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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