Steven Hayes (Connecticut Department of Correction)
HARTFORD, Conn., Oct. 4 (UPI) -- A jury in Connecticut went home Monday without reaching a verdict in the trial of a man charged in the home-invasion slayings of a woman and her two daughters.
After instructions from the judge, the seven-woman, five-man jury began considering the 17 counts Steven Hayes faces for the 2007 killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, and the attack on Dr. William Petit Jr., Hawke-Petit's husband and the girls' father, inside the family's Cheshire, Conn., home, CTnow.com reported Monday.
The jury spent a few hours going over the case before adjourning for the day, the Hartford Courant reported. The panel will resume its work Tuesday morning.
Six of the 17 counts against Hayes are capital felonies. If convicted of one or more of the counts, Hayes could face the death penalty, the newspaper said.
Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky are accused of breaking into the Petit home, beating Petit and tying up the family before ransacking the residence for cash and valuables.
Testimony showed Hayes forced Hawke-Petit to go to the bank to withdraw money. During that time, testimony revealed, Komisarjevsky allegedly sexually assaulted Michaela.
When Hawke-Petit and Hayes returned from the bank, Hayes allegedly raped and strangled her, and the house was doused with gasoline and set on fire as the intruders fled, the Courant reported.
The two daughters, tied to their beds, died of smoke inhalation.
Komisarjevsky, 30, of Cheshire is scheduled to go to trial next year.
After deliberations started, the panel sent presiding Judge Jon C. Blue a note asking for the definition of "start of a fire." Blue told them to refer to the charge instructions.
In response to the jurors' question "Is the pouring of gas starting a fire?", Blue responded, no.
