‘i don’t deserve to live’
Deadly double act Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes came together to kill
When Joshua Komisarjevsky met Steven Hayes, it was clear they were destined to be best friends.
They shared the same interests and, when they got chatting, they realised they’d been through a lot of the same experiences.
For starters, both had troubled childhoods.
Komisarjevsky was the victim of horrific sexual abuse as a youngster and suffered brain damage from several serious head injuries.
It left him hearing voices and having suicidal thoughts.
Hayes was abandoned by his dad at a young age and left seething with resentment.
Both men sought solace the same way – by taking drugs to escape their realities.
And, when their addictions inevitably spun out of control, they turned to crime to fund their habits.
Komisarjevsky’s go-to offence was robbing people, and he’d already served a nine-year term in prison after getting caught.
However, he vowed to turn his life around, and started to attend a drug-and-alcohol rehab programme, near Cheshire in Connecticut.
It was there that he met
Hayes, who was also trying to get his life back in order.
But their friendship would turn them into a deadly double-act that would destroy one family forever.
After being clean for more than four years, in July 2007 Hayes, 44, suddenly started using crack cocaine again.
When his car broke down, he didn’t have enough money to get it fixed. And, with his drug addiction back in full swing, he needed cash – fast.
So he and Komisarjevsky, 26, hatched a plan to burgle a wealthy family.
‘I just wanted money. That’s all I was looking for,’ Hayes said afterwards.
They were on the lookout for their victims when, on 22 July 2007, they spotted Jennifer Hawke-petit, 48, and her 11-year-old daughter, Michaela, picking up some groceries at a local shop.
They noticed Jennifer drove a nice car, so they followed the mum and daughter back to their large family home, where Jennifer lived with her husband William Petit and their eldest daughter Hayley, 17.
There and then, the men decided to make the Petit family their victims. That night
the partners in crime texted back and forth about their plan. I’m chomping at the bit
to get started, Hayes wrote. The next day, they parked near the house and lay in wait until darkness fell.
When the family had gone to bed, Komisarjevsky and Hayes let themselves in through an open door in the basement.
Inside, they grabbed a baseball bat and made their way to the first floor.
There, they found William Petit, a successful doctor, asleep on the sofa.
Before he had any chance to defend himself, the vile pair launched into a brutal attack, battering him around the head with the bat.
As blood poured from his head, they dragged him to the basement and tied him up.
Making their way to the second floor, they tied Jennifer, Michaela and Hayley to the beds in which they were sleeping.
Over the next few hours, they planned what to do next.
When morning arrived, Hayes drove Jennifer to the bank and forced her to withdraw $15,000 (around £10,000) in cash.
‘At that point, we were just going to leave. Nobody was going to get hurt – at least not by me,’ said Hayes later.
But, when he got back to the house, Komisarjevsky confessed he’d sexually assaulted Michaela, just 11, while Hayes had been gone.
From then on, what was planned as a robbery turned into a slaughter
– for now
The family were angered the killers would escape with their lives
Hayes decided it wasn’t just Komisarjevsky who should get sick, sexual gratification.
So he raped Jennifer and then strangled her to death.
Worried about being traced by their DNA, the evil pair then doused the entire house with petrol, including Michaela and Hayley who were still awake and tied up in their rooms.
Lighting a match, they made a run for it, leaving Hayley and Michaela to burn alive.
Amazingly, dad William managed to break free and escape the basement.
With his ankles still shackled, he ran to a neighbour’s house to ask for help for his family.
Tragically, he quickly realised he was unable to save the lives of his daughters – and that his wife was dead, too.
As he watched his family home burn, he saw the police arrest the two men responsible. It later transpired that, when Jennifer had gone to the bank to withdraw the cash, she’d managed to tell the cashier what was happening.
The bank had called the police – who’d sent officers to the Petit home, but who’d told their personnel to wait outside and monitor the situation rather than go inside.
If they had gone in immediately, might the Petit family still be alive?
When the case came to court, Hayes was convicted of 16 charges, including murder, kidnap, and sexual assault.
Meanwhile, Komisarjevsky was convicted of 17 charges, including murder, kidnap, sexual assault, and arson.
Due to the horrific nature of the crimes, particularly the assault on Michaela and the burning of their bodies, the jurors at the trial were offered counselling.
And now, any friendship between Hayes and Komisarjevsky was forgotten, as they each blamed the other for escalating the crime. Both were sentenced to death.
But, in 2015, the state of Connecticut abolished the death penalty, so the men were resentenced.
Joshua Komisarjevsky was handed down six life terms in prison, without the possibility of release, as well as an additional 140 years.
Steven Hayes was also given six consecutive life sentences, without any chance of release, plus 106 years.
Superior Court Judge Jon C Blue gave a scathing assessment of the men’s characters.
‘Obviously, your crimes were of the most extraordinary severity imaginable. The most severe sentence allowed by law should be imposed,’ he said.
‘With the gravity of these crimes and the depravity of your character, nothing more needs to be said.’ After giving an emotional testimony at the trial, William Petit declined to attend the resentencing hearing.
But Jennifer’s sister Cynthia Hawke Renn, made a statement, saying the family were angered the killers would escape with their life.
‘Some people are too evil for this Earth,’ Cynthia told the Press.
Later, William Petit gave an interview to the local media, expressing his disappointment.
‘It appears that more attention is paid to the perpetrators, the convicted criminals, than to the victims,’ he said. ‘I think when people wilfully... without any remorse take someone else’s life, they forfeit their right to be among us.’
In an interview given after being jailed, Steven Hayes did finally express remorse for his actions.
‘I’m just really sorry.
I would do anything to make amends if I could,’ he said.
‘I don’t deserve to live. I don’t want to live.’
Hayes added that he spent his days in his prison cell, pacing back and forth, unable to watch TV or read books, because he’s so tormented by his actions.
However, he managed to file a handwritten letter to the Justice Department, complaining of his unfair treatment in prison.
Hayes wanted $500,000 in damages for supposedly not being given enough support for his anxiety and failing to have his basic needs met.
A federal judge ultimately rejected that argument.
For William Petit, nothing will erase the barbaric actions that changed his life forever.
He’s left learning to live without his beloved family.