NEW HAVEN, Conn., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- A lawyer in a Connecticut murder trial conceded his client and another man killed three people during a robbery but said "no one was supposed to get hurt."
In his opening statement Monday in the trial of Steven J. Hayes, 47, New Haven Chief Public Defender Thomas Ullmann said the defendant implied he had no intention of hurting anyone in the home invasion that allegedly led to the slaying of three people, the New Haven Register reported.
Hayes faces three counts of murder, four counts of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault, first-degree arson and first-degree assault. His alleged accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, 30, is scheduled to go on trial next year.
Hayes is accused of entering the home of Dr. William J. Petit, sexually assaulting and strangling Petit's wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and tying the Petits' daughters, Michaela Petit, 11, and Hayley Petit, 17, to their beds. The children died of smoke inhalation when Hayes and Komisarjevsky allegedly set fire to the house.
William Petit was the sole survivor, the Register reported.
"Things got out of control." Ullmann said Hayes told police. "No one was supposed to get hurt."
Ullmann may be following a strategy claiming Hayes is not guilty of the murder counts because he didn't go into the house intending to kill anyone, the Register said.
Petit testified Tuesday two men stood over him with a gun and one said "if he moves put two bullets in him."
