NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut jury has ended a third day of deliberations without deciding a sentence for a man convicted of killing a woman and her two daughters in their suburban home in which the girls were tied to their beds, doused in gasoline and left to die in a fire.
Steven Hayes was found guilty last month of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters — 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela — in 2007 in Cheshire. Jurors are to return Monday to deliberate on a life sentence or the death penalty for Hayes.
His lawyers have argued that he should be spared the death penalty because his mental capacity was significantly impaired.
But prosecutors say Hayes and co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky (koh-mih-sar-JEV’-skee) should get the death penalty.
Komisarjevsky is awaiting trial.
