Home Invasion Murderer Steven Hayes Hospitalized In Connecticut

According to the Connecticut Department of Corrections convicted home invasion murderer Steven Hayes was found unresponsive in his cell and had to be transported to the hospital for evaluation.

In a case that gripped national attention, Hayes — along with Joshua Komisarjevsky — was convicted of the July 23, 2007 murder of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, in their Cheshire home after the pair spotted them at a supermarket and followed them home. They were both sentenced to death for the crimes.

Hayes’s attorney, Tom Ullman was told that his client attempted suicide and complained that his living conditions drove him to try to take his own life.

“I think he’s under oppressive conditions,” Ullmann told the New Haven Register. “I’m not surprised that he’s been driven to this state.”

Officials for the Connecticut Department of Corrections say that the 50-year-old home invasion murderer was found on Monday at 9:35 am by a staff member who was conducting routine duties. Hayes was the only occupant in the cell at the time.

“While conducting a routine tour at approximately 9:35 am on Monday, March 10, 2014, a correctional staff member found Steven Hayes unresponsive in his cell at the Northern Correctional Institution.”

“Correctional and medical staff immediately initiated emergency and life saving measures. The inmate was transported via ambulance to a local area hospital for further treatment.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections would not make further comments on whether the home invasion murderer suffered from a health problem and said that Hayes was in stable condition at the hospital.

On July 22, 2007 while shopping for groceries at a local supermarket Hawke-Petit and her two girls caught the eye of Hayes and Komisarjevsky, who followed them and later started the deadly home invasion that would last for seven hours and end up in the perpetrators setting fire to the house.

According to court testimony, the criminals spotted Dr. William Petit — the husband and father — sleeping on a couch on the porch of his Cheshire home in the early hours of July 23, attacked him with a baseball bat, and tied him up.

During the terrifying ordeal, the home invasion murderer convinced Hawke-Petit to withdraw $15,000 from the couple’s line of credit when the bank opened. With the belief that all the thugs wanted was money, the nurse obliged and they drove to the bank together, however, she had informed the teller of the danger the family was in and the bank called 911.

Police did not approach the house and after returning from the bank Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted the 11-year-old and recorded it on his cell phone. He then provoked Hayes into raping Hawke-Petit on her living room floor.

Meanwhile William Petit had escaped and ran to a neighbor’s house to ask for help. When the home invasion murderer discovered he was gone he strangled the wife and mother and doused her, and other parts of the house, including the girls’ rooms with gasoline and set them on fire.

The home invasion murders that shook the Chesire community resulted in the deaths of the three females. The girls both died of smoke inhalation, according to the Coroner’s office. William Petit was the only survivor and never returned to practicing neurology. He has since remarried.

The two men responsible for the home invasion murders were sentence to death and are currently on death row awaiting their execution by lethal injection. Hayes has warned in the past that he would try to take his own life.

[Image via Connecticut Department of Corrections]