Rot In Hell

If ever anyone deserved the death penalty, it's these two.

Yes, they are innocent until proven guilty. Yes, we should ensure all their rights are protected. Yada yada yada.

If the allegations are true, they should meet their fate in a timely manner that is consistent with the suffering their victims experienced. Not vengeance, just justice.

(Note: the following account is a composite I created based on news stories from here and here.)

Two Connecticut men charged with killing a woman and her two daughters in a 2007 house invasion inflicted unimaginable terror on a model family that had enjoyed their final pleasant summer day together, prosecutors told a jury during closing arguments Friday.

The killings took place in the New Haven suburb of Cheshire early July 23, 2007. The home of William Petit, his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and two daughters was invaded in the middle of the night by Steven Hayes and co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky, prosecutors say.

(State Attorney Micheal) Dearington said it all began on a classic summer day in which the Petit family went to church. Dr. Petit went off to play golf with his father, and his wife and daughters had gone to the supermarket, which is where authorities say the two defendants saw the family as a potential robbery target and followed them home.

After dinner, the girls chatted and laughed together and watched "Army Wives." Hayley had been accepted into Dartmouth and both girls were active raising money to fight multiple sclerosis which their mother, a nurse, suffered, Dearington noted.

Connecticut State Police Detective Anthony Buglione, who interviewed Hayes after the crime, has testified the duo broke into the home and beat Petit with a baseball bat and tied him up in the basement.

According to the testimony, the two men then went upstairs and found Hawke-Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit asleep in the master bedroom. After tying Hawke-Petit to her bed, they led the girl to her room, tied her to her bed and put a pillowcase over her head, Hayes told Buglione.

They then found 17-year-old Hayley Petit in her room and did the same, he said.

After finding a bank account that contained $20,000 to $30,000, they decided to have the mother go to the bank in the morning and withdraw money from her account, Buglione testified.

Hayes is accused of taking Hawke-Petit to the bank while Komisarjevsky allegedly stayed behind. When Hayes and Hawke-Petit returned with the money, the two men allegedly set the home on fire and fled.

Prosecutor Gary Nicholson said it was impossible to recreate the fear the two girls, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley Petit, felt when the men tied them to their beds and poured gasoline on or around them before setting their Cheshire house on fire.

"Hayley and Michaela Petit knew that the end was near," Nicholson said. "They knew they were about to die."

Inside the home, authorities said, Hawke-Petit, 48, was found raped and strangled. Her two daughters, one of whom had been sexually assaulted, had died of smoke inhalation. Petit, the sole survivor, escaped to a neighbor's home.

Words fail me. I can't imagine what went through the minds of Jennifer, Hayley, and Michaela as they laid there tied up with pillow cases over their heads. Add in rape, and being doused in gasoline, and their terror becomes unimaginable.

Rather than go into a long rant, I'll keep it simple. If Hayes and Komisarjevsky are truly guilty of what they're charged with, then I hope they rot in Hell for all eternity. After, of course, spending several years in prison getting raped by assorted gang and biker types, and then burned to death.