Conn. jury hears words of home-invasion defendant

Lawyers trying to spare their client the death penalty for killing a woman and her two daughters during a home invasion introduced a letter Tuesday in which his co-defendant calls himself a "brazen" master burglar whose life “is defined by risk.”

Attorneys for Steven Hayes say Joshua Komisarjevsky, who still awaits trial, was the mastermind in the 2007 break-in that led to the killings in Cheshire.

On Tuesday, the defense lawyers introduced a letter Komisarjevsky wrote to the author of a book about the crime.

In it, Komisarjevsky described his technique and the thrill of breaking into homes as people slept, the same scenario prosecutors say unfolded in the Connecticut case.

"The risks are extremely high and the method is brazen,” Komisarjevsky wrote. “But hey, my life is defined by risk.” Prosecutors said the writings are full of fantasies and say both men were equally responsible.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky are accused of carrying out the home invasion that left Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, dead. Komisarjevsky faces trial next year.

In the letter, Komisarjevsky described how he wore night-vision goggles and would turn off the electricity in houses so that residents would be in the dark and he could see if they awoke. He said he preferred to break in around 1 a.m. when most people are in their third cycle of sleep.

Komisarjevsky said he would wait in the basement of homes, listening as residents walked above him, set their thermostats and burglar alarms and checked to make sure motion lights were on — "all the rituals of white folks from suburbia" while he was already in the house.

He also said he would memorize the unique sounds of each house, carefully balancing his weight on squeaky stairs, and taking care not to make a sound like a resident would not such as by moving too quickly.
"You walk and move like you belong," he wrote.

He said he sometimes would break into a home, get the keys and leave without a trace. The next day he would return and then simply unlock the front door, he said.

The letter is full of bravado. In it, Komisarjevsky writes of gaining entry through skylights and making escapes through storm drains and claims he was hired by businesses and others to steal everything from kitchen appliances to legal files.