Judge to hold hearing as defense lawyers oppose triple murder suspect’s proposed guilty plea
By APTuesday, April 6, 2010
Hearing set on Conn. triple murder suspect’s plea
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut judge will hear arguments on whether a suspect in the home-invasion killings of a woman and her two daughters should be allowed to plead guilty.
The hearing in the case of 46-year-old Steven Hayes is scheduled for Tuesday morning at New Haven Superior Court. He and another man face the possibility of the death penalty in the 2007 killings in Cheshire.
Hayes said in court last week that he wants to plead guilty.
His public defenders filed court papers Monday opposing it. They say they believe he wants to die and isn’t competent to make such a decision.
Hayes and 29-year-old Joshua Komisarjevsky (koh-mih-sar-JEV’-skee) are charged with murder and sexual assault in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, ages 11 and 17.
