,

but obviously they were
the 3 people

that I knew and loved the best
in the world,

and it just--the contra--

contra--the opposition of the--

just absolute evil
that attacked us

versus the goodness
that they represented

is--is just worlds apart.

♪

[Sigh]

A benign visit
to the grocery store

to get milk, bread,
toilet paper.

Oh, and "People" magazine,

because a family
that my brother killed

is on the front cover.

And my brother's picture
is in it.

He raped a woman.
He choked her to death.

He poured gasoline
on two little girls

and he set them on fire.

How does a person do that?

♪

They paroled him in November
and he--he peed funny,

and so they threw him back,

and they paroled him
5 months later.

I--personally,
they're fucking stupid

because they don't get it.

You don't care enough
about the people in your society

to put these type of people
back out on the street.

And I want to say that--
it's really tough for me to say

because one of those people
is my brother.

Steven at birth
or soon thereafter.

Steven around 3.
Steven around 5.

Matthew around one,
Matthew around 3.

Then we get into these.

Steven, Matthew, Brian.

Where I got
the blond hair,
I have no idea.

Dad. That's where
you got it.

You, Kathryn,
and--and Steven

all had
the light hair.

Who is Steve?
He's manipulating,

he's deceptive,

and he's my brother.

God, look at that.

And I remember that.
See, look at where
his hands are.

I remember that day.
He was pinching me,
he was grabbing me.

I mean, I'm about to
frickin' burst out
in tears here.

He's just laughing
his little ass off.

Yeah.
Fuckin' noodge.

Deceiving.
Always. Manipulator.

"Mom, it's not me,
it's Matt."

Mom and her 3 boys.

And that's probably
the first Christmas

since 1979

that all 3 of us
were in the same
room for Christmas.

Only to go back
to jail again.

Mm-hmm.

You know, this is
the evolution of

Steven
in prison life.

Monday, when I
saw it on the news,

all's I heard was
that there was

the home invasion
and whatnot,

and it seemed like
something Steve would do.

But if he'd never--
...smashing of
the police cars

and the breaking
and entering
and stuff like that.

But the killing,
the raping,
and the burning.

That could've
been Josh.

I don't know who was
the mastermind.

Well, obviously,
neither one of them,

because they got caught,
and they did something--

Well, being a mastermind

doesn't mean that
you don't get caught.

Honestly, you know,
it is, it is

the equivalent of
the perfect storm.

If he wasn't smoking
drugs, then, you know,

I say flip the switch
and fuck the trial.

Flip the switch.

I hope it doesn't
even go that far.

As nasty as it sounds,

I hope somebody puts
a bullet in his head.

That's not gonna happen.
Outside the courtroom.

He's in
solitary confinement.

Yeah, well--
They will--they will
keep him away

from every
God-living soul.

When he's on his
way into the courtroom,

he has to
get out somewhere.

They're not gonna
risk his life,

because the state
wants to kill him.

They're not gonna
give that privilege up

to anybody else.

You know, I think
that it should be
the death penalty.

♪

Aah! Ha ha!

MAN: Both my daughters,
Clarice and Caroline,

had a relationship with Joshua,

and I believe that
he picked my daughters out

due to the fact that they looked
like they're very young.

When Josh wanted
to marry Caroline,

we had a phone conversation.

I don't know if Josh was asking
for my blessing,

but in that phone conversation,
I said, "Joshua,

"I have two major concerns.

One is I think you're
a career criminal."

And then the second thing
I shared with him

is that's he's a pedophile.

And in both of those, he--
he never really

changed his voice.

All I remember him saying is,
"I'm sorry you feel that way."

WOMAN: "Dear Caroline,
good evening, sweetheart.

"When I wake every morning, the
sun is just starting to rise.

"Its light dances
across your picture,

"radiating your beautiful eyes
and pretty smile.

"It's the best part of the day.

"A calming mix of hope, beauty,
and tranquility.

"Take care, Caroline. Smile.
Someone's thinking of you.

"Strength and honor,
sincerely, Joshua.

P.S.: Miss you."

We called Joshua
the hopeless romantic.

That was the biggest side
I loved about him,

because how many guys are
out there that are romantic?

You know?
Not very many,

and he was super romantic,
and that's the way I am.

I'm super romantic.

♪

When I went to Cheshire,

we would go around
the neighborhoods,

the rich neighborhoods,

and he'd look at
all these houses

and be like, "Man, you know,
I want to live in

something that nice
and that gorgeous."

He wanted to have a family.

He was like, "I want a family.
You know, a good family.

I don't want something
that's broken."

♪

"If I were home,
I would have sent flowers

"and some sort of
creative surprise

"with this little note
of admiration.

"Actually, if I were home,
I would have shown up in person

and, well, who knows."

♪

Me and Joshua did have a very
sexually active relationship

and he did like to tie me up

and, of course, you know,
I was the submissive one,

and sometimes I was
the dominant one.

But most of the time,
I was submissive.

♪

Joshua always asked me,
you know, "Is this too tight?"

"Are you OK?"
Joshua always was concerned.

♪

Joshua was definitely
a soul mate

and that's what
killed me the most.

[Crickets chirping]

I saw Steve and Josh together
every day, every day.

They were always talking.
Because Steve was--

Steve was very, very versed
in recovery.

Steve knew the N.A. book
back and front.

His nickname was "Mr. N.A."

And I think Josh kind of
absorbed a lot of it

and was able to get that
knowledge from Steve.

"For this addict,
drugs are not my main problem.

"I am my main problem--
my self-destructive

"attitude and behavior.

"What I like about getting high
is to escape my feelings.

"I've self-medicated so much

I don't know how
to feel anymore."

This is his own words.
He's writing this.

"Unresolved anger controls me.

"It haunts me day and night,

"sometimes to the point
of obsession,

even scary fantasy."

MATTHEW: One of the comments
that Steven

had shared with me was

he didn't know
what was gonna happen

but something big had to happen

because he had to get away
from my mother's house.

BRIAN: May to July,
in a one-bedroom apartment,

my mother in the bedroom,
Steven on the couch,
me on the floor.

And I didn't ever
want to be home.

I just didn't,
so I'd stay out until

I had to come home
to go to sleep,

because I couldn't stand to be
in the same room with him.

And then I'd be lying,
making believe I'm
sleeping in the morning

while he's having coffee
with my mom just

running all of his bullshit
out of his mouth

about how he's gonna
take care of her

and he's gonna be making
all this money.

MATTHEW: He's going to reshift
and reshape my mother's life

and get them a bigger place,
and, you know,

it's gonna be Steven
taking care of Mom and--

on a scale from here to here,

there was that much of me

that actually believed
it was gonna happen.

We got into a very physical
confrontation one night

and he broke 3 of my ribs
and gave me a black eye.

And, you know, I probably should
have had him arrested then

because that would have been
violation of probation.

Then he would've went to jail
and none of this
would've ever happened.

MATTHEW: Things were
already falling apart.

The lies that Steven had been
telling for the last two months

were coming back.

My mother was
finding out about it.

She was getting ready
to boot him out.

"I don't care what
you have to do.

"You need a halfway house.
I don't care.

Get out of my house."

So that was Friday.

I don't know the specifics
of what happened

Saturday and/or Sunday,
but, you know,

things were definitely
ramping up to something.

♪

MAN: A day or two before
the crime occurs,

Steven saw that his life was
once again going downhill,

and he says that he locks
himself in a hotel room

with crack cocaine and heroin

and goes on this drug binge

with a desire and hope
that he would kill himself.

♪

He leaves the hotel room
feeling like he's failed

at this suicide attempt,
leaving him, in his view,

more desperate.

He shows up at an A.A. meeting
in Hartford and there's Joshua.

And Joshua started
talking to him about

ways to make some real money.

The last contact I had with him
before the crime, I think, was

Sunday night?

We said our usual good nights
and "I love you" and then

the next morning, I tried
to get ahold of Joshua.

Me and my mom were
walking to the car
and I looked at my mom.

I go, "Mom, something's wrong."

I was like, "Joshua's
not answering his phone.

I think something happened."

I was like, "Something
definitely is wrong."

♪

Ms. Komisarjevsky
did call me on--

I'm pretty sure it was Monday,
and she told me that

Joshua went out late that night

and he was wearing
dark clothing, like his hoodie.

And Ms. Komisarjevsky told me
that he only does that

when he's going out
to rob houses.

[Tires screech]

♪

[Chipping ice]

The lights that the candles make
I think can help to radiate

the--the love that's needed.

♪

Well, they're gonna
ring the bells

at the churches for 3 minutes,

one minute for each of
the Petit women.

♪

WOMAN ON TV: You'll remember
that last summer,

at what police describe
as a random home invasion

and, of course, the darkness
that happened on that day

will never be forgotten,
but perhaps

for the first time tonight,
there is a glimmer of hope

that perhaps some good
could come from this evil.

Now, the money raised here
will stay in Connecticut.

It will go to the foundation
that was founded

by Dr. Petit in the names
of his daughters--

Michaela Miracle
and Hayley's Hope--and...

[Bell chiming]

MAN: Good morning, everyone.
PEOPLE: Good morning.

This is a hearing in--
a continued hearing

in a matter of
a complaint brought by

Colin Poitras
and the "Hartford Courant"

against chief of fire
department, town of Cheshire...

COLIN: We applied
through the town of Cheshire

for more material right after
the crime took place.

We finally got new
information yesterday.

A complete transcript from
the time of the initial call

from the bank official regarding
Mrs. Petit being at the bank

saying she might be held hostage

to the time the two suspects
were arrested

outside the Petit household.

And our review of this document,
which is heavily edited

to protect potential witnesses,
the town has told us,

raises the possibility
that officers on alert

could have maybe
stopped this car

with the suspect and Mrs. Petit

as they were coming home
from the bank,

perhaps could've beat them
back to the house,

could've separated
the two suspects at that time

and maybe things would've
had a different outcome.

And what's still out there
is no one knows

what the initial 911 call said,

what the bank official said
to police when she called.

♪

What were they told?
Was it clear?

Did they know they have
a hostage crisis?

♪

There's always more information
that is yearned for,

either in a journalistic sense,
a due diligence reporting sense,

and sadly, in a salacious sense.

So it is hard to say, "No,

I don't have anything
to tell you right now,"

over and over again.

♪

MAN: Upon arrival
at the victims' residence,

the first officer observed
the private residence

fully engulfed in flame.

SECOND MAN: Yeah, it worked out

so officers arrived on scene

just as the suspects
were leaving the residence.

♪

I get really tired of
the stories that say,

"Oh, by the time
the police showed up,

the house was
already in flames,"

and that's not true at all.

♪

When Billy came
out of the house,

he was pretty sure that
he saw men in the woods
hiding behind trees,

and we think those were
all the police officers,

and he was calling out
to a neighbor

while hopping across the yard,
tied and badly beaten.

That should have raised
the police eyebrows to say,

"What are they doing in there?

We need to get in there
and find out."

MARYBELLE: That's why I wrote
letters to the police.

I felt like, and I expressed
in my letter that--

that their--their goal
was to catch the men,

whoever were guilty, and above
and beyond the saving of lives,

and I felt their priorities
were very much askew.

Why didn't they just
have a bullhorn

or something saying,
you know,

"This house is surrounded.

"You're not going to get
out of this alive,

so come on out"?

Why didn't you just
go to the door

and break a window
or something

and go into
that house?

You know, my--my whole
inner person said,

"These were
precious people.

Why didn't you
enter the house?"

♪

CYNTHIA: We've asked
a lot of questions,

written a lot of letters.

But they have not sat with me

and they have not
sat with my parents

to tell us what happened
and what unfolded

and why and how.

I believe that truly they think
they did something wrong.

I've heard all kinds of things--
that it was a small town

and they hadn't had
the experience in the past.

I think they were afraid.

MAN: I just can't say
enough good things

about how proud I am of
the extraordinary effort

of our police officers
and our firefighters.

They're extremely well trained,

they're a great group
of professionals,

and I think today exemplified
the finest of what

the police and fire are
all about in this community.

And I can't thank them
enough because

without their great work,
this could've been
a far worse tragedy.

We were very, very fortunate...

I was just literally shocked
when I heard him say that

and that there were no further
casualties or something,

and I thought, you know,
how bad does it have to be?

I mean, I thought it was awful,

and he was commending them

on what a great job
they had done

and I--I was sorry, but I didn't
feel they did a great job.

I mean, if they had done a great
job, nobody would have died.

THOMAS: As you look
through this dispatch,

you can't help but
walk away thinking,

you know, that there's another
tragedy within the tragedy

that occurred to
the Petit family here.

9:21:28--initial call comes in
to the police department 911.

And this is the call
that was actually from

the bank manager.

MARY: I will watch and see
what kind of car
she gets in.

I'm in my office with the
door--with the lights off.

My teller said that
she saw the driver.

He had a black hood over--
a hoodie and a baseball
cap on.

DISPATCHER: I'm gonna
keep you on hold for

another couple minutes,
all right?

OK.
[Beep beep click]

♪

THOMAS: Some police officers
were actually at the scene

within seconds or minutes
of when

Steven Hayes and Jennifer Petit
get back to the house.

They had the phone number
of the house early on.

Nobody made a call.
Nobody knocked on the door.

9:56. Two suspects
are moving into Chrysler.

9:57. There is a fire
also at the scene.

Initial call comes in at 9:21.

This is over
a half an hour later.

They were actually at the scene
for 30 minutes.

[Siren wailing]

The strangulation of
Jennifer Petit occurred.

The rape of Jennifer
Petit occurred.

The pouring of gasoline occurred
throughout the house

and the actual setting on fire
of the house.

All of this is taking place

while the police are
watching the house

setting up their perimeter.

It's really outrageous.

♪

[Geese honking]

WOMAN: Filling in for Ed Flynn
today on "Talk of the Town."

We're gonna take
a quick break,

and when we come back
we're going to be joined

by Dr. William Petit
from the Petit
Family Foundation,

so stay with us.

Yeah. 1984.

Our first guest.

There's no audio
for me...

MAN: We go directly
to you. On 9...

WOMAN: OK.

MAN: 8, 7...

WOMAN: Dr. Petit
is here, and

as many of you
recall, you know,
it wasn't that long ago

that, you know,
you suffered a tragedy,

losing your wife
and your two daughters

in a home invasion.

Talk a little bit,
if you will, Dr. Petit,

about the mission,
about the mission

of the Petit
Family Foundation.

It's essentially
to help out

people with
chronic illnesses,

which was
a nod to Hayley,

who was accepted
at Dartmouth and wanted

to major in biology
and considered

medicine or
other careers.

And to help people
affected by violence
in their life,

which there's obviously
far too much of,

as evidenced by
the shootings in Oakland

and the shootings
in Pittsburgh.

WOMAN:
There are a few things
that make me mad as hell,

and one is when I heard
that the legislature

was even talking about,
even considering

abolishing the death penalty
here in Connecticut.

And I'm beginning to wonder,

do I have anything in common
with this state anymore?

I mean, what the heck?

One of the studies
that has been done,

and it does get
brought up by people--

Study, study, study.

Well, this study
actually has some

very good statistics,
which are

most violent criminals
who commit the most
heinous of crimes

don't see the death
penalty as a deterrent

because their
sociopathic activities

don't take into
account consequences.

How do you feel
about that, Dr. Petit?

Death penalty's
clearly a deterrent, because

the person that
has committed
the violent crime

can no longer
commit it again,

so that person is
removed from society,

and I think they've
forfeited their right

to live in a civilized
society, and--

the taking of a life,
the opponents
like to say

it's murder by
the government, but

that's a semantic
issue, because

murder is
the unlawful taking.

We have laws set down
for certain reasons,

and certainly the
defense attorneys spend

lots of time
and lots of our money

using the law
to their benefit,

and the law says that
for certain crimes,

there's an ultimate
penalty, and society's

believed in that for
thousands of years.

And that fight will
continue, and I know

that is one of the
things you're gonna
fight passionately,

to make sure
that those laws
stay in place,

and no better spokesman
than you, Dr. Petit,

for why these laws
are here.

MAN: State lawmakers
are considering a bill

that would change
the death penalty law,

and Dr. William Petit
gave his opinion

on the same day of a hearing
for one of the men...

WILLIAM: Death penalty opponents

speak of the inviolable
sanctity of life.

They love slogans such as
"Do not kill in our name"
and the like.

Thus, I assume that
death penalty opponents

value the lives of murderers
more than their victims.

Specifically, to me,
as a victim...

MIKE: You know, if you're
for the death penalty,

this is the poster child,
no question about it.

If you're against the death
penalty, like I am,

this guy is the poster child
for the death penalty.

I mean, him and Saddam
Hussein, right?

Kind of hard to argue the case.

But it's not a philosophical
debate anymore.

This is reality.

And the ordeal you have
to go through,

once it's a death penalty case,
is considerable.

♪

MAN: It's a guaranteed
multiple-years ordeal

in terms of just the trial,
and after the conviction,

scores of years of appeals
and frustration.

And all this time, the focus
is on the murderers.

They become mini-celebrities.

MIKE: You have
to go into gruesome detail
about what happened,

because the prosecutors
must prove that

the aggravating factors
outweigh the mitigating factors,

and the aggravating factor
is unusually cruel and heinous.

In other words,
you have to prove that

compared to other
triple murders,

this one is much worse.

Once this gets under way,
people are not gonna like
what they see,

and it's just starting
to get under way now.

And so I guess I'd say
to Dr. Petit, you know,

I don't know who's
giving you advice, but

I think if anyone's
implying to you that

there's a realistic hope
that these guys

would ever actually be executed,
I think they're misleading you.

MAN: The one and only
time we had an execution
here, in my lifetime,

in Connecticut, was this guy
Michael Ross,

and that was after 25 years of
drama to get to that point,

and the guy asked
to be executed.

The reality is that you'll feel

like you're making progress
every day,

but it's gonna go on forever.

♪

[Machinery beeps, whirs]

DONALD: It'll probably be two
years before they even start

selecting of the jury.

I'm getting pretty old.

I hope I live long enough
so that I can attend the trial.

I want to see
justice done.

[Keys clicking on keyboard]

MATTHEW: "Attention
Detective Fran Budwitz

"of the Connecticut
State Police.

"I give this statement
to aid and assist those

"who now have the burden
and huge responsibility

"of seeking justice.

"My earliest memories of Steve
go back to age 4 or 5.

"Steve presented himself as
the apple of everyone's eye.

"What many people did not see
was the brother I knew.

"Being young and naive,
I arrived home from school
in seventh grade.

"Steven and his friends
were using the oven

"to dry out some marijuana.

"He turned on the burner
on the stove.

"He told me it was really cool
and put my hand over it.

It's cool.
You won't get hurt.

"As soon as I put
my hand over the burner,

"he pushed my hand
onto the hot burner

"and I had ring scars
that lasted for months.

"To say there hasn't
been a history of violence,

"well, this should--this should
serve to say

"the predisposition was there.

"It was always there.

"Within two months of moving,
Steve took my mother's car

"in the middle of the night.

"Upon calling the police,
the relationship

"with my mom, Steven, and the
law enforcement officials began.

"Steven is not sick.

"Steven is cunning
and calculating.

"Please exercise discretion.

"I will assist how I can.

"However, there is
enough to hang him

"without any family involvement.

"Steven is alone.
He will answer to God,

"he will answer to the law,
and my prayer is

"he will answer to himself
before fate hands him

his final sentence."

♪

I don't know.

I'd like to be there from
the beginning of each trial

through the end of each one.

If there are things to look at
that they had to endure,

I feel like it's
part of my life to know

what they lived through
or died through,

and I just feel like it's
not to punish ourselves,

it's just to know in the end
and have that finality of

"Oh, this is how it looked.

This is what they say they did."

♪

MAN AS KOMISARJEVSKY:
A thief in the night,
I've come to steal

not jewels and money
but your personal safety,

privacy, and security.

I violate your inner asylum
of intimacy.

I piss on your optical illusion
of peace and innocence.

I feast on your animosity.

The Petit family passed through
their fear

into the calm waters
of abject terror,

like mesmerized rabbits cornered
by a springing predator.

To see that fear, that
emotional pain I feel every day

manifested on another's face

validates that this pain
in me is real.

♪

The shockwaves of
my self's hopelessness

reverberated its bitterness
through my rocked soul

at the realization
that I crossed life's
bridge of depravity.

The awakening of my shadow,
repressed within,

reaching its zenith that morning

with rapturous control
of Michaela.

Her age was insignificant.

Come on, Shadow.
Come on, Rummy.

Inside. Let's go.
Let's go. Inside.

CAROLINE: On the phone, Joshua
denied raping the 11-year-old,

but I knew Joshua raped
that 11-year-old.

I just knew.
And he kept--

Joshua kept telling me
that he didn't

and I didn't believe him.

I couldn't believe him.

Because I was raped
in ninth grade,

and...

Before I left, I told him
about it.

♪

I know he didn't know
Michaela at the time,

but I feel like maybe he was
thinking of a Michaela

while he was doing
that stuff to me.

♪

Punishment that would be
good enough for him

would be having done to him
what he'd done to them.

♪

WOMAN: Roll cue
to video.

Sure. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

There are two suspects,
but Steven Hayes

goes on trial first.

He is in court today,
but he looks

very different
from his mug shot.

He's lost weight,
he's in a regular
striped shirt and pants,

no handcuffs on him
in front of the jury.

And it is because
this case has gotten
so much publicity

that picking
an impartial jury
could be difficult.

MAN: Sunny, you were
inside the courtroom today.

What sort of state
did Komisarjevsky
appear to be in?

He's much heavier now.
He sort of has
a buzz cut.

MAN: Komisarjevsky is
dressed in a suit

and engaged in the process.

Now, if you're wondering how
long this is all going to last,

we're talking about
several months.

This morning,
the judge told the...

WALTER: From the courthouse,
I don't think Cheshire's

but about a 15-minute drive.

Everybody knew this case.

Terry Nichols, Timothy McVeigh,
the Oklahoma City bombing cases

were number 2 and 3.

Komisarjevsky was number one.

Talking to almost 2,000
prospective jurors,

everyone had made conclusions
based on the publicity,

and that conclusion
was very clear.

Joshua Komisarjevsky was guilty.

75% also expressed the opinion
that Joshua should die.

I've never had
a jury selection where

people would jump out of their
seats--"I'll kill him now."

It's in the news, Internet.
how could you miss it?

What did you think
when you saw him?

Um...I just think
he's a murderer.

[Siren wailing]

♪

"Frustrating day, but two more
jurors were selected.

"That came in at
8:13 this morning.

"Still need 4 more jurors,
6 alternates,

and two substitutes."

MATTHEW: So it's about
11:00 this morning

my time Pacific time,

and one of Steven's
attorney's called.

They went in to check on him
this morning

and he was unresponsive.

Steven's lying in a coma induced
by, you know, a medical team.

They're not sharing why.

You know, the attorney said
that he could very well die.

And they're expected to be
back in court tomorrow.

They can't proceed
without him in the room.

♪

THOMAS: Steven squirreled away

9 or so doses of
Thorazine and Klonopin.

And you might question
how this could happen.

About a year before this, Steven
Hayes had made a suicide attempt

and one of the things
they found in his cell

was a suicide note.

I quote, "I am sorry.
All I want to do is die.

"It is the only way to end
the pain I go through

"every day 24/7,
and more important,

"the pain that trial
will bring to others.

"Time to go to the last
undiscovered country.

"Although I am not the monster
that Josh is,

"I am one nevertheless.

"A coward, because I could not
do what was right.

"Looking back on my life,
I was nothing but

"a self-centered asshole
who cared only of himself.

"But the ironic facet to this is

"I have always had
the ability to change.

But cowards don't change.
They become me."

♪

WOMAN:
The judge actually toured
Hayes' cell yesterday.

It's called a safe cell,
which will protect him

from harming himself.

We learned a lot--
he also wears

something called
Ferguson clothing, which

an inmate wears if
they're in jeopardy of
killing themselves,

because they can't
tear up the clothes

and use it as a noose.

Good day.
Good morning.

SHELLY: How difficult,
Dr. Petit, is it
to sit in there

and have them discuss
Hayes' conditions
in prison

for two hours at a time?

The lights being on?

Uh, it's difficult.
Uh...

Somehow, it was OK
for the defendants

to bind us and beat us
and rape us and torture us

and set the place on fire,
but you can't be--

can't be held in a cell
with the lights on,

and somehow there's
something wrong
with that.

THOMAS: It's surreal.
The entire prosecution

is geared to killing
Steven Hayes,

and so here he is
trying to kill himself

but we won't let him do that,

because we want to extract
our pound of flesh.

It's really a sick kind of
process, in my opinion.

♪

Tragedy in trial!
Front page!

Tragedy in trial!
Front page!

[Horn honking]

MAN: Right now, both sides
are inside this courtroom.

All eyes are on
what's going to happen

in these opening arguments.

The heavy, heavy security
around Steven Hayes

brought in by authorities
on a convoy of vehicles...

SECOND MAN: There's no cameras
allowed in the courtroom,

so you're not going to
see what's actually
going on in there,

but tweeting is allowed.

THIRD MAN: A juror
has been excused.

It's because she said
she couldn't be fair,

because she heard news reports

of Steven Hayes'
suicide attempt.

This jury will end up
making two decisions.

One will be
the guilt or innocence
of the defendant,

and if they
find him guilty,

then they would
have to decide

if he should get
the death penalty

for the crime.

CYNTHIA: Going into
the courtroom, Steven Hayes

was, like, off to my left.

I look at him and I think,

"I still can't believe
that you did this."

♪

I said as soon as I found out
that my sister died,

"Just come into me,
be a part of me."

So I kept staring at him,

and sometimes I think,
"Is that a part of her

"saying, like, Stare at him.

Don't take your eyes
off of him.

Like, he--he can't be trusted."

♪

DONALD: I'd like to say a few
things to these guys.

I'd like them
to answer me the question,

do they know what it is
to be terrorized?

WOMAN: After waiting
more than 3 years,

the Petit and Hawke families are
ready for this process

to finally begin,

and are hopeful in the end
that justice will prevail,

and we think of Jennifer,
Hayley, and Michaela
every second of every day.

It is a system, you know,
and people say it's

the best system in the world,

but it's a--it's a maddening
system at best.

People spend a lot of time
parsing words

instead of really
trying to get to

what is right and what is wrong,
what is good and what is evil.

But it's the system we have,
so we're hoping--

we're hoping that the system
we have will give us justice.

♪

MAN: Today's date
is July 23, 2007.

Statements taking place

at the Cheshire
Police Department headquarters.

Joshua Komisarjevsky,
do you know why you're here?

OK. And you went to
Stop and Shop in Cheshire?

THOMAS: On the night of
July 22,

Josh and Steven were
texting each other.

Steven texting Josh about
"When are we gonna get going?"

It was kind of like
an excitement about

going to burglarize this house.

♪

He drives down to Cheshire.

He and Josh go to a bar.

And then they start
looking for this house

that Josh knows about
from when they were

shopping at
Stop and Shop earlier.

It's always been my opinion
that he was attracted by

the young girl Michaela
rather than the money

or the Mercedes.

♪

Josh was born into
a family with a history
of mental problems.

Then he was adopted by a family

that had no ability to cope
with mental problems.

And so he was doomed by biology,
and then he was doomed by fate.

When Josh was 3 years old,
the family took into the home

two foster children,
a girl and a boy.

And Josh underwent
really horrible and extensive

sexual abuse
at the hand of Scott.

♪

I think it started off playing
little sex games,

having him pose naked,
and then it proceeded

to full-scale anal intercourse

and to Josh's being burned
with cigarettes.

Against the background
of all of this,

Josh is at a church
in which it is taught

that there is evil in the world

and probably the greatest
abomination of all

is homosexuality.

And so you've got a what,
a 5-year-old,

a 6-year-old, a 7-year-old
listening to this

and thinking to himself
that I am fundamentally evil,

I have engaged in that
kind of activity,

and really not being able
to tell anybody about it.

♪

ERIC: There's a theme that I saw
in Steven's life of...

of betrayal.

Steven had been sexually
abused as a child,

which led him to become
more emotionally

disconnected from people.

The turning towards drugs
and the desperate state of mind

that he found himself in,

all of this helped explain

how Steven could've done
what he had done.

♪

MAN: KK. Obviously
she told you

her nickname or whatever
is KK,

or you made that up?

WOMAN: I met Josh when I was 13.

Josh's parents started attending
the church that we went to,

the Evangelical Bible Church.

And we dated--we were
in a relationship

for about two years.

We started, um, dating
when I was 14 or 15

and then our relationship
was ended by the church.

♪

Throughout the whole course
of our relationship,

we were always trying
to not have sex.

That was the goal.
It felt deeply, deeply sinful.

♪

Our church community was
our home school community,

and Josh's family
and mine as well

had a very specific idea
of good and evil.

♪

The devil was understood to be
an entity that you could know,

so if Josh had anxiety,
it was the devil.

If he did something wrong,
it was because he was being used

as a agent of the devil.

Josh spoke some to me
about the sexual abuse

that had happened to him,

but there wasn't even
a way for him

to tell me without weeping.

Josh had terrible
anxiety attacks.

His home was not
ever safe for him.

The safe place was being away
and hiding in the woods.

♪

He was trespassing
and sneaking around,

spying on people, long before
it was a criminal offense.

I think that he envied people

and he would daydream
about being them.

♪

ERIC: They find beer
in the refrigerator

and drink throughout the night.

Steven finds jars
of quarters and coins.

They found
a Bank of America book

and they're waiting
for the morning.

However, Steven worries that

he's gonna leave DNA evidence
in the house,

and he starts...obsessing.

And Josh tells him,
"Fire destroys everything."

THOMAS: "We'll get
the people out and
we'll burn the house down,

we'll get them somewhere,
and then we'll get
the hell out of here."

That's what Steven was
thinking about.

ERIC: Steven goes
into the garage.

He finds containers
and starts driving

to find a gas station.

♪

THOMAS: When Steven gets back
with the gasoline,

Josh had changed the clothes
of Michaela

because of activity that
he was involved with

in terms of
sexually abusing her.

And part of that occurred while
Steven was out on the gas run,

because we know that
because of Josh's photographs

that he took on his cell phone
before the bank.

♪

The first set of photographs
showed Michaela.

They were leg shots
and genital area shots,

but they were clothed.

The last shots while
they were at the bank

were much more graphic.

Really awful, awful,
awful photographs.

Those are the kinds of things
you never forget.

They kind of become
emblazoned in your mind.

It just shows
the level of depravity

of Joshua Komisarjevsky.

♪

Joshua was committed--against
the wishes of his parents,

he was committed and spent, I
think, two weeks at Elmcrest.

He was clearly
in terrible shape

and suicidal.

WALTER: The records are
very clear that Joshua

wanted to try the medication,

Joshua wanted the therapy,
but the parents rejected it.

Not only did the parents
reject it,

but they immediately took him up

to the Alton Bay
Christian Center.

FRAN: People would say
that he was seeing demons

and he believed that.

and would pray that
they'd go away,

and people would gather around
him and pray over him

and lay hands on him and speak
in tongues over him.

Exorcism. That was kind of
a regular part of our lives

when it came to dealing
with anxiety.

He ended up breaking into my
room at the discipleship house

to come and see me.

He was essentially
excommunicated for doing that.

His whole life, everything,
was just gone overnight.

There was no addressing that
perhaps this was a desperate kid

who actually didn't--wasn't
wrestling with the devil

but had experienced trauma
and was losing his grip.

♪

Some people called our
office asking if we would--

we would take Josh on
in spite of

some of his legal difficulties
as a member of our tour.

I just gave Josh a little bit
of responsibility

and let him know that
I expected him to be a leader,

and he blossomed.

He just loved it.

We came to the end of that tour
and it was a good tour.

I think it wasn't
long after that

that Josh joined the Reserves.

Then he was discharged

and then that's when

his troubles started again.

♪

[Thunder]

MAN: Morning rolls around.
They untie Mrs. Petit.

Steven takes her to the bank.

Mrs. Petit is in the bank.

It's taking longer
than he thought.

♪

MAN: You performed
oral sex on KK?

JOSHUA: On KK.

Did you take
pictures of her?

Now, you said you let
her get dressed again.

How--how is it
she came upon
being undressed?

Because you originally
said she was dressed.

MAN: No one disputes that
he committed this crime.

Eventually, he tells
the police officer

that while Hayes is gone,
he goes upstairs

and sexually assaults KK.

At that point, the judge
stops the tape.

He says, "A juror
is having problems

with this testimony,
with this evidence,"

and that he's gonna stop it
for the day

and they will continue
again tomorrow.

A very difficult day
in court here, LaToya.

...start again?

We're good.

Thank you very much.

CYNTHIA: Komisarjevsky was
calling my youngest niece "KK."

Like, you know, who are you
to be using that term

and calling her this, like,
term of endearment that we use?

OK, you show me that
baseball bat again

that you hit Billy with
and I'll show you how it feels.

You want them to lose
a daughter.

You want their house
to burn down.

You want them to see
how it feels.

And--and other times, you think,
"Gosh, who am I?

Like, this is wicked.
How could I wish this
on anybody?"

♪

ERIC: Steven is
becoming anxious.

He calls Joshua.

Joshua tells him,
"Everything's gonna be fine.

The plan is gonna work."

After a period of time,
Mrs. Petit

comes out of the bank
with money.

When they arrive
back at the house,

Steven is under the belief
that the crime is over.

Now they could leave.

But Joshua tells Steven
that, we have a problem.

He had left DNA with
one of the children

and he had to kill them
and their dad,

and Dr. Petit had died
from the injuries,

and that now he had to get
his hands dirty

and kill Mrs. Petit.

THOMAS: I believe Steven, but
from the first time that Josh

talked to the police,
he tried to save himself

by blaming Steven for all the
horrific stuff that occurred.

ERIC: Steven tells me that
he felt betrayed by Josh,

that he felt dragged into
this horror of a crime,

and he also felt in a crazy way
betrayed by Mrs. Petit,

because he looks out the window
and he sees police cars,

and he realizes that
Mrs. Petit must have

informed bank officials.

He is triggered into
this state of rage.

He strangles
Jennifer Hawke-Petit,

he pulls down her pants,
pulls her legs up,

and he vaginally rapes her
after he strangles her.

MAN: Which is where
the dad was.

ERIC: Steven hears Josh telling
him they have to leave.

Spread the gasoline
and let's get out of here.

MAN: Why did you
close the doors?

You knew they were tied
but you closed the doors.

Empty bottles of--

Of gasoline,
so he went back up
with another bottle?

OK.

♪

[Siren wailing]

WOMAN: All of these
family members

that have had to relive

the horror of what happened
inside of that home

the night they were all tied up

has been heartbreaking to watch
inside of the courtroom.

The images have been
absolutely devastating

of the crime scene...

MAN: When it's all put out
in front of you,

it's very gruesome.

It's--it's insane to just hear

and it's just affected
the whole town

and it's like the whole town
is just reliving it all again,

and it's not easy for all of us.

♪

CYNTHIA: These are pictures
of, like, the accelerant pattern

that they showed.

They went from, I think where
Hayley's body was upstairs

into her bedroom
and onto her bed

and then down the hall and into
Michaela's bedroom

and onto her bed.

And when they finally put
the fire detective on the stand,

I saw Michaela was tied and she
had gasoline dumped on her

while she was alive and alert,

and that at least
Hayley, I know,

was probably burning while
she was breathing.

And that was just a really hard
thing to learn,

because I never really knew
if the girls were alive

when they were burning or not,

and it kind of was
made true to us

that that was
the case with Hayley,

that she had walked
while she was on fire,

because she fell down
and the front of her

was more burned than
the back of her.

I was crying
and I just felt like

I wanted to get out of
that courtroom and scream

and just say, you know,

"I can't believe what's
going on in there."

You know, I just--it's making me
so angry,

and I can't understand
why somebody couldn't have

ventilated that house for
the girls while they were
still alive,

and I just--I want it
to be so different.

WOMAN: We're finally
seeing the defense

giving tough questioning
to the Cheshire police officers

who initially responded to
the call of that home invasion.

The officers said
they followed protocol.

Dr. William Petit
has always supported

the actions of the Cheshire
Police Department.

One captain testifying
that the incident

did not make sense at first,
and he said,

"It still doesn't
make sense today."

♪

THOMAS: Steven admitted
to killing the mom.

He admitted to raping the mom.

He admitted
to spreading gasoline,

I mean, so it's not like

he was trying to get himself
out from under in any way.

And yet Josh was
getting this story out

that Steven knew was false.

Joshua tried to minimize
the sexual assault,

not make it out to be a rape,

that it was just contact
and ejaculation,

which is absurd given

the scientific evidence
that exists.

He tried to blame Steven
solely for being the person

who initiated the gasoline
and lighting the gasoline

when there's gasoline
on both of their clothes.

Josh Komisarjevsky was the one
who was suggesting

that they go into a house
where people were,

and for Steven,
this was a foolish thing,

because he was obviously
with a guy who

was uncontrollable.

♪

And I think it haunts him,
really haunts him,

as to why he didn't walk away.

Steven's in an isolation cell
24 hours a day.

He has nightmares.

He has nightmares about
his own kid burning.

This is the way his
incarceration will last forever.

So you know, I don't know
why we have to kill

someone who's
in a position like that.

It's like being buried alive.

WALTER: We, the defense team,
always believed

that Joshua never had
the intention to kill anybody.

After he bashed Dr. Petit's head
several times,

later on, he got a towel.

He wiped the blood away
from Dr. Petit's head.

He then got two pillows,
put them behind his back,

and he got two cushions,
and his explanation,

which is in his confession,
was that he did so

because he thought Dr. Petit
wasn't comfortable enough,

and he was concerned
about his comfort.

Why didn't he simply walk in
and undo the bindings?

Dr. Leo Shea,
a neuropsychologist,

testified that Joshua was unable

to make quick decisions
in stressful situations.

What occurred with Michaela
is absolutely unexplainable.

Such a horrendous crime
committed on such a young girl.

People go to jail for a long
time for crimes like that,

but you don't get
the death penalty.

When Joshua was apprehended,
when he was pulled from the car,

he was straight with the police.

When Steven Hayes was
pulled from the car,

he gave a phony name,
and when asked,

"Was there anybody
in the house?"

he said, "I don't know."

When Joshua was pulled
from the car,

he gave his name and he said,
"There's a woman inside,

I believe she's dead, and
upstairs there's two girls,"

and he expressed to the police

that there was some urgency
to the situation,

which was pretty obvious
because at that time,

the house was burning.

To me, these are things
that are inconsistent

with intending to kill somebody.

[Crowd cheering,
horns honking]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Everybody
came here safe,

you know, just
to support.

WILLIAM: You know, the teachers
after Michaela died said

whenever...

whenever someone in the class--
[Cheering and applause]

[Whistles]

She said, "Dr. Petit, I just
have to tell you that

"your daughter Michaela
was always the one to

go with the kid
who was excluded,"

and I thank you for
standing up for justice

and what is morally
and ethically correct.

[Cheering and applause]

THOMAS: Dr. Petit is
pretty much out there

with his foundation, which is
obviously a really good thing

and should be supported,

but we're in the middle
of the state trying

to get the death penalty.

So as much as I have
incredible sympathy for him,

I think his outspokenness
in this case

has really affected any ability
to get a fair trial

for either of these
two defendants.

WOMAN: What happened,
what was said

during that conversation
with Dr. Petit

that made you just
make a 180?

Dr. Petit came in
with his sister-in-law
Mrs. Chapman.

They said if
the legislature this year

votes to repeal
the death penalty,

it'll make it harder
for the jury

to make the decision
of the death penalty

for this monster,
this Komisarjevsky.

I can only imagine that
one-on-one conversation.

You're sitting as close
as probably we are now.

You have no idea.
I could not bring myself

to cause this man
any more stress.

He's a monster.
He is a monster,

and I said,
"He's such a monster

"they should hang him
by his penis

out from a tree
in Main Street."

I can't think of
anything bad enough

that should happen
to that man.

♪

ALICIA: I actually got
to see Steve twice,

the past two Sundays.

When I first saw him,
I wanted to cry,

because I haven't seen him
in so long,

but I just didn't want to cry
under those circumstances.

You have all the guards
standing right on top of you.

And you can't talk
about the trial because,

like, you know that the phones
are pretty tapped.

I know that the family
wants him to be dead

and it all to be over with,

but, like, my side
of the family,

we just want him to, like,

take responsibility
for what he did

without the consequence
of the death penalty.

That won't bring anyone back.

What happened happened
and his death

isn't gonna bring about
much justice.

MAN: Steven Hayes walked into
room 6A.

For the first time,
he saw a familiar face.

It was his brother Matthew.

The first time that we believe
a Hayes family member

has been in court.

♪

MAN: Prosecutor
Michael Dearington said,

"These two beautiful girls
and loving mother were killed

because Steven Hayes
wanted money."

Defense attorney Thomas Ullmann
argued that life without parole

is the harshest punishment
Steven Hayes could be given.

MAN: State's attorney
Gary Nicholson

did not mince words as
he spoke to the jury

in his closing arguments
this morning,

saying that Joshua
Komisarjevsky is, quote,

"No shrinking violet.

He played a starring role
in this crime."

Nicholson hammered the point

that Komisarjevsky
was first in the house,

the first to use violence,
and had plenty of opportunity

to leave the home.

He gave Steven Hayes directions
back to the house,

but Hayes went
and bought gasoline.

It's not fair,
is it?

No.
No. No. Mm.

You know, all I think of is
the impact that our girls

could've made upon the world.

And, of course, none of that
will ever come forth from

Joshua Komisarjevsky.

MAN: What's the jury weighing?

Aggravating factors
against mitigating factors.

The aggravating factors brought
out by the prosecution--

the heinous nature
of the crimes.

For the mitigating factors
that the defense presented,

they pointed to a very difficult

early childhood of
Joshua Komisarjevsky.

The defense said they
turned to prayer instead.

They also pointed to a series of
concussions when he was a boy,

drug use in his teenage
and early twenty years,

all saying it mitigates
what happens.

It means he didn't really know
what was going on,

couldn't make a decision
to stop what was going on

that night in July of 2007,

and so his life
should be spared.

No verdict today.

We do expect a verdict
by the end of the week.

WILLIAM: We're good.
You guys can reach, right?

DONALD: Oh, Lord, we gather
around this table

as family and friends.

We stand at a place
in the trial where

we wonder what
will take place.

But we pray, O God,
that we will be able

to be strong enough

to accept whatever
the outcome may be,

that it would
be your will
that would be done.

For we ask it
in the name of Christ.
Amen.

ALL: Amen.

This is all about death
or life without parole.

Really, it does
seem like

the most kind,
humane thing

you could do
for a person

is to allow them
to just die.

I thought of how much
that challenges
the jurors.

DONALD: A lot of pressure
has been placed upon
their shoulders.

I'm glad I'm not
in that room.

Yeah.

Never get
those pictures

out of their heads
for the rest of
their lives, you know?

It's been very traumatic
for everyone.

♪

WOMAN: This is a case that had
just rattled people,

and a lot of people say
that if there is a case

that warrants the death penalty,
this is it.

Wait a minute.
I want to read you something

that we're--we're getting
some word on,

and you might be able
to explain it to us.

The jurors are standing.
The clerk is reading
the verdict form.

Count 4,
no statutory mitigators.

Both aggravators are proven.

OK. The defendant is sentenced
to death, Sunny.

MAN: The jury returns.

Death penalty verdict.

MAN: Death for the monster
who slaughtered

the Connecticut
doctor's family.

Tonight, a Connecticut jury
has done something very rare.

A Connecticut jury
has recommended death

for Steven Hayes.

He's convicted of raping
and murdering a mom,

Jennifer Hawke-Petit,
and her two daughters,
Hayley and Michaela.

THOMAS: The verdict
was devastating.

Steven wanted a death verdict

and knew we did
everything in our power

to prevent that from happening,

in spite of his own efforts
to kill himself.

♪

[Siren wailing]

MAN: This case gets
attention in Australia.

It got attention in Europe.

You know, this was any town,
America, any family America,

and when you saw just how
that was shattered

in a few hours, I think
that's powerful...

Count 5 is death.

The second count, count 5

in the murder of Michaela Petit,
is death,

that he intentionally caused
the death of a person

under 16 years old.

All right, count 10 is death.

That's--he intentionally caused

the death of Jennifer
Hawke-Petit, the mother.

OK, count 11 is death.

MAN: A couple of marshals
came up behind Joshua in cuffs

and really no reaction at all.

Given the public outrage
for these horrendous crimes,

that we just couldn't
get a fair jury here

and we still
feel that way,

and that's why we
had filed a motion
to change venue

and believe it
should have been--

should have been granted,
so that'll be

one of the main
appellate issues.

I believe the death
penalty is just barbaric

and it puts us in line
with countries like

China, Yemen,
Iraq, Iran.

I don't know what other
purpose it serves

other than
simply revenge.

Walter Bansley III,
thank you very much.

Denise, of course, yeah,

we're gonna
have continuing
coverage here.

The death penalty
has been given

to Joshua Komisarjevsky.

♪

We are satisfied that
the defendant has been judged

to be the murderer, the rapist,
and criminal that he is,

and now he's been condemned
to the ultimate penalty.

We certainly have been
criticized over the years

that this is vengeance
and blood lust, but

this is really about justice.

We want to go forward with
the Petit Family Foundation

and try to continue to create
good out of evil and...

The defense did
what they thought
they should do.

I thought a lot of it was
particularly distasteful.

We saw picture
after picture
after picture,

and every time one of those
pictures went up, I thought,

"Charles Manson was a baby once.

I'm not sure that this is
particularly relevant."

I'd just like to thank
our justice system

as well as the jury members,

listening to a lot of things
that they would much rather

not heard or seen.

I believe that without
our defense attorneys,

we could not have the outcome
that we have,

so we have to even
be appreciative

that there are
defense attorneys that
will take cases like this.

And I believe God's
will has been done.

I don't really want
to answer any questions.

I--I feel so sad that
my answers...

I don't know if any of
the other defense attorneys--

MAN: ...on death row now.

There will be automatic appeals.

There will be appeals
upon appeals.

This will go on for years
and years and years, and...

♪

JEREMIAH: We offered to plead
guilty to every charge

in the information against us

so long as death
wasn't the result.

And so Joshua would've
been sentenced

to life without the possibility
of release.

It would've happened, you know,

3 weeks after the crime
had taken place.

Josh would've disappeared
into the--into the great abyss

of the penal system, and would
never be heard from again.

But that wasn't a serious enough
punishment for the state,

and of course,
the state was being

goaded on by Dr. Petit.

And so we had to go through
3 years of Hayes and Joshua

and just forcing the people
of Connecticut

to relive that crime
day after day after day

I think kind of coarsened the
social fabric of Connecticut.

It would've been so much better
just to throw those guys in jail

and throw away the key, but--

GIRL: She's pitching!

[Applause, indistinct shouting]

♪

♪

DONALD: The most difficult thing
that I had to do in my life

was to bury my own child
and two grandchildren.

♪

I don't think there
will ever be closure

for our family.

Jennifer was too much of
a giving, loving person,

and I don't think that
we will ever, ever,

if we live another 100 years,
would ever want to forget her.

So if closure
brings forgetting,

I don't want that closure.

[Birds chirping]

[Dog barking]

♪

♪