Petit Family murders. trial coverage, warning! graphic evidence photos.

[Lady Cop]

New Haven, CT – A motion to disqualify Judge Jon C. Blue from Joshua Komisarjevsky’s murder trial was denied. Attorneys for the triple murder defendant filed a series of motions this week to ensure their client receives a fair trial, but after a couple of hours of testimony, Superior Court Judge Brian T. Fischer said he didn’t hear anything that “gives rise to a reasonable question regarding (Blue's) impartiality.”

Judge Jon C. Blue is the same judge who presided over the trial for Komisarjevsky’s co-defendant, Steven Hayes. Hayes was convicted of murder and sentenced to death following a lengthy trial.

Komisarjevsky is charged with the 2007 murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley and Michaela Petit, following a home invasion in Cheshire, Connecticut. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

After Fischer’s ruling, Blue came into the courtroom and said he is ready to hear defense pre-trial motions. Motions expected to be discussed this week include requests for the sequestration of jurors, the elimination of a special media seating section in the courtroom, and a ban on any pins, clothing, or other items that somehow commemorate the victims in this case. The motion for the change of venue will be heard Feb. 23.

[trixie]

This story is so sad. :(

[lbridgeland]

Round "f"ing 2 coming soon... I hope Mr. Petit can find peace one day, to go through this a second time.

[Lady Cop]

jury selection could take a LONG time.

(CNN) -- Jury selection will begin in March for the second man charged in a brutal 2007 home invasion in which a Connecticut mother and her two daughters were killed.

July selection begins March 16.

In December, New Haven Superior Court Judge Jon Blue imposed a death sentence on Steven Hayes, 47, who was convicted of 16 of 17 charges against him.

Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, died as a result of the home invasion, along with her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit.

Prosecutors alleged that Hayes and Komisarjevsky, in July 2007, invaded the Petit home in Cheshire, Connecticut, beat and tied up Dr. William Petit, raped and strangled Hawke-Petit, molested one of their daughters and set the house on fire before attempting to flee.

The two daughters, who had been tied to their beds, died of smoke inhalation. Petit escaped to a neighbor's home. Hayes also forced Hawke-Petit to go to a bank and withdraw $15,000 from an account after finding evidence the account held between $20,000 and $30,000, authorities said.

[Gogo]

It is so sad Dr. Petit has to go through all of this once again.

[Lady Cop]

It is so sad Dr. Petit has to go through all of this once again.

he has sponsored a bill now, that would not allow childrens' autopsy reports to be made public.
God give him all the strength he needs to endure another trial.

Connecticut Superior Court Judge Jon Blue ruled that Joshua Komisarjevsky will stand trial in New Haven, judicial branch spokeswoman Rhonda Hebert said Monday.

the trial will start sept. 19.

[Lady Cop]

i knew this was coming. and of course it's all to spare Dr. Petit. right. or maybe he thinks he won't like death row? i hope to hell the court and DA do not accept this.

(CNN) -- The second man to be tried for a deadly home invasion in Connecticut has asked a court to accept a guilty plea on the condition he would be spared the death penalty.

Attorneys for Joshua Komisarjevsky submitted the motion to the Superior Court of the Judicial District of New Haven on Friday.

But Komisarjevsky's attorneys said in the motion that Hayes, who was sentenced to death in December after being convicted on 16 of 17 charges related to the invasion, has admitted to some of the most egregious acts.

"Coupled with these realities is the fact while Joshua Komisarjevsky is guilty of many things, he never intended the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit or her two daughters, which he explained to law enforcement while giving a prompt and detailed rendition of events that has been corroborated in large measures by the state's forensic evidence," the document continued.

The motion states that Komisarjevsky's primary reason for the conditional plea is to "avoid another lengthy, expensive and emotionally charged trial that will undoubtedly cause extreme mental anguish to the Petit and to the Hawke famiies, to the community at-large and to his own family, friends and supporters." BULLPLOP

[Lady Cop]

News 3

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The trial for the second man accused in a deadly Cheshire home invasion in 2007 will not be delayed, according to the judge.

The ruling was announced Tuesday afternoon.

Attorneys for Joshua Komisarjevsky wanted the trial delayed for three months after comments that were made by a lawmaker.

State Sen. Edith Prague said she didn't support repealing the death penalty, and that Komisarjevsky should hang by his penis on Main Street for his role in the crime.

"They should bypass the trial and take that second animal and hang him by his penis from a tree out in the middle of Main Street."

[Duchess]

Go Edith!

[heartbreaker6713]

he has sponsored a bill now, that would not allow childrens' autopsy reports to be made public.
God give him all the strength he needs to endure another trial.

LC how do you feel about the bill proposal not allowing children's autopsy reports being made public? Is that the report itself? or is that photos? I am just curious on your opinion, I am not a fan of looking through autopsy reports to begin, with let alone children autopsy reports.

[Lady Cop]

it's the reports and certainly the photos as well. i see no reason the public should be privy to those details. only the principals to trial. i cannot imagine how it felt to Dr. Petit to hear the intimate deeply personal horrors his children were subjected to spread all over the media. or anyone in that situation.

[heartbreaker6713]

it's the reports and certainly the photos as well. i see no reason the public should be privy to those details. only the principals to trial. i cannot imagine how it felt to Dr. Petit to hear the intimate deeply personal horrors his children were subjected to spread all over the media. or anyone in that situation.

Only the principals... such as jury, defense, judge, prosecutors, etc?

[Lady Cop]

trial starts this monday Sept. 19. i will follow it. most of the photos and evidence have been seen earlier in this thread. i expect this to be a torturous replay of hayes trail for Dr. Petit to endure.

Sept. 16, 2011

A Connecticut judge dismissed a series of last-minute motions today that would have delayed the death-penalty murder trial for Joshua Komisarjevsky.

The stage is now set for Komisarjevsky to face a jury for his alleged role in what has been called the worst homicide in the state's history.

Komisarjevsky, 31, is accused of 17 charges, ranging from murder to abduction and assault.

[aussiefriend]

I have read this thread now. After a few interruptions here. I might have avoided this in the past, because sometimes the world is so evil it's too much to process all of it. I did see Dr Petit being interviewed by Oprah. He was a very nice man who has endured an extreme trauma in his life. I hear Duch when she says she dosent know if she could handle it. I know myself, I could not handle it. I wouldn't survive something like that. It's so evil and disturbing, I couldn't do it.

Regarding Michaela's poor assault by the younger crim. Is this true or not true, was she anally....you know? I don't even like to say it. I hope that is not true. I really hope there is something not right there. That takes the evil onto a level of evil that I don't even know or want to know. What about how he was taunting Dr Petit almost calling him a coward. They don't get it do they? I mean, seriously. He will get death like the other crim. Like I said before they don't have the death penalty here. What sickos.

addit: I love reading LCs commentary and her little barbs towards the devil worshippers.

[Lady Cop]

this strategy to attack Dr. Petit is not going to serve their client well. but it's all they have. the outcome of this case is a foregone conclusion whether they like it or not, although Judge Blue will do his utmost to ensure a fair trial. this was the most horrific murder case in Conn. history. i wouldn't want to defend this filth.

sickening:
During Mr. Hayes’s trial, Mr. Donovan, 63, gave a flavor of his tactics, and of just how sordid the coming case may become. He made a widely quoted statement that testimony had created a “mis-impression” that Komisarjevsky had sodomized the 11-year-old, Michaela. Instead, he said his client, now 31, had claimed only to have “ejaculated upon” the girl. BULLSHIT



ABC
NEW HAVEN — It is set to begin again Monday morning in a claustrophobic courtroom here: photographs of two girls burned to death, witnesses fighting back tears, testimony about the night and day a family endured horror.
Komisarjevsky's three court-appointed attorneys, Walter Bansley III, Jeremiah Donovan and Todd Bussert have adopted a combative, even confrontational style with Dr. Petit and his family.

Jeremiah Donovan has dubbed them the "Petit posse" and tried to get Judge Jon Blue to ban Petit from the courtroom and other family members from wearing memorial pins. Normally, witnessed are not allowed to sit in court for testimony, but because Petit is both a witness and a victim, the judge has allowed him to remain. Blue also ruled that family members could continue wearing their pins.
The attorneys filed a motion to have the jury sequestered during the trial because of all the publicity surrounding the case. That too was denied.

The trio of defense attorneys who have called themselves the "most hated men in America" have also taken Petit to task for his outspoken support of the death penalty. They have accused him of "mounting a public relations campaign" in support of the death penalty.

Donovan took issue with the wording of an "in memoriam" notice written by Petit in which he described his family's killers as "pure evil." In a court motion, the defense attorneys slammed the characterization as inaccurate and inappropriate and instead referred to their client as "a damaged human being" who deserved a chance to respond to the allegations.

Well-known Connecticut trial attorney Norman Pattis said the defense team has little choice but to be aggressive, even against such a sympathetic figure as Petit.





Jeremiah Donovan, the lead lawyer for Joshua Komisarjevsky, this month outside his office in Old Saybrook, Conn. He has pursued an aggressive defense even before the trial's start, Sept. 19.

[Lady Cop]

Dr. William Petit Jr. arrived at the New Haven Superior Court Monday morning with his sister, Johanna Chapman, left and mother, Barbara Petit, rt., for Day 1 of Joshua Komisarjevsky's trial in the Cheshire home invasion case where Dr. Petit's wife and two daughters were brutally murdered in 2007.

from openings, it appears defense is going to try to pin it all on hayes who is rotting on death row.
i wish this trial was being televised.

[sc12]

So awfully sad...It seems the guys could have taken the 15,000 and ran - probably got away with it - can't believe it went this far...

[Ybe]

Awful disregard for human life.

[Lady Cop]

i find Hartford Courant the best source for today's court report.
there are others as well, New Haven Register and NYTimes. but Courant up to the minute usually.

http://www.courant.com/community/cheshir...1871.story

[Lady Cop]

Dr. Petit will likely testify today.

tweets live from court here:

http://twitter.com/#!/hartfordcourant/li...hire-trial







Hayley Petit was tied to her bed before gasoline was poured over her.