Oct 12, 2011

Jury deliberations began in Petit murder trial/note from Jury sent to Judge

Jury deliberations in the trial of Joshua Komisarjevsky began this morning after a roller coaster of a day yesterday wherein the Komisarjevsky defense motioned to re-start their entire defense based upon three letters allegedly written by Komisarjevsky's accomplice Steven Hayes, supposedly written to an unidentified woman, mentioning a number of " kills" and date rapes that he claims to have committed in the northeast over some years.

Considering Steven Hayes bumbling history as a crack fueled thief, getting caught at every turn for the smallest of crimes, he surely would have been caught long before his "16th kill", if he had in fact killed before.  This is in complete opposition to the extremely practiced, wily and shrewd Komisarjevsky, whose criminal history is much more akin to what profilers would expect from a rapist or serial killer; He had a history of stalking his victims, using night vision goggles from various perches on his victims property, this is a classic prototype for a sexual predator, and considering Komisarjevsky's proven ability to elude authorities or even suspicion by authorities for many crimes, it is much more feasible that of the two men he would be likely to committ and ecape detection for certainly date-rape and quite posssibly murder. . Komisarjevsky also had a penchant for stealing women's lingerie, and other trophy's from what were in effect, home invasions that were incorrectly labeled and charged as breaking and entering before Connecticut made it's laws more precise regarding this type of  dangerous crime.

Komisarjevsky admitted freely to a personal preference of breaking into homes while the homeowners were in the home - this fueled his excitement he proclaimed.  He also has a history of arson as a juvenile setting an abandoned gas station on fire as well as stalking and harrasssing a teenaged girl who he would spy on from trees outside of her bedroom. This was described by a Cheshire Police officer who was friends with the young girls parents.

It is fully substantiated that Komisarjevsky broke into well over fifty homes before being caught by Police for just a portion of those. His arrest for that portion led to his disclosure of others in hopes of cooperating with police in order to get a lighter sentence. Within his interviews and letters to writer Brian MacDonald, Komisarjevsky brags that he committed hundreds upon hundreds of home break-ins that Police still had never tied him to.

Judge Blue, who apparently read the Hayes letter, denied the defenses request to renew their defense, citing that the claims in the letter were unable to be corroborated, (area police reportedly stated that they do not have cold cases that match Hayes purported claims in the northeast area, nor unsolved date rapes) Blue went on to say that the letter, which blamed bitterly blamed Komisarjevsky for of the escalation of violence within the Petit home invasion, would only be highly prejudicial to Komisarjevsky if it was introduced, adding that it would have "sealed his doom."

For all any of us know, Steven Hayes could have been writing to a type of woman who is drawn to men in prison who they see as dangerous and/or wounded and have a sick type of attraction to. The phenomenon is hardly new it is well -known in both mainstream and forensic psychology and has reared its ugly head from what seems like the beginning of time.

Richard Ramirez, the night stalker, unbelievably had a constant gaggle of female admirers in court, many of whom he'd actually smile at and wave to from his seat at the defense table throughout his entire trial. Here was a man who committed multiple heinous sexual assaults and murders of women all over the city of New York and yet, there was clearly many female admirers drawn to the notion of either saving such men from evil, imagining themselves to be the "one" woman who the misunderstood murderer falls in love with.

The motivating factors for each of these woman may vary but the hard facts are clear; many serial killers have a bevy of interested women and sometimes men, who will write them and try to get close to them, even if it's strictly titillation with the concept of a dangerous man.

The bottom line once again is that the Komisarjevsky's defense attorneys knew the letter was not substantial enough to rate a sudden cessation of a trial that had just entered it's final arguments stage; However, in what has become their defining style, the defense threw out skewed, bogus or  uncorroborated information, knowing that the press and the jury, would hear about it and hopefully draw a conclusion that they have been aiming for:doubt regarding the guilt of their client Joshua Komisarjevsky, again
 singularly by painting his hand - picked accomplice as the "really" bad man who turned an innocent home invasion into multiple murders despite reams of evidence to the contrary.

After approximately one hour of deliberations, the jury sent out a note to the judge asking if they find Komisarjevsky guilty if they must specify him as a principle or an accessory within the crimes. Blue sent back instructions that they did not have to make such a distinction in the guilt phase. The Jury returned to their deliberations

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