Brian McDonald

CHAPTER ONE

3 A.M. Loose gravel on the street crunched beneath the heavyset Hayes' feet. He could make noise in a blizzard, Joshua thought, but now Joshua wore a small smile as he shook his head and, palms facing down, motioned to his partner to walk softly. Joshua was either getting use to Steven Hayes or, more likely, charged by the thrill of the crime he was about to commit. Leading the way, Joshua, looking younger than his 26 years (even considering four-and-a-half of them spent in jail) his frame slim with muscles like rope knots, moved silently up the driveway into the backyard and passed the sunroom. It was then he first saw Dr. Petit asleep on the couch in the enclosed porch. Joshua stood there motionless at the edge of complete darkness in the yard. A soft light was coming from inside the room. Hayes stood behind Joshua, anxiously shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "What are we waiting for?" Hayes said as softly as he could, but his words were nearly frantic. Joshua didn't so much as twitch. It was as if he was listening to something that only he could hear. Finally, after what must have seemed like forever to his partner, Joshua pulled a knit ski hat, with slits cut out for eyeholes, over his head. Then he turned to Hayes, "I'll let you in," he whispered.

by midnight, everyone was asleep, except maybe Dr. Petit, who had brought some paperwork down to the sunroom. his youngest, Michaela, took his place in the master bedroom next to her mom. Hayley had read herself to sleep with the newest Harry Potter, the poster on the wall of the WNBA star, Swin Cash, keeping watch.

soon the lids of Dr. Petit's eyes too began to fall. the sounds outside the sunroom: the gentle rustle of the leaves on the trees in the backyard, the click of the crickets, folded into the rhythm of his breath.

if Dr. Petit heard the van slowly roll by the house at 3 a.m., it was part of the soundtrack of his dreams.

driving the van was the young man with the auburn hair and the raven tattoos. besides him sat a man almost twenty years his senior, bald and heavyset. they both wore dark, hooded sweatshirts.

:
today's new york times story might be a bit confusing to some. in the hope of clearing up my role in it, below is the reprint of my June 9th post about the book steven hayes was reading in jail. for further clarification, please go to "june" archives below left for more posts on this topic.

steven hayes's reading list.
June 9, 2010
contrary to many news stories about In the Middle of the Night, joshua komisarjevsky rarely looked to shift the blame to hayes for what happened that morning in Cheshire. out of all the information joshua gave to me in his letters and during my interviews with him, only once or twice did i get the feeling that he was giving up hayes. one of those times was when he told me about the book hayes was reading in the months leading up to the Cheshire murders.

that book was a topic of discussion in New Haven Superior Court yesterday and could be introduced as evidence by the prosecution during the Sept. trial. it is explosive material and supports what i've always believed--as motives go, monetary gain was second to the primary reason hayes and joshua broke into the Petit home early that July morning: the Cheshire home-invasion was rape; planned, executed and murderous.

...was a beautiful, late july sunday in new england. Dr. Petit left the house early to meet his dad for a round of golf at the country club. his wife, Jennifer, and daughter Michaela, 11, were heading to the club later in the day to lounge around the pool. daughter, Hayley, 18, was coming home from the Cape, where she'd spent the weekend with some friends.

the family planned to gather for sunday dinner back at he house on sorghum mill drive. Michaela, a devotee of Rachael Ray, had selected the menu: pasta and a salad made with local tomatoes.

as happens often to chefs in the kitchen, Michaela realized at the last minute that she was missing a key ingredient: balsamic vinegar for the salad. not to worry, mom said, we'll take a ride to Stop & Shop. nothing was out of the ordinary. as the mother of an 11- and 18-year-old, the job as chauffeur was automatic, done with a love so deep it needed no outward displays. but this would be the last time Jennifer would drive Michaela anywhere.

mom pulled into the supermarket parking lot and next to a red van with a young man with auburn hair seated behind the wheel. he wore jeans and work boots. he smoked camel cigarettes. although Michaela and mom didn't notice him, and surely wouldn't have been able to see these even if they did, he also had two ravens tattooed across his back in homage to his favorite poem by edgar allan poe: "and his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming..."

like poe's bird, the young man watched intently as mother and daughter walked together into the store.
(to be continued)

question:

did Jennifer Hawke-Petit know that her captors had plastic gallon jugs filled with gasoline?

it goes without question that Mrs. Petit feared for the lives of her daughters when steven hayes drove her to the bank that monday morning in july three years ago. why else would she withdraw the 15 thousand dollars and get back in the car with hayes instead of staying in the safety of the bank.

the threat could very well have been the gasoline. should hayes sense that Mrs. Petit was raising the alarm, or not coming out of the bank with the money, he would phone komisarjevsky who would spread the gasoline and set the house on fire, leaving Hayley, 18, and Michaela, 11, and Dr. Petit, tied and bound behind him as he fled.

if Mrs. Petit knew about the gasoline, and it seems likely that she did, then she must have realized that there was a real possibility that hayes and komsiarjevsky were not planning on leaving any witnesses. but she must have also believed that her only chance of saving her family was going back to the house. no matter what horrible scenarios played in her mind, it is highly unlikely that she gave even a moment's thought of surviving without her children.

if the gas was the threat, then it was one that hayes and komisarjevsky would ultimately follow through on. Mrs. Petit, however, wouldn't be alive to see the horror of it. she had already been raped and strangled when the house was set on fire. Hayley and Michaela would die in the inferno. Dr. Petit managed to escape.

steven hayes's trial begins sept. 13th, komisarjevsky's next year

in a pretrial hearing last week, a cheshire detective testified that, just after apprehending steven hayes, the home-invasion murder suspect told him that "things got out of control." so let's see if the home-invaders ever lost control:

1. joshua komisarjevsky cased-out the Petit house in the early evening after following Mrs. Petit and her daughter, Michaela, home from Stop & Shop

2. jk and/or steven hayes bought a pellet gun (that looked like a real gun) and zip ties

3. around 3 a.m., jk broke into Petit home through bulkhead doors, beat Dr. Petit (asleep on a couch in a florida room) with a baseball bat, then tied him up. let hayes into the house

4. in just a few minutes jk and hayes were able to subdue and tie-up Mrs. Petit and the two Petit girls, Hayley, 18, and Michaela, 11

5. held dominion over the house and their captives for six hours, coming and going as they pleased (at one point both jk and hayes were out of the house for at least twenty minutes while jk moved his van to a condominium complex parking lot a couple of miles away and hayes followed in the Petit's van)

6. coordinated a run to the all-night gas station (where hayes filled plastic gallon containers)

7. Made Mrs. Petit call her husband's office to say he was sick and wouldn't be in; jk called in to his own job saying his daughter was sick

8. coordinated a run to the bank (where Mrs. Petit withdrew 15 grand and raised the alarm)

9. sexually assaulted Michaela, raped and strangled Mrs. Petit, then spread the gasoline

10. lit the fire and ran out of house, leaving Hayley and Michaela to die tied to their beds

steven hayes' triple murder trial starts sept. 13th, jk's in the beginning of next year

in the pre-dawn hours of july 23rd, 2007, steven hayes drove through the back roads of cheshire. next to him in the van sat empty plastic gallon containers that he and joshua komisarjevsky found filled with windshield washer fluid in the Petit garage.

hayes found the all-night gas station with little trouble. but on the way back, in the misty darkness, he lost his way. at least twice, maybe three times, he had to phone joshua, a cheshire native, for directions.

in the petit house, joshua kept watch over the three Petit women, mother Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, Hayley, 18, and Michaela, 11. The father of the home, Dr. William Petit, was bound and nearly unconscious.

finally, after what must have seemed forever to his partner, hayes pulled the pacifica into the Petit driveway, then carried the gasoline into the house.

that gasoline would be used to start the fire that killed Hayley and Michaela, who were left to die tied to their beds, and consume the body of Jennifer Hawke-, who had already been raped and strangled. Dr. Petit escaped the inferno.

if a jury ends up sentencing steven hayes and joshua komisarjevsky to death, it will be that gasoline that fueled their decision.

hayes' trial starts sept. 13th, komisarjevsky's in the beginning of next year.

maybe the most depraved detail in a morning filled with depraved details was steven hayes wearing Hayley Petit's school hat when he ran from the Petit house after setting it on fire. both the 18-year-old Hayley and her sister, Michaela, 11, died in the inferno. both had been tied to their bedposts. the detail of the Miss Porter's school hat was entered into court record today by testimony of a cheshire police detective who was outside the house on sorghum mill drive the morning of the murders.

the detective, and two other witnesses, testified as part of pre-trial hearing on motions made by the defense to suppress statements hayes made to police right after he was apprehended.

instead of his client's statements, hayes' attorney. thomas ullman, should have tried to have the hat removed from the record. ullman's trying to save hayes' life, not get him acquitted. in my opinion, the visual of hayes wearing the Miss Porter's hat makes a jury a lot more likely to give him the needle. then again, they may have already read about the hat in In the Middle of the Night.

hayes' trial begins on sept. 13th, joshua komisarjevsky's follows soon after.

three years ago this week:

joshua komisarjevsky, then 26, was telling friends that he was depressed because his 16-year-old girlfriend, caroline, had moved away. the pair first met at a christian summer camp when caroline was just 8. joshua was dating caroline's older sister at the time. caroline wrote to joshua in jail and the pen pal relationship evolved into a surreptitious conjugal visit and then furlough flings. but by the time joshua was paroled, caroline's family was already planning a move to rogers, arkansas. at a barbecue a few days before the Cheshire murders, joshua told friends that he needed to get his hands on some money so he could join caroline in arkansas. the night before the Petit murders, just before joshua went to meet steven hayes, caroline and joshua engaged in a cyber sex session in which caroline emailed joshua x-rated photos of herself.

steven hayes' triple murder trial begins sept. 13th, joshua's follows soon there after

three years ago this week:

not only did joshua komisarjevsky give steven hayes work on the construction jobs he was doing, he invited his old halfway house buddy into his small circle of friends: among this group was joshua's girlfriend caroline, who was 16 at the time, and some of his friends from growing up in cheshire. the group pinned the nickname "Uncle Fester" on hayes because of his bald head and pudgy frame. hayes could care less about the unflattering moniker. in the space of just a couple of weeks, the 44-year-old had gone from prison to hanging out with a bunch of teens and twentysomethings. he had hit the ex-con lottery.

hayes' triple murder trial starts sept. 13th, joshua's will follow soon after

three years ago this week:

though it was short-lived, joshua komisarjevsky played the daddy role well. the night before the Petit murders, Sunday, July 22nd, 2007, joshua gave his 5-year-old daughter a bath, tucked her in and read Bible stories to her until she fell asleep. but there was a duality in joshua that had a side so contrary, so evil, that it was capable of murdering children.

just six or so hours after he had tucked his own daughter in, he was tying 11-year-old Michaela Petit to her bed posts. He and steven hayes broke into the Petit house in the middle of the night and decided to turn a dream of a suburban home into an incomprehensible nightmare. Michaela, her sister, Hayley and their mother, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, would all die before joshua and hayes were through. and now judgment day draws near.

steven hayes triple murder trial begins sept.13th. joshua's will follow sometime next year.

three years ago this week:

perched on the roofs of the houses they worked on, the sun beating down on their backs, hayes and joshua wiped the sweat from their eyes and looked out on manicured lawns, backyard decks and swimming pools of central Connecticut. every now and then they would get a glimpse of a teenage girl or young mother in summer shorts or a bathing suit top and entitlement would stir in their loins, a feeling that began to boil under the sun's unrelenting heat.

it would take just a little over two weeks before the legitimate jobs on the roofs of Cheshire and environs would cave to the mismatched pair's baser nature and lead them to the Petit's basement bulkhead door.

steven hayes' triple murder trial starts on sept. 13th. joshua's trial will begin sometime early next year.

it's supposed to climb to a 100 degrees here on the east coast and stay that way for almost a week. no time to be in jail, especially a maxi prison in Connecticut awaiting your triple murder trial and possible death sentence. but that's where steven hayes and joshua komisarjevsky find themselves. i wonder what thoughts come to them just before they close their eyes to sleep. i wonder who visits them in their dreams.

the end of this month will mark the third anniversary of the Cheshire home-invasion murders. steven hayes' trial begins sept. 13th.

Judge Blue denied the request to close the courtroom to press and the public made by Thomas Ullman, steven hayes' attorney--this is good news for all who put any credence into a little thing called the First Amendment. also, prosecution has decided not to enter the library book hayes was reading in jail in the months before the Petit murders into evidence--which is also good news. as evidence, the book no doubt would have caused a backlash against the prison library system in Ct. Connecticut's jails have taken a beating over their shoddy stewardship of hayes and komisarjevsky, and rightfully so. but this is an area where they don't deserve to take a hit. what hayes was reading didn't make him kill Jennifer Hawke-Petit any more than "Blackbird" instructed Charles Manson.

in a not-so-flattering review of my first true-crime book, Safe Harbor, new york times reviewer marilyn stasio made this general statement about the genre: "the language of true crime," she wrote, "is so inelegant it seems to dishonor the dead."

after watching last night's show i get what she meant.

in the months following the release of In the Middle of the Night I turned down numerous interview requests including network true-crime shows. a good part of my reasoning was that I saw myself in a no-win situation, I would either, because of the avalanche of negative reaction to the book, come across defensive, or look like I was trying to profit off of someone's terrible misfortune (there were also legal concerns). earlier this year, i came to the decision that my self-imposed moratorium had lasted long enough. one of the interviews I gave was to The Learning Channel.

that show airs Sunday night (June 20th) at 10pm and replays the following Wednesday (June 23rd) at 7pm.

contrary to many news stories about In the Middle of the Night, joshua komisarjevsky rarely looked to shift the blame to hayes for what happened that morning in Cheshire. out of all the information joshua gave to me in his letters and during my interviews with him, only once or twice did i get the feeling that he was giving up hayes. one of those times was when he told me about the book hayes was reading in the months leading up to the Cheshire murders.

that book was a topic of discussion in New Haven Superior Court yesterday and could be introduced as evidence by the prosecution during the Sept. trial. it is explosive material and supports what i've always believed--as motives go, monetary gain was second to the primary reason hayes and joshua broke into the Petit home early that July morning: the Cheshire home-invasion was rape; planned, executed and murderous.

as jury selection for the steven hayes triple homicide trial creeps to conclusion (five more alternates and backups still to be chosen) and the summer months approach, this blog will take a short hiatus from murder and mayhem. of course, i will update you on any significant news out of New Haven Superior Court, and will start daily posting as the mid-Sept. trial date nears. have a nice summer true-crime fans.

after spending 18 years on death row for the rape and murders of eight women in Connecticut and New York, Michael Ross was executed on Friday, May 13th 2005. in prison, Ross had found religion and spent the last years of his life trying to convince the state of Connecticut to put him to death. after the jump is a portion of a statement Ross made concerning his wish to die: (more…)

lawyers on both sides of the case agreed on two more alternate jurors yesterday. so far, 12 regular and three alternate jurors have been chosen. the new jurors are described as a North Haven, Ct. man in his 60s, and Madison, Ct. woman in her 40s. a panel of twenty regular, alternate and backup jurors are needed. selection continues today. the regular trial begins in mid-Sept.

ok, up until the beginning of last week there was at least one and sometimes AS MANY AS 600 news stories A DAY about the jury selection of the steven hayes trial. but for the past week there has been nothing. not a single new word about the trial in the press or on the web. it's as if jury selection for the hayes trial has disappeared. (more…)

still no news out of steven hayes' jury selection. i can't help thinking that something's up. soon as i get anything i'll let you know.

there hasn't been news out of Superior Court in New Haven for days now, and I can't find any indication that jury selection has been interrupted. this might be the longest stretch since the selection process began without a juror being chosen. maybe hayes' defense is reverting back to the stall tactics it implemented earlier on.

while we wait for things to heat up (and they will), there is a terrific piece about an excused prospective juror for the hayes trial in The Yale Herald by Cassie Crockett. It's required reading for any informed hayes trial-watcher.

in the wake of the Petit murders, Connecticut legislators passed a bill that invented a new category of crime called "home invasion." the burglary of someone's home was reclassified as a Class A felony.

Last week in Connecticut there were two home invasions of note. the men responsible for the break-ins are both now in prison. One turned himself in because he "felt guilty," the other had some type of seizure in the house and was held down by occupants until police arrived.

these two knuckleheads could face 25 years in prison.

no news out of new haven, juror count still stuck on 12

journalist Greg Berger did a nice job in his piece on the political implications of the Petit trial in The Dartmouth

quiet couple of days in New Haven Superior Court as the jury selection stalls at 12. guaranteed though, by the end of May they'll have the panel wrapped-up and ready to go. there's no way the defense would let this process bleed into June. The summer season of patio parties beckons and with a client as high-profile as hayes, the ullman-culligan team are sure to head up all the important guest lists. and why not? they're armed with enough courtroom anecdotes about nutty hayes to fill a whole season of summer sunsets.

but as the curtain comes down on the first act in new haven, i wonder how the star will be spending his intermission. (more…)

i was reading a blog yesterday written by a Connecticut defense lawyer who shall remain nameless mostly because i think he's a self-important blowhard and i have an aversion to any man who wears a ponytail and is not playing a violin. it's closed-minded of me, i know. but i'm a work in progress.

anyhow, he mentioned in his piece that there are "grisly photographs" of hayes "participating in the carnage," presumably on the morning of July 23rd, 2007 in Cheshire. (more…)

a new haven woman chosen today. eight more needed to complete the jury panel for steven hayes' triple murder trial.

according to his lawyers, hayes hasn't showered or brushed his teeth in weeks. they say he eats little, and has trouble keeping whatever he eats down. he rarely sleeps. he spends his time rubbing his face and hands and pinching his fingers. in court, he rocks back and forth on his chair, and yawns. he cares nothing about his trial, they say. (more…)

think i liked this guy patrick j. culligan, hayes' co-counsel, better when he wasn't saying anything. an "incredibly stressful" situation? that's his argument to get his client excused from having to watch jury selection?

i'm gonna go out on a limb here, patrick, but i think stress is part of the job description of a defendant in a triple murder trial.

so the defense wants Judge Blue to allow their client to stay in his cell for jury selection. Blue will hear arguments today.

can't blame ullman for not wanting hayes in court. heck, the guy might stand up and yell "guilty!" again. have a heart, judge. hayes is in such a delicate condition, it's inhumane to make him sit in the same room with the victim's family.

when it comes right down to it, defense doesn't need hayes to participate at all. this trial isn't about him, it's about ideals. so just put a crash-test dummy with a Steven Hayes name tag and sit it at the defense table. don't want to let a death-penalty debate get all messy with real live people.

eleventh juror chosen yesterday. a woman from Wallingford, Ct.

a Hamden, Ct. man was chosen Wed. as the 10th juror. we are now halfway home to the 20 needed for a panel complete with back-ups and alternates.

this milestone warrants a quick re-cap:

jury selection for steven hayes' triple murder trial began four months ago. there have been two extended delays, one because of (more…)

a new haven women was chosen as the ninth juror yesterday. eleven more to go

interesting opinion piece in today's Waterbury Republican American by Lee Grabar (sorry, link not available). It seems that thomas ullman had to talk long and hard to get hayes to change his mind about pleading guilty. the piece also talks about the death penalty being the lesser of two evils to some convicted murderers, like Michael Ross who was executed in Ct. in 2005. It made me wonder if hayes sees a freedom in death that he knows he'll never experience serving a life sentence. (more…)

two more jurors were chosen yesterday for hayes' murder trial bringing the total now to eight. 20 are needed for a panel complete with alternates and backups. all i know about yesterday's picks is that one is a woman, the other a man. if i get any more info i'll of course pass it on.

so far, 207 perspective jurors have been interviewed. if i haven't forgotten all my math, that means 1 out of every 27 perspective jurors have been chosen. no doubt this is a time-consuming process, but it's certainly not a completely tainted jury pool.

interesting item in today's Hartford Courant. during the process of being confirmed for another term as a Superior Court judge, James Bentivegna, who sentenced Joshua Komisarjevsky to nine years back in 2002, said Wednesday that it was an "unfortunate tragedy" that the parole board never received the sentencing transcript. that document contained Bentivegna's assessment of Komisarjevsky as a "cold, calculating predator." had komisarjevsky been denied parole and served his full sentence he would still be in jail, which, obviously, would have saved the lives of Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela Petit.

more updates on the hayes trial as they happen

in one of the first letters i received from joshua komisarjevsky there was a description of his and hayes' attempted escape from the Petit house on the morning of July 23rd, 2007. having set the house on fire, and having no idea the police had them surrounded, Joshua and hayes ran from the house and jumped into the Petit's Chrysler Pacifica. joshua was behind the wheel. police had roadblocks (more…)

hindsight is 20/20. the reason the state chose to prosecute hayes first is because they believe, as joshua komisarjevsky told me, that hayes committed the first murder that rainy morning, raping, then choking to death Jennifer Hawke-Petit. the murders of the two Petit girls, who died of smoke asphyxiation, could be seen as occurring during (more…)

in all, i received over 200 pages of letters written by joshua komisarjevsky while he was being held in Macdougall-walker, c.i., the same prison in which steven hayes tried to commit suicide.

most of the letters came in business letter envelopes, addressed to me, and with a return address of 1153 East Street, South Suffield, (more…)

it's hard to disagree with today's editorial in the New Haven Register (see link to the left). Connecticut's Department of Correction continues to bungle the handling of two of their highest profile residents. However, as it has done many times, the Register continues to write that In the Middle of the Night tries to shift blame from komisarjevsky to Hayes. That's just not true. (more…)