Testimony Ends In CT Triple Murder and Home Invasion

Steven Hayes

After more than a week of horrifying testimonies from 26 state witnesses in the trial of Steven Hayes, one of the two men accused of perpetrating a home invasion and murder of a family in Connecticut, prosecutors and defense have rested their cases, and closing arguments are due this Friday. The break came after testimony on Tuesday, where a corrections officer revealed that Hayes confessed to a fellow inmate that he had murdered Jennifer Hawke-Petit. "He just stated that he did kill Mrs. Petit,” the officer, Jeremiah Krob, said.

Jurors were told by Krob that he overheard Hayes' confession while standing on suicide watch outside his cell in the maximum security Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, Conn. in 2008. Responding to questions from the inmate in the next cell, Vernon Cowan, Hayes confessed to the murder, but said Joshua Komisarjevsky, the other suspect in the case, had insisted that he “had to get rid of her.” Hayes said he had hesitated until he saw police cruisers arrive outside. He also said that he had not raped Hawke-Petit, though he did talk about Komisarjevsky raping 11-year-old Michaela.

In a part of the conversation the corrections officer found confusing, Hayes claimed “he had only poured gasoline down the stairs in the Chesire home, but he had not lit the match, so he believed he could not be charged with arson.” And Hayes also insinuated at one point that he “believed it was quite possible” that William Petit was in on the crime, for the insurance payout—he doubted Petit could have broken free of his restraints and escaped the burning house without having been let loose by Komisarjevsky. Later, outside the courtroom, Petit said to reporters: "Really, the only thing I have to say is that Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela were the most important people in my life, and I really can’t dignify that insinuation with a response.”