Joshua Komisarjevsky
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Joshua Andrew Komisarjevsky (born August 19, 1980) is an American criminal responsible for the murders of the Petit family during a home invasion in Cheshire, Connecticut, in 2007. He and his accomplice Steven Hayes broke into the Petit home on July 23, 2007, beat and restrained the family patriarch Dr. William Petit, robbed the house and raped and abused Petit's wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit and daughters Michaela and Hayley before burning the house down. Only Dr. Petit survived.
Biography edit
Komisarjevsky was born in Torrington in 1980 to a teenage mother, and was adopted by Benedict Komisarjevsky and his wife Jude. He was accused of molesting his sister in the early 1990s, which he conceded was true during his trial for the Petit family murders. He began burgling houses when he was 14, committing at least 18 home invasions prior to the murders. He was convicted of 12 burglaries in 2002 and sentenced to nine years in prison. During the trial he told his lawyer that during break-ins he would go into the owner's rooms and listen to them breath in order to enjoy the feeling of violating their security.
Komisarjevsky was paroled in 2007 and met Steven Hayes while staying at the Silliman halfway house and the two began breaking into homes together. On July 22, 2007, Komisarjevsky was at a local Stop & Shop when 48-year-old Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her 11-year-old daughter Michaela entered. Komisarjevsky noticed and took an interest in Michaela, following her home. Shortly afterwards, Komisarjevsky and Hayes exchanged text messages planning to rob the house.
The following day, Hayes and Komisarjevsky entered the house via the basement and entered the sun room, where they attacked Dr. William Petit with a baseball bat and bound him with zip ties. They then went upstairs and forced Hawke-Petit, Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley into their rooms and tied them to the beds before tying Dr. Petit to a support pole in the basement. Ransacking the house, they found a small amount of cash and a bank statement for $40, 000.
Komisarjevsky sent Hayes to take Hawke-Petit to the bank and withdraw $15, 000. Meanwhile, he went upstairs and raped Michaela and Hayley, recording the assault on his phone. He later claimed that he believed Michaela was 16. He then attempted to conceal his crime using bleach. Meanwhile, Hawke-Petit managed to tell a bank teller that her family were being held hostage before leaving with Hayes. However, police chose not to enter the house and instead set up a vehicle perimeter for when the kidnappers tried to escape.
When Hayes returned, Komisarjevsky taunted him into raping Hawke-Petit. Downstairs, Dr. Petit heard Hayes raping his wife and shouted up to her and was told it would all be over in a few minutes. He realized Hayes and Komisarjevsky were planning to kill them all and managed to escape his restraints before fleeing the house. Komisarjevsky realized this and informed Hayes, who killed Hawke-Petit. The two then poured petrol over the house before setting it afire and making their escape, leaving Michaela and Hayley to die from smoke inhalation. Komisarjevsky and Hayes then fled in the Petit family car but were immediately spotted by police surveillance and only made it one block before crashing and being arrested.
Both immediately made a detailed confession to the crimes, each blaming the other for how far things went. Charged with murder and rape, Komisarjevsky attempted to plead guilty but prosecutors refused to accept his deal in order to apply the death penalty. His defence was that Hayes was responsible for the murders. Komisarjevsky was convicted on October 13, 2011, and sentenced to death by lethal injection. However, in August 2015 his sentence was commuted to life without parole after Connecticut abolished the death penalty. An appeal against his conviction in 2019 was rejected by the Connecticut Supreme Court.