Cheshire home invasion murders
2007 triple-murder in Cheshire, Connecticut, US / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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On July 23, 2007, Linda Hayes (named as Steven Hayes and presenting as male at the time of the incident)[lower-alpha 2] and Joshua Komisarjevsky invaded the residence of the Petit family in Cheshire, Connecticut. Though initially planning only to rob the house, Hayes and Komisarjevsky murdered Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, 17-year-old Hayley Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit. Their father, Dr. William Petit, escaped with severe injuries.
Cheshire home invasion murders | |
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Location | Cheshire, Connecticut, U.S. |
Date | July 23, 2007; 16 years ago (2007-07-23) |
Target | Petit family |
Attack type | Triple-murder, strangulation, immolation, bludgeoning, child murder, home invasion, kidnapping, child abduction, rape, child rape, arson |
Weapons | |
Deaths | 3 |
Injured | 1 |
Perpetrators |
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Verdict | Hayes: Not guilty of first-degree arson Guilty on remaining charges Komisarjevsky: Guilty on all counts |
Charges |
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Sentence | Death; commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole |
Upon entering the Petits' home, Komisarjevsky beat William with a baseball bat, and the pair restrained him in the basement. Hawke-Petit and her daughters were also restrained. Hayes later kidnapped Hawke-Petit and forced her to withdraw money at a bank. After returning to the home, Hayes raped Hawke-Petit and strangled her to death. Komisarjevsky raped 11-year-old Michaela. The invaders then decided to burn down the house to destroy evidence. With Hayley and Michaela tied to their beds, the invaders doused them and the house with gasoline and set it on fire, leaving them to die of smoke inhalation.[4]
The case garnered significant attention in Connecticut, with the Hartford Courant citing it as "possibly the most widely publicized crime in the state's history".[5] The murders received national and international attention,[6] and had a significant impact on Connecticut's death penalty, ultimately delaying its abolition.[7][8]
Both Hayes and Komisarjevsky were convicted of the murders and sentenced to death.[9] Their sentences were vacated in August 2015, when the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional and retroactively commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment.[10][11]