Brian McDonald

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big swing and a miss for the Hartford Courant who went to court last week to have the gag order on the hayes trial removed. it seems that one of their reporters came up with the idea to write hayes a letter. hayes took the bait, and wrote back. but the Ct. Dept. of Corrections is a tad sensitive about reporters carrying on a correspondence with one of their minions (gee, i wonder why), especially when the inmate has yet to be tried for three murders, rape and assorted other crimes. So, this time, the DOC didn't allow the inmate's letters to be mailed using the old gag order routine as their reason. the superior court judge ruled against the Courant, the gag order stays in place and the letters will remain unopened for the duration of hayes and komisarjevsky's trials.

nine days to steven hayes' triple murder trial

can't say I'm a fan of norm pattis, the Connecticut defense attorney blogger who has chimed in numerous times on the Cheshire home invasion trial. maybe it's my inherent distrust of a grown man wearing a ponytail. but his post a few days back was worth a look for several reasons: first, his take on the local press treating Dr. Petit as something of a rock star and by doing so limiting steven hayes' chance at a fair trial, and second by citing a source who told him that prosecutors are planning to present during trial text messaging and picture mail between komisarjevsky and hayes sent from different parts of the Petit house.

komisarjevsky told me that he stripped the 11-year-old Michaela and took photos of her with his camera phone. he said that he was going to use them to blackmail Dr. Petit into silence. he didn't tell me that he sent them to hayes. and he didn't tell me if hayes took his own pictures. i was under the impression that hayes' only sexual interaction with Mrs. Petit occurred during the last half hour of the hostage situation, when he raped and strangled her according to prosecutors. if hayes in fact sexually assaulted or tortured Mrs. Petit during the prior five-and-a-half hours, and took photos of his evil exploits, that evidence would be absolutely explosive and, in my opinion, would assure steven hayes a date with the executioner's needle.

steven hayes' triple murder trial starts in 10 days

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during a jailhouse interview, joshua komisarjevsky told me that steven hayes smiled as he stood outside the Petit house and watched through the window of the enclosed porch as komisarjevsky repeatedly belted Dr. Petit in the head with a baseball bat.

later it would be komisarjevsky's turn to watch.

he told me that he stood on the stairs in the Petit home and watched as steven hayes raped and strangled Jennifer Hawke-Petit in the living room. he said that tears rolled down the face of the mother of two girls as she pled for her life.

These two events bookend the six-hours that komisarjevsky and hayes kept the Petit family hostage. testimony and evidence during the trial should tell us much of what happened in between.

Prosecutors revealed yesterday that they plan to prove that hayes, the first of the two alleged murderers to be tried, killed his victims in an especially cruel and depraved way. Hayley, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11, died as fire consumed the Petit home. they were tied to their beds.

steven hayes triple murder trial starts in 11 days

if any one believed that steven hayes' attorney, Thomas Ullmann, would treat the lone survivor of the Cheshire home invasion with kid gloves, that notion was dispelled yesterday story here.

Now let see how Ullmann behaves when Dr. Petit is on the stand.

steven hayes' triple murder trial starts in 13 days

for those close to the Cheshire home invasion trial, this has been a summer without end. but now, with a last fiery gasp, August crawls to a close and steven hayes' date in court is just two weeks away.

the trial will not be a question of whether hayes is guilty or innocent--he and joshua komisarjevsky were caught trying to escape from the burning Petit home.

what question remains is whether hayes will receive the death penalty for his crimes.

though hayes' guilt is predetermined, the trial still promises to be explosive with the most electric moment coming when the lone survivor, Dr. William Petit, takes the stand. it will also be interesting watching Hayes' attorney, Thomas Ullmann, try to humanize his client.

In 2004, Ullmann represented Jonathan Mills who faced the death penalty for stabbing to death a 43-year-old woman and her two small children. during the sentencing phase of the trial, Ullmann persuaded the judge to allow Mills to address the jury, an unusual request. Mills' tearful apology saved his life as the jury sentenced him to life without parole. the judge who gave Mills permission to speak to the jury was Jon C. Blue, the same Jon C. Blue who is now presiding over steven hayes' trial.

hayes' triple murder trial begins sept. 13th, joshua komisarjevsky's trial starts in jan.

the State's Attorney's office in Connecticut announced for the first time that steven hayes is the "principal" in the first murder committed during the Cheshire home invasion. Jennifer Hawke-Petit was raped and strangled before the fire that would kill her two daughters was set.

the statement from the SA made earlier this week corroborates what was reported in In the Middle of the Night almost a year ago and what Joshua Komisarjevsky told me almost two years ago during my jailhouse interviews with him.

steven hayes' triple murder trial begins on sept. 13th

I have a feeling that Steven Hayes is smarter than people think. Today, Thomas Ullmann argued a motion to wave statements Hayes made to detectives right after he was apprehended. In the highly-charged aftermath of the Cheshire murders, Hayes apparently talked freely about what occurred inside the Petit house. but when detectives, on the DA's urging, tried to tape record hayes the professional convict clammed up and demanded a lawyer.

now hayes' lawyer says: if the statements weren't taped, they might as well have never been said. But Judge Blue disagreed and ruled that hayes' untaped statements were admissible.

Still, it's not a stretch to think that hayes knew how this might play out in court when he refused to speak into the microphone. he's been intimate with just about every level of Connecticut's criminal justice system, a system he's spent the better part of thirty years trying to beat. underestimating his jailhouse intellect, which seems to be the case with the prosecution and press alike, is in my estimation a mistake.

steven hayes' triple murder trial begins sept. 13th

the defense in the Cheshire home invasion triple murder trial will undoubtedly look to gain the jury's sympathy by portraying steven hayes as hard luck case whose life cards have always been stacked against him. I relied mostly on parole records in my reporting on hayes, and though those pages were voluminous and filled with personal information, they offered only bits and pieces of his childhood. for instance, his father dying when hayes was in his early teens and hayes finding himself in trouble with the law for the first time not too long after.

certainly, more of hayes' formative years will be exposed during the trial. if hayes' behavior during jury selection (i.e. hording meds, suicide attempt, changing plea to guilty, then back again and more) is any indication, you can expect his childhood to be filled with surprises.

although i still think komisarjevsky is the more interesting of the two accused murderers, the Russian theater royalty in his lineage alone makes him a better read, hayes has had Shakespearean moments already and, who knows, perhaps a childhood story worthy of Dickens, or at least a lawyer who will make it sound that way.

steven hayes' triple murder trial starts sept. 13th

though it seems like the process is interminable, steven hayes' trial date is actually drawing closer. a month from today, sept. 13th, all will rise as Judge Jon C. Blue enters the courtroom and gavels the court to order.

the attention of the gallery and press will be focused on the sordid details of the crime. though my interviews with Komisarjevsky shed light on what took place during the six-hours he and Hayes terrorized the Petit family, there is still plenty to be revealed. of special interest will be the last half hour of that horrible morning, when Jennifer Hawke-Petit was raped and strangled, when the gasoline was spread and lit.

the most harrowing of the details will be enunciated by the prosecution while the defense will try to mollify and extenuate them.

the endgame here is the death penalty, and though it seems egregious to say, much more rides on the sentencing than whether or not it is the appropriate punishment for this crime.

for one thing, the courts of the land, indeed right up to the highest of them, will be watching. and so will political candidates, church leaders and others who passionately align on one side or the other of the death penalty debate.

but no matter the jury's finding, the morality of the death penalty will not be decided in New Haven Superior Court this Fall. nor will there be anything close to closure. the wound that was ripped into the flesh of Cheshire three years ago will never completely heal.

if and when Jennifer Hawke-Petit signed the anti-death penalty document, A Declaration of Life, she did so in a place and time that was safely a universe away from the nightmare that took her life that July morning on Sorghum Mill Drive. Though it's impossible to say for sure, there's a good argument that she would not have signed such a document had she known the terror and suffering that her children would be forced to endure.

and it's a subjective argument that a good prosecutor, no doubt, would use to shred the document's credibility.

as a legal device then, A Declaration of Life holds little sway.

but it was never meant to be a legal document. A Declaration of Life is a statement of belief.

so the question becomes, which is the real belief? the one declared in the abstract before the crime or the hypothetical one posed after the horrible reality?

one thing's for certain, the argument is moot if Jennifer Petit's signed copy of A Declaration of Life doesn't make its way into court in New Haven.

steven hayes' triple murder trial begins sept. 13th

sheesh, talk about getting the basics wrong. I've been misspelling defense attorney Thomas Ullmann's name for months. It's Ullmann, with two n's. Sorry about that blog readers, and to you Mr. Ullmann, presuming that you read my blog, my sincerest apologies.

if there ever was circumstance that warranted the death penalty, the home invasion murders in Cheshire, Ct. qualifies. from over use, the word "heinous" no longer does justice as a description of the crime. even anti-death penalty advocates seem reluctant to rally against the proceedings in New Haven Superior Court.

it is truly a test of the fabric of Christian beliefs.

in a jailhouse interview, Joshua Komisarjevsky, who along with Steven Hayes faces the death penalty for the murder of the Petit family, told me that he had long conversations with Jennifer Hawke-Petit during the six-hours he held her hostage. He said it was a mistake to engage Mrs. Petit. He "liked her," he said.

Komisarjevsky's recollection of Mrs. Petit during that horrible night and morning is an account of the purest form of Christian strength. she tried to put herself in the shoes of the men who would ultimately kill her. she empathized with their financial predicaments. She said she never understood why God seemed to provide more for some than others. she prepared something for them to eat. she never lost composure. almost to her very last breath, Mrs. Petit held steady in her faith that God would deliver her family to safety. and, no doubt, that there was something salvageable in the souls of her captors.

As it turned out, Mrs. Petit was wrong on both counts. God did not deliver her family safely, and her attackers appear as soulless as human beings can be. and yet somehow Mrs. Petit's misjudgments only make her seem more Christian.

members of her church contend that Mrs. Petit signed an anti-death penalty document called A Declaration of Life. But a copy of that document has yet to surface. if there is a copy out there, withholding it dismisses a faith in God for which Jennifer Hawke-Petit lived and died.

steven hayes' triple murder trial begins sept. 13th, joshua komisarjevsky's in jan.

if Jennifer Hawke-Petit signed A Declaration of Life, and members of her church contend that she did, then she probably did so in January, 2006, a year-and-a-half before she was murdered in the Cheshire home invasion. that January, a link to the document was made available on the Cheshire United Methodist Church's website. in the story that accompanies the link, prospective signers are urged to take the document home and "talk to your family."

but the document itself also has instructions to send a signed and notarized copy to the Cherish Life Circle, Convent of Mercy in Brooklyn, NY.

at the convent, Sister Camille D'Arienzo, the Roman Catholic nun who first conceived the idea of A Declaration of Life, said she could find no record of Jennifer Hawke-Petit's signed document.

this doesn't mean that Hawke-Petit didn't sign the document, Sister Camille said. Congregations are known to keep their own records, she said.

If Hawke-Petit's church, or a member of her church, has a copy of her signed document, and has decided for whatever reason not to reveal it, their actions would be in direct conflict to the Social Principles as set forth by the General Board of the United Methodist Church.

Steven Hayes' triple murder trial begins sept. 13th

the anti-death penalty document that murder victim Jennifer Hawke-Petit purportedly signed was first distributed in the mid-1990s by Sister Camille D'Arienzo, a Roman Catholic nun from Brooklyn, New York. the idea for A Declaration of Life came about as a result of the New York gubernatorial election. in 1994, George Pataki ousted incumbent Mario Cuomo. in no small measure, Pataki's pro-death penalty promise helped fuel his victory.

A Declaration of Life is an intensely personal plea that asks, should the signer be killed as the result of a violent crime, that his or her murderer not be subjected to the the death penalty, for it would "only increase my suffering," according to the document.

Tens of thousands of copies of A Declaration of Life have been distributed and signed since, including ones by Mario Cuomo, Susan Sarandon and Martin Sheen. Sister Helen Prejean, the author of "Dead Man Walking," lent her name and has spoken on behalf of the document.

the popularity of A Declaration of Life crosses secular and state lines. the document has found an ardent following of signers even in Texas, which historically leads the nation in executions, and at the United Methodist Church of Cheshire, Ct. where the Petit family were enthusiastic members. According to Sister Camille, whole religious congregations have adopted use of the document. "Not a week goes by that someone doesn't inquire about the Declaration," the Sister said.

still, the influence of the document has not been tested in the fifteen years of its existence. until now. Jennifer Hawke-Petit is believed to be the only person who signed A Declaration of Life and whose alleged murderer is being tried on capital charges. There was one other known signer who was murdered. Sister Karen Klimczak was killed in a halfway house for prisoners in Buffalo several years back. but her attacker did not face the death penalty.

Steven hayes' triple murder trial begins sept. 13th

Below is sections of "A Declaration of Life," a document Jennifer Petit, who was killed in the Cheshire, Ct. home invasion murders, purportedly signed as a member of the United Methodist Church of Cheshire. There has been little mention of the document in the run-up to accused triple murderer Steven Hayes' trial that starts next month. Hayes has been charged with capital crimes and faces the death penalty. It will be interesting to see if prosecutors give any credence to this profoundly personal request from the grave:

"THEREFORE, I hereby declare that should I die as a result of a violent crime, I request that the person or persons found guilty of homicide for my killing not be subject to or put in jeopardy of the death penalty under any circumstances, no matter how heinous their crime or how much I may have suffered. The death penalty would only increase my suffering.

I request that the Prosecutor or District Attorney having the jurisdiction of the person or persons alleged to have committed my homicide not file or prosecute an action for capital punishment as a result of my homicide.

I request that this Declaration be made admissible in any trial of any person charged with my homicide, and read and delivered to the jury. I also request the Court to allow this Declaration to be admissible as a statement of the victim at the sentencing of the person or persons charged and convicted of my homicide; and, to pass sentence in accordance with my wishes.

I request that my family and friends take whatever actions are necessary to carry out the intent and purpose of this Declaration; and, I further request them to take no action contrary to this Declaration.

Steven Hayes' trial begins Sept. 13th

back in March, after speaking in front of the Connecticut legislature's Judiciary Committee, Dr. William Petit denied ever seeing the A Declaration of Life document that his wife purportedly signed. He also told reporters that he and his wife never talked about the death penalty issue, even though their church is a very active participant in the anti-death penalty movement.

if Jennifer Hawke-Petit's church, the United Methodist Church of Cheshire, used the most common of the A Declaration of Life documents, then it was signed in front of two witnesses and a notary public. More to come.

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according to members of her church, Jennifer Hawke-Petit signed A Declaration of Life, but there has been no sign and little talk of the document. A Declaration of Life is a contract of sorts that states a person's objection to the death penalty and requests, should that person be a victim of homicide, that the death penalty not be imposed.

along with her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, Hawke-Petit was murdered during the Cheshire, Ct. home-invasion in July of 2007. The alleged murderers, Steven Hayes, 47, and Joshua Komisarjevsky, 29, both face the death penalty in upcoming trials.

the mystery of the missing document raises several possibilities, among them are:

1. defense attorneys have the document and are waiting for the trial. Presenting such a document to the jury would provide an incredibly dramatic moment and perhaps a sentencing game-changer.

2. Hawke-Petit's church, the United Methodist Church of Cheshire, has the document and is conflicted over whether or not to release it. The United Methodist has a long anti-death penalty history, but the vicious cruelty of the Petit murders in its own backyard has tested the church's resolve.

3. Dr. Petit, Hawke-Petit's husband and lone survivor of the home invasion, has the document, and doesn't plan on showing it to anyone. Dr. Petit has become increasingly vocal over the past few months in his desire to see hayes and komisarjevsky executed.

4. lastly, and undoubtedly the most ironic of the possibilities, is that the document was destroyed in the fire that consumed the Petit home and killed Hayley and Michaela. presumably, the fire was set by komisarjevsky and hayes in an attempt to silence witnesses and cover their tracks. Hawke-Petit was raped and strangled before the fire was set.

steven hayes' triple murder trial begins on sept. 13th, komisarjevsky's in the beginning of next year.

Judge Jon Blue stayed back on Thomas Ullman's curveball and hit it right out of New Haven yesterday. Ullman, as you might remember, tried to float an off-speed bender past the prosecution by arguing that the death penalty in Connecticut violates his client's rights. his client, of course, is accused triple-murderer, steven hayes.

part of ullman's argument centered around the words of Connecticut governor, Jodi Rell. In the wake of the Cheshire murders, Rell vetoed legislation that would have abolished the death penalty in Ct. in a press release and other documents explaining the reason behind her veto, Rell cited Dr. Petit, the lone survivor of the Cheshire home-invasion, who in turn cited Lord Denning, the Brit jurist who believed that some crimes just deserve the death penalty.

but only a handful of the thousands of prospective jurors interviewed for hayes' trial knew the wording of Rell's veto, Blue said (let alone who Lord Denning was).

the other part of ullman's argument was that the legislature that passed the bill abolishing the death penalty was representative of the will of the people of Connecticut. Not true, though. sixty percent of Ct. supports the needle, and that number has been constant for a lot of years.

so ullman falls behind one-ziltch in the opening inning and steven hayes' life is still at stake when his trial starts on sept. 13th

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according to members of her church who were interviewed by The New York Times, Jennifer Hawke-Petit believed fervently that the death penalty was wrong and probably signed A Declaration of Life agreement. Along with her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, Hawke-Petit was murdered during the Cheshire home-invasion.

today her husband, Dr. William Petit, the lone survivor of that home-invasion, asked the people of Connecticut to support pro-death penalty candidates in the upcoming elections.

Petit's remarks came after a pretrial hearing where a judge heard arguments by the defense that Gov. Jodi Rell violated their client's rights when she vetoed legislation that would have abolished the death penalty in Connecticut. Rell cites Dr. Petit in the press release explaining her veto.

the trial of steven hayes, one of the two men accused of murdering Petit's family, begins sept. 13th. hayes is being tried for capital crimes and could face the death penalty.

if thomas ullman, steven hayes' attorney, has lost a couple of miles-an-hour on his fastball, he can still throw junk with the best of them. today, during a pre-trial hearing, he floated a bugs bunny curveball by the prosecution by challenging the legality of the death penalty in Connecticut. swing and a miss.

just because steven hayes' triple homicide trial coincides with the nutmeg state's gubernatorial and u.s. senate races this fall doesn't mean he would try to capitalize on the timing. ullman is into his windup and here's the pitch...

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

let's say the book hayes was reading in jail in the months before the Cheshire murders has a rape and strangulation theme similar to the way Jennifer Hawke Petit was murdered. prosecutors want to enter the book as evidence of premeditation on hayes' part. the defense wants it out for obvious reasons. the defense also wants the whole discussion of the book closed because leaking of the title would cause a new round of negative press coverage for their client. it would be impossible for the newly chosen jury panel, their reasoning goes, to not be biased by the news coverage. so the question is, does the public have the right to know the book's title now, before or even after it is deemed admissible, but months before the trial starts?

the judge and lawyers from both sides in the steven hayes murder trial are supposed to meet in court today to try and sort things out. the trial process has been on hold for weeks now, first because of hayes' apparent suicide attempt, then by a series of blunders by officials. the judge, jon (more…)