NEW HAVEN, Conn (Reuters) – Dr. William Petit, speaking on Friday at the formal sentencing of the man convicted of killing his wife and daughters during a brutal home invasion, said their murders were his “own personal holocaust.”
Petit gave his victim’s impact statement in New Haven Superior Court for the formal sentencing of Joshua Komisarjevsky, 31, sentenced to death by a jury last fall for the July 2007 triple murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley Petit, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11.
Komisarjevsky was also convicted of assaulting Petit, 55, Hawke-Petit‘s husband and the girls’ father, who was beaten unconscious but escaped.
Komisarjevsky, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and seated before several jurors who attended the formal sentencing by Judge Jon Blue, listened as Petit testified about how Komisarjevsky‘s actions destroyed his family.
“July 23, 2007 was my own personal holocaust,” Petit said. “Evil does live among us.”
He said he missed his late night chats with his wife and their partnership raising their daughters, who he will never walk down the wedding aisle and who will never bear the grandchildren he would have loved to have known.
Komisarjevsky’s lawyer, Walter Bansley III, confirmed that his client will speak at his sentencing after choosing to remain silent at his trial.