Steven Hayes
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Steven Joseph Hayes (born May 30, 1963) 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 Joshua Komisarjevsky 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
Hayes was born in Homestead, Florida, in 1963. He received his first criminal conviction in 1980 at age 16. He was released in 1982 but was returned to prison on a parole violation after seven weeks. He was arrested 30 times between this incident and the Petit family murders, his final arrest being in 2004 after he stole a woman's purse and vandalized her car.
Hayes was paroled in 2006 and met Joshua Komisarjevsky 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. On the way Hayes bought two cans of petrol, which would later be cited as evidence that he and Komisarjevsky were already planning to kill the Petit family. Upon arriving at the bank, Hayes forced Hawke-Petit to withdraw $15, 000 from her bank account. During the transaction Hawke-Petit told the bank teller that her family were being held hostage before leaving with Hayes. The bank manager notified police as they left. 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, he threw Hawke-Petit to the ground and raped her. He later claimed that he had been taunted into doing so by Komisarjevsky, who had himself been raping Michaela and Hayley while Hayes was at the bank. 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 went upstairs to tell Hayes. When he was informed, Hayes strangled Hawke-Petit to death. 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 full confession to the crimes, each blaming the other for how far things went. Charged with murder and rape, Hayes's defence was that Komisarjevsky was responsible for the murders. Hayes was convicted on October 5, 2010, 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.
In August 2019 Hayes claimed he was transgender and was undergoing gender transition via hormone therapy.