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Thread: Joshua Komisarjevsky - Connecticut

  1. #111
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Komisarjevsky tried to commit suicide in Pennsylvania prison

    Within hours of arriving at a Pennsylvania prison last week, Joshua Komisarjevsky, convicted of the brutal Cheshire triple murders in 2007, tried to hang himself in his new cell.

    Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were transferred to the Camp Hill Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania on Aug. 18 as part of a prisoner exchange program between Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Both men recently had their sentences changed from death to life in prison without parole.

    Karen Martucci of the Connecticut Department of Correction confirmed Thursday that Komisarjevsky tried to hang himself about 1 a.m. on Aug. 18.

    Martucci said Komisarjevsky didn't require medical attention outside the prison and that he is receiving mental health treatment.

    Komisarjevsky and Hayes were convicted in the 2007 triple murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters Hayley, 17, and Mikaela, 11, who were killed when the two men set the house on fire to create a diversion so they could escape police waiting outside.

    Hawke-Petit was strangled to death by Hayes after returning with him from the bank with $15,000. William Petit was knocked unconscious by Komisarjevsky and tied to a pole in the basement until he escaped to a neighbor's house and called 911 moments before the Petit house burned down.

    Both men were originally sentenced to death and both recently had their sentences changed after the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty.

    "We have been unable to talk to him or to reach him at all since he was moved to Pennsylvania so we really have no idea what is going on or what happened," said Georgia-based attorney John Holdridge, who is representing Komisarjevsky on appeal.

    Holdridge and Hartford attorney Moira Buckley have been trying to get Komisarjevsky a new trial based on evidence that Cheshire police did not turn over all of the police communications from the morning of the murders.

    Some of the calls that weren't turned over showed that police failed to call out the SWAT team, told a hostage negotiator not to respond and that at least originally they were skeptical about Hawke-Petit's story that her family was being held hostage.

    The Courant reported last week that both men had been moved to Pennsylvania. DOC officials did not say anything about Komisarjevsky's attempted suicide at that time even though it had occurred two days previously.

    Several years ago, Hayes tried to kill himself by hoarding his pills and taking them all once at the beginning of his trial. Last year Hayes also was rushed to the hospital after he was found unresponsive in his cell. Correction officials never said what caused that or if it was a suicide attempt.

    Sources said Komisarjevsky has never threatened to kill himself while on death row and has friends who he communicates with by mail regularly. A source familiar with the case said he was "shocked" that he was being moved out of Connecticut with no notice.

    The transfer of the two inmates was part of the interstate corrections compact, in which participating states agree to accept inmates for reasons of safety and security. A source familiar with the transfer said prison officials had security concerns regarding the two murderers now that they are no longer isolated on death row.

    http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...825-story.html
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  2. #112
    Senior Member CnCP Addict TrudieG's Avatar
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    What the police did or failed to do IMO is irrelevant he murdered, raped and set fire resulting in their deaths.I fail to see just how would this change the convictions.

  3. #113
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Richard86's Avatar
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    Holdridge and Hartford attorney Moira Buckley have been trying to get Komisarjevsky a new trial based on evidence that Cheshire police did not turn over all of the police communications from the morning of the murders.

    Some of the calls that weren't turned over showed that police failed to call out the SWAT team, told a hostage negotiator not to respond and that at least originally they were skeptical about Hawke-Petit's story that her family was being held hostage.
    So the police were incompetent? Whoop de do! Would it have made a difference to the outcome of the crime? Maybe. But do you know what definitely would have made a difference to the outcome of the crime? Hayes and Komisarjevsky not being pieces of scum.

    Talk about vexatious litigation. I hope this appeal goes straight in the bin and the lawyer behind it gets the bill for the time wasted dealing with it that could have been spent on more worthwhile cases.

  4. #114
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    Connecticut home invasion survivor declares victory in state House race

    PLAINVILLE, Conn. — A Connecticut doctor who survived a 2007 home invasion that took the lives of his family has declared victory in his race for a seat in the Connecticut state legislature.

    Republican William Petit accepted the concession of 11-term Democrat state Rep. Betty Boukus in the district that includes Plainville and part of New Britain.

    The family doctor said he ran for the legislature as a fiscal conservative, not a crime victim, and that he plans to work with both political parties to get the state out of a financial hole.

    “The patient has a lot of symptoms right now and we need to approach these symptoms in a reasonable fashion and try not to kill the patient,” he said, apparently referring to the state.

    Boukus, 73, who serves as House chair of the powerful bonding subcommittee, came to Petit’s headquarters to concede.

    Petit, 60, became a national figure after surviving the attack in Cheshire in which his wife, Jennifer, and two daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, were murdered.

    The race got attention last month when a labor union’s political action committee ran an internet ad that tried to link Petit to Republican Donald Trump and “attacks on women and families.”

    Boukus says she was horrified by the ad, which led to the resignation of the union official who authorized it.

    Republicans began to approach Petit about seeking public office several years ago after he testified against the eventual repeal of capital punishment in Connecticut and spoke out against the state Supreme Court decision that removed the death penalty for those already sentenced. The ruling removed the two men who killed his family from death row.

    But Petit said he had no plans to try to revive Connecticut’s death penalty. He said he will act as a victim-rights advocate, but wants to focus on pushing for needed budget cuts.

    “There’s many things that we want, but don’t necessarily need, and we’re at a point where we need to make hard choices,” he said.

    Boukus said she has nothing bad to say about Petit. She said she didn’t mention him while campaigning, instead focusing on her own record and what she could do for her constituents.

    “When you run for office, you accept it - running, losing,” she said. “I have to get some stuff done that I started. I’ll clean up house, then find the next avenue of excitement.”

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/william-...te-house-race/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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  5. #115
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    Joshua Komisarjevsky, convicted in Cheshire triple killing, seeks a new trial

    By Randall Beach
    The New Haven Register

    Attorneys for Joshua Komisarjevsky, who was convicted of the Cheshire triple murders, have filed a motion with the state Supreme Court, asking he be granted a new trial because of alleged judicial errors during the pretrial process and the trial, including not allowing the trial to be moved to another part of the state.

    The attorneys argued Komisarjevsky was unfairly portrayed as “the mastermind” of the July 2007 home invasion and slayings. They contend co-defendant Steven Hayes was the one who intended to kill Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley, and then carried out his intention.

    Komisarjevsky’s attorneys, Moira Buckley and John Holdridge, asserted in their 140-page argument that the state belatedly showed Komisarjevsky’s trial attorneys a series of letters Hayes wrote to a woman in which he portrayed himself as the leader of the Cheshire crime.

    State prosecutors showed the 132 pages of hand-written letters to the defense attorneys on Oct. 7, 2011, after evidence had concluded in Komisarjevsky’s trial. The following Monday, prior to closing arguments, the defense filed a continuance motion, asking for more time to assess the information in the letters.

    Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue denied the motion. The appeal attorneys’ document quoted Blue saying: “The problem here is that we have the jury that’s ready to go, and their time has to be considered too.”

    “Hayes’ letters would have provided powerful confirmation of the defendant’s theory of defense that he was not guilty of capital felony, murder or arson,” the attorneys wrote. “Because the jury did not hear this critical evidence, there is a serious danger of a miscarriage of justice.”

    They added there was “a reasonable probability” that if the jurors had read Hayes’ letters. Komisarjevsky would have been acquitted of arson, murder and capital felony.

    Thus, the attorneys wrote, Komisarjevsky “is entitled to a new trial or such other relief as the court deems appropriate.”

    Komisarjevsky was convicted on six capital felony counts, three counts of murder and four counts of kidnapping as well as sexual assault, burglary, arson and second-degree assault. The same jury then voted unanimously for the death sentence. But the state Supreme Court later ruled the death penalty unconstitutional and so Komisarjevsky then received a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of release.

    Hayes was also convicted on similar multiple counts in his 2010 trial. He too is serving a life sentence without release but he decided to drop his appeal of the convictions. He admitted in court he was guilty and said he didn’t want the victims’ family to have to go through another trial.

    Komisarjevsky’s attorneys also faulted prosecutors for “failing to disclose to trial counsel telephone calls to and from the Cheshire Police Department that would have strongly supported the defendant’s theory that because of their woefully inadequate response to the 911 call from the Bank of America, the Cheshire police were motivated by guilt, anger and embarrassment to undermine the credibility of the exculpatory parts of his police statements.”

    The attorneys referred to the call made from a bank employee when Hawke-Petit went there with Hayes while the family was being held hostage under Komisarjevsky’s watch. As she was withdrawing $15,000 for the perpetrators, Hawke-Petit managed to tell the employee about the hostage situation. However, she and Hayes still were able to get back to the Petit house. Within the following half-hour the house erupted in flames, killing the girls who were tied to their beds.

    Hayes admitted to strangling Hawke-Petit before the fire was set.

    A Cheshire police spokesman did not respond to a call Monday seeking comment about the attorneys’ assertions.

    The attorneys wrote: “By failing to disclose these critical calls, the state corrupted the truth-seeking function of the trial and violated the defendant’s rights.”

    The state’s appeals attorneys, who will file their written response, were not available for comment Monday.

    The Komisarjevsky attorneys described his troubled upbringing, including being the victim of repeated sexual abuse as a child and brain damage. As a result, they said, he turned to the pursuit of “thrills,” such as committing night-time burglaries while the victims were home sleeping.

    The attorneys noted Komisarjevsky admitted he spotted Hawke-Petit and Michaela at the Cheshire Stop & Shop and followed them to their home the day before the crime. He said he was attracted by their car and house.

    But they quoted Komisarjevsky saying it was Hayes who texted Komisarjevsky: ”I’m chomping at the bit to get started” after Komisarjevsky told him about the Petits.

    Komisarjevsky also admitted he entered the basement through an unlocked door, found a baseball bat and assaulted Dr. William Petit Jr. as he lay sleeping on a sofa on the first floor. The attorneys noted: “He put a towel under his head to try to stop the bleeding.” The perpetrators took Petit to the basement and tied him up.

    Komisarjevsky also admitted he sexually abused Michaela.

    But the attorneys noted it was Hayes who went to a gas station and filled containers with gasoline. They contended he was the one who spread it throughout the house and later ignited it with a match.

    The attorneys’ document described the perpetrators arguing after Hayes got back to the house from the bank.

    “Hayes announced that he and the defendant would kill the family,” they wrote. “The defendant responded, ‘I’m not killing anyone, You know, that’s it, that’s not how it’s going down.’”

    They also quoted Hayes replying, “I’ll take care of all three of them” and then sexually assaulting and strangling Hawke-Petit.

    When Komisarjevsky heard a noise from the basement and discovered Petit had escaped, he told Hayes they needed to leave immediately. According to the attorneys, Hayes then poured the gasoline, including on the stairs to the second floor. They quoted Komisarjevsky telling Hayes: “You can’t seriously be contemplating burning these two girls alive.”

    “The defendant shut their bedroom doors,” the attorneys wrote, “hoping to buy them time.”

    Then the perpetrators ran out of the house, but not before Hayes lit the match. They two smashed into a nearby police barricade and were immediately detained.

    The attorneys said the murders “sent New Haven into paroxysms of inquisitional paranoia and communal hysteria,” fueled by the news media.

    “If the federal and state constitutions ever required a change of venue, this is the case,” they wrote.

    But the defense team’s motion was denied.

    The attorneys also wrote: “The trial court’s jury selection procedures were insufficient to detect and defuse the juror bias resulting from the extremely prejudicial media saturation.”

    As a result, they added, Komisarjevsky’s trial was “both unfair and unconstitutional.”

    http://www.nhregister.com/20170220/j...ks-a-new-trial

  6. #116
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    State files rebuttal fighting Cheshire killer Joshua Komisarjevsky's claim for new trial

    By Dave Altimari
    daltimar.courant.com

    Joshua Komisarjevsky doesn’t deserve a new trial in the 2007 Cheshire murders, the state’s attorney’s office said Wednesday in a legal brief with the Supreme Court arguing to reject his appeal, which is based in part on the failure of the state to turn over a series of police phone calls from the morning three members of the Petit family were killed.

    Komisarjevksy and Steven Hayes were convicted in the home invasion slayings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley Petit, 17, and Mikaela Petit, 11. Both men were sentenced to death, but later re-sentenced to life in prison without parole after the legislature abolished the death penalty.

    Komisarjevsky’s appellate attorneys, Moira Buckley and John Holdridge, are arguing that Komisarjevsky deserves a new trial for several reasons, one of which was that police and prosecutors didn’t turn over several phone calls made by police who were responding to the Petit home on July 23, 2007. In the appeal, Komisarjevsky’s lawyers argue that the calls could have been used to impeach the credibility of the officers who testified at the trial.

    Assistant State’s Attorney Marjorie Allen Dauster, in her 177-page rebuttal, said the missing calls wouldn’t have had any effect on the jury’s verdict. She wrote that the defense had plenty of evidence to raise questions about the police response to the Petit home.

    “To the contrary, the nexus between the evidence of police response and motive to fabricate is weak, and the undisclosed evidence was cumulative to that used by the defendant at trial during cross examination and closing argument,” Dauster wrote.

    “Where the purpose of impeachment evidence is to have the jury aware of facts which might motivate state witnesses to testify falsely, the defendant had ample facts to make his arguments about the police motives in this case.”

    Komisarjevsky’s attorneys argued that a number of taped calls coming in to the police dispatch center but never disclosed to the defense could have helped bolster the defense argument that Cheshire's response to the home invasion was "woefully inadequate" and would have provided defense attorneys fodder for cross examining officers. The existence of the tapes was uncovered by The Courant.

    Most of the calls came in to a second dispatch line at the police station and were made to or from officers' cellphones. One call provided new information on how close an officer was to a bank where Hayes took Jennifer Hawke-Petit hours into the home invasion.

    That call shows that police Sgt. Chris Cote was within blocks of the Bank of America branch at about 9:25 a.m., or slightly more than one minute after Hawke-Petit left the bank with $15,000 in cash. Hayes had forced her to drive to the bank and withdraw money. He waited outside the bank in the family's Chrysler Pacifica and drove them back to the Petit home, where Komisarjevsky had stayed with the two girls. The girls' father, Dr. William Petit Jr., now a state legislator, had been beaten.

    Hawke-Petit alerted a bank teller that her family was being held hostage. The calls withheld from the defense also showed that officers Donald Miller and Robert Regan called Cote on his cellphone at 9:25:15, before an all-points bulletin had been issued, to tell him that Hawke-Petit had "just left the bank, possibly with the captors in a Chrysler Pacifica" and that they were heading to the Petit home.

    Cote responded that he was not too far from the bank. The calls do not make it clear if Cote saw the Pacifica.

    Other calls showed that one of the department's hostage negotiators called the station to see if he was needed and was told he was not, and that two SWAT team members on a private job also called to see if they were needed and were told not to come in. They eventually ignored that order and responded to the scene.

    In their brief, defense attorneys argued that by failing to "disclose these critical calls, the state corrupted the truth-seeking function of the trial and violated Komisarjevsky's rights."

    The attorneys handling Komisarjevsky's appeal said they learned about the police calls through a 2013 Courant article. In 2014, Komisarjevsky's attorneys filed a motion with the state Supreme Court seeking a hearing to determine why the calls were not turned over to the defense.

    At the time, the high court sent the case back to the trial judge, Jon C.Blue.

    Blue held a hearing and ruled that Komisarjevsky's trial lawyers did not receive recordings of at least four calls from the morning of the home invasion.

    The judge said prosecutors' failure to disclose the calls showed no wrongdoing but was the result of human error. He said the defense had "plenty of clues" that the calls existed — testimony showed the calls were turned over to defense attorneys for Hayes — but that there was "no witness" who saw the compact discs with the calls handed over.

    https://www.courant.com/news/connect...212-story.html
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  7. #117
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Komisarjevsky Case To Be Heard By State’s Highest Court

    The Connecticut Supreme Court will hear arguments Thursday on whether 1 of 2 men convicted in a notorious 2007 home invasion and brutal triple-homicide in Cheshire should get a new trial.

    Joshua Komisarjevsky claims he was denied his right to a fair and impartial trial.

    Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were convicted of breaking into the suburban home of Dr. William Petit. The family was held hostage for hours. Petit’s wife and younger daughter were sexually assaulted and the home set on fire, killing the mother and 2 daughters who were 11 and 17 years old. Dr. Petit was beaten, but survived.

    The 2 men were sentenced to death, but then re-sentenced to life in prison after Connecticut abolished the death penalty.

    Komisarjevsky’s lawyers are expected to tell the state’s highest court Thursday that extensive pretrial publicity surrounding the Cheshire case prejudiced potential jurors and that the trial should have been held outside of New Haven.

    They’re expected to argue the prosecution failed to disclose multiple taped police phone calls and withheld 130 pages of letters written by Hayes, which they say strengthen the theory that Komisarjevsky never intended to kill the victims.

    (source: WNPR.org)
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    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

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    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  8. #118
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Convicted Cheshire Killer Says He's Transgender: Report

    Steven Hayes, convicted of the 2007 Cheshire home invasion killings, says in a new interview that he is undergoing hormone therapy in prison

    By Vincent Saizo
    Patch.com

    CHESHIRE, CT — Convicted Cheshire killer Steven Hayes told a podcast host in a recent interview that he is transgender and is undergoing hormone therapy in prison, according to the New Haven Register.

    Hayes, who is serving six life sentences in a Pennsylvania prison, was convicted along with Joshua Komisarjevsky for the 2007 home invasion killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters — Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17, in Cheshire.

    In the interview with West Haven's Joe Tomaso, host of the podcast "15 Minutes With…" and founder of CT News Alert, Hayes apologized for the murders, which he said was a robbery that went wrong and ruined everybody's lives, according to the Register.

    Hayes and Komisarjevsky were both sentenced to death for the murders. State lawmakers got rid of the death penalty in 2012, but made it so that inmates already on death row would be executed. The provision was added after the trials of Hayes and Komisarjevsky, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the death penalty violates the state's constitution and barred all executions with no exceptions.

    Hayes and Komisarjevsky were re-sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the chance for parole and were transferred out of Connecticut to a maximum-security facility in Pennsylvania. Komisarjevsky is currently seeking a new trial.

    Hayes, who previously sued the state Department of Correction on claims that his rights were being violated because he wasn't being given a kosher diet to conform to his religious beliefs, said he will not seek any more appeals.

    https://patch.com/connecticut/cheshi...sgender-report
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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