or rape any of them, nor did you have to attempt to murder my brother-in-law. and you did. we are to resist evil and i have to say i see you only as pure evil. for his part, steven hayes kept his eyes up on that projection screen for most of today s sentencing. we saw a lot of new family photos we ve never seen before of the petit family, many of the daughters as young girls in their parents arms. shep? shepard: sadly, this isn t over for that poor family. what s next? well, the trial sentencing is over for steven hayes but his defense attorneys warn us there will be years of appeals to come. judge john blue sentenced him to death today and also set an actual execution date of may 27 of next year. but said it was nearly a formality to get a date on the books. they can essentially be moved around later. the same prosecution and judge along with a different defense team are expected to meet within the next month to start
two days. may god have mercy on your soul. the words from a connecticut judge after he formally sentenced the convicted killer steven hayes to death for his role in that brutal home invasion, rape, torture and killings of a woman and her two daughters. a rare decision in the state of connecticut where only nine people now sit on all of death row. today, the convicted killer addressed the court and said i am deeply sorry for what i have done and the pain i have caused. he went on to say i m tormented and have nightmares about what happened in that house. guessing the surviving father does as well. police say hayes and the co-defendant took the petit family hostage inside their home in 2007, beat dr. petit with a bat, then raped and murdered his wife and sexually assaulted his 11-year-old daughter. prosecutors say the men then tied both girls to their beds, doused them with gasoline and set the place on fire, an
unthinkable crime. dr. petit was the only one to survive the attack. he told the courtroom of his incredible loss saying, among other things i miss my entire family, my home, everything we had together. there is a giant hole in the universe in my heart. laura ingalls followed this case from the beginning and is live in new haven, connecticut for us tonight. you were inside that courtroom. it wasn t just dr. petit, the survivor who had something to say to hayes, right? right, three other family members gave their victim impact statements. each with devastating detail about their own personal heartbreak and loss of these family members. choking back tears of his own, william petit sr., the father of dr. petit said his son will never know the joy of walking his daughters down the aisle or the wonderment of having grandchildren of his own. jennifer hoff petit s sister gave a prerecorded statement played in court with a direct message to hayes. you did not have to murder
we had sunny hostin on a few moments ago. he was very, very forceful in an otherwise soft spoken courtroom when the judge imposed the sentence for steven hayes, he said, quote, this is a terrible sentence but one you wrote for yourself in flames. when we wrote all six counts that steven hayes were to suffer death, he had force in his voice. you can tell this is not a man that he said that this is he s been doing this many, many years and this is the gravest crime known to our law. but his duty was to impose the death sentence. that had to be horrible testimony for anyone to sit through and particularly the judge. without a doubt. yeah, yeah, brian, great reporting. brian, one of our producers was in the courtroom today. as the judge announced sentence in the death sentence for steven hayes. what to cut to reduce the
usually what you hear is something like, may god have mercy on your soul. that is not what this judge said. he said something like, it gave him no pleasure to impose such a sentence but that he sealed, steven hayes seals his own fate in flames on july 23rd, 2007. i thought that it was so striking because i ve never heard a judge say something like that. it just goes to show you how this has struck a chord with everyone. i want to see that. we need to create i think that is such a strong statement. i think we need to see that. absolutely. so maybe we can create a graphic as we revisit this in top stories and just let folks see that as well as hearing you report on it. that is a strong statement. there s another trial to come, too. there is. 2011 joshua who s known as the mastermind behind this crime. and these horrible crimes. i think that while viewers are