Doctors' family (Petit) held hostage, robbed, slaughtered.

[HyperU2]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/23/home.invasion.ap/

CHESHIRE, Connecticut (AP) -- At least two men broke into a prominent doctor's home early Monday, kidnapped a female family member to withdraw money from a bank and then killed his wife and their two daughters, police said.

Dr. William Petit Jr., who was severely injured, told police his family had been held hostage for hours before one member, who was not identified, was taken to the bank with a suspect.

Bank employees were suspicious of the transaction and called police, who surrounded Petit's home, authorities said.

A town police officer saw two men leaving the home as it was engulfed in flames, authorities said. The men sped away in a station wagon, striking several police cruisers before they were captured.

Petit's wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their two daughters, Hayley and Michaela, were found dead in the home, said a law enforcement official with firsthand knowledge of the investigation.

The official confirmed the deaths on the condition of anonymity because autopsy results were still pending.

Authorities would not release the names of the suspects. The two men are due Tuesday in Meriden Superior Court.

Petit, 50, a well-known diabetes specialist, was in stable condition at St. Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, though it was not released how he was injured.

"It is a shocking day for everyone. It's just beyond anyone's understanding," said Larry Tanner, president and chief executive officer of The Hospital of Central Connecticut.

Petit is the medical director of the Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate at The Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain. His wife of 22 years worked at the Cheshire Academy, a boarding school as co-director of its health center.

Their upper-middle class neighborhood includes Colonial homes with well-kept lawns in the New Haven suburb.

Neighbor Walter Ryan was walking his dog when he saw the flames coming from the home and then watched as police, with guns drawn, moved through yards and shouted, "'Get out of the car!"'

The Rev. Ronald A. Rising, a neighbor, said he has known the family for more than 10 years.

"They're just a lovely family," he said. "It's just awful to think it would happen to a family like that in this community. You don't think about those things happening."

Neighbor Laura Parisi, a friend of the Petits' older daughter, Hayley, said the 17-year-old had just graduated from the prestigious Miss Porter's School in Farmington and was accepted at Dartmouth.

"It's just insane," Parisi said of the deaths. "I can't even describe it."

[nerysinci]

Holy shit. 

RIP Petit Family.

SO the Doc is still alive? How awful he must feel, losing everyone. Poor guy.

[turtleande]

That's terrible. Wonder who the perpetrators are.

[alliekat]

How devastating!  I'm interested to hear the whole story.  I wonder if it was just random.

RIP Petits.

[deliberate_misuse]

What a horrible story.  At least the fuckers were caught.  Can you imagine trying to go on after your family has been murdered?

RIP Petits.

[AlexaC]

I hope they get the death penalty.

[decorusnex]

[quote author=alliekat link=topic=8906.msg470539#msg470539 date=1185288315]
How devastating!  I'm interested to hear the whole story.  I wonder if it was just random.

RIP Petits.
[/quote]
For some reason when an entire family is killed except for 1 person it always seems suspicious to me.  Plus the mother was strangled which is more personal than shooting someone. 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/25/home.invasion/index.html

Either way...it is horrible what happened to her and her daughters. :-(

[HyperU2]

[quote author=decorusnex link=topic=8906.msg471902#msg471902 date=1185386461]
For some reason when an entire family is killed except for 1 person it always seems suspicious to me.  Plus the mother was strangled which is more personal than shooting someone. 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/25/home.invasion/index.html

Either way...it is horrible what happened to her and her daughters. :-(
[/quote]

I usually would say the same thing, but not in this case.  I don't think there would have been a trip to the bank if the father was in on it. 

[alliekat]

[quote author=decorusnex link=topic=8906.msg471902#msg471902 date=1185386461]
For some reason when an entire family is killed except for 1 person it always seems suspicious to me.  Plus the mother was strangled which is more personal than shooting someone. 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/25/home.invasion/index.html

Either way...it is horrible what happened to her and her daughters. :-(
[/quote]
Yeah, me too. 

It really sucks that the fire is what killed the daughters.  Seems like the one that was found at the top of the stairs may have almost escaped.  That makes it worse, somehow...   

[alliekat]

[quote author=HyperU2 link=topic=8906.msg471904#msg471904 date=1185386690]
I usually would say the same thing, but not in this case.   I don't think there would have been a trip to the bank if the father was in on it. 
[/quote]
Yeah, odds are he was tied up in the basement the entire time the bad guys were there.  Helpless.  I feel so bad for him!

[emotionsickness]

I have found this story to be very suspicious as well. It's too much like a true crime tv show (which I watch with fervor.)  The trip to the bank could be his way of covering payment; payment is what trips most people up & that much money missing from a bank account would point straight to the good doctor.

Certainly I hope that's not the case, but it is strange. It's weird that these two felons had never committed violent acts during their past robberies. I think they should have been locked away forever for the many crimes they'd already done, then maybe this wouldn't have happened.

Those poor poor girls! Maybe he didn't want them to be harmed (dear God I hope they weren't the ones molested.) The two guys may have panicked. Of course maybe he just wanted to be rid of his family.

[LilDevil]

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/gruesom...00010000000001

Gruesome Details in Connecticut Murders
CBS/AP
Posted: 2007-07-26 07:32:28
Filed Under: Crime News

CHESHIRE, Conn. (July 25) - The two men accused of a brutal Connecticut home invasion may not have had violent crimes in their long lists of prior convictions, but sources tell local newspapers the pair's record changed when they invaded the home of a prominent doctor early Monday morning.

"This is everyone's worst nightmare," Lt. Jay Markella, Cheshire police spokesman, told the Waterbury newspaper. "It's by far the worst thing any of us have ever seen."

Joshua Komisarjevsky, 26, of Cheshire, and Steven Hayes, 44, of Winsted, were arraigned Tuesday on charges of assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, arson, larceny and risk of injury to children. More charges are pending, state police said Tuesday night. The two men could face the death penalty.

Prosecutor Michael Dearington said he had not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty.

"I know the public consensus is they should be fried tomorrow," he said.

The state medical examiner confirmed that Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, was strangled and that her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, died of smoke inhalation. The deaths were ruled homicides.

The girls' father, Dr. William Petit Jr., a prominent endocrinologist, remained hospitalized with head injuries.

All three women were raped, sources familiar with the investigation told both the Waterbury Republican-American and Hartford Courant. Petit was beaten with a baseball bat, thrown down the basement stairs, and then tied up in the cellar.

The girls, sources told the Courant, were tied to their beds and raped repeatedly, then left to burn after gasoline was poured around their beds and ignited.

The suspects entered the Petits' Cheshire home at about 3 a.m. Monday, planning to burglarize it, state police said.

Sources familiar with the investigation tell the Republican-American that Hawke-Petit and Michaela were followed home from a supermarket Sunday by the suspects. The men then went to a Wal-Mart to buy an air rifle and a rope, and then waited about a mile-and-a-half away

State officials are re-examining their parole policies, but Robert Farr, chairman of the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Parole, said the task would be difficult because neither suspect had a history of violent crimes.

"That's why this is sort of shocking — because it doesn't fit a normal mode," Farr said.

Petit remained hospitalized Wednesday.

"He's doing OK physically. Emotionally he is devastated and still worried about others," said Petit's pastor, the Rev. Stephen Volpe.

He told CBS affiliate WFSB-TV the Pettits were a strong and giving family.

"I'm thinking of the father. I can't imagine what he has to come back to," neighbor Linda Layman told CBS News. "Nobody should have to go through that. It's very devastating. It's just horrible."

Employees at a bank called police after one of the suspects forced Hawke-Petit to make a $15,000 withdrawal around 9:30 a.m., officials said. The employees balked, and Hawke-Petit told them her family was being held hostage, reports the Courant. One of the men was waiting for her outside the bank.

On the way back to the house, he bought a container of gasoline, according to the Republican-American.

The men were caught in the family's car after ramming several police cruisers as they fled the burning home, authorities said.

Hawke-Petit and her daughters were found dead inside. Dr. Petit escaped the blaze and told police what happened.

The suspects did not enter pleas Tuesday, and their public defenders declined comment. Bail was set at $15 million apiece. Their next court appearance was scheduled for Aug. 7.

Family members became distraught during the hearing, and had to be escorted from the courtroom. As Hayes was led out, someone in the back exclaimed, "Scumbag!"

Hayes and Komisarjevsky each have more than 20 prior burglaries on their records. At the time of the killings, both were free on parole after serving prison time for burglary convictions in 2003, Bail Commissioner Garcia Harris said. They spent time last year in the same halfway house in Hartford before being paroled in the spring.

Prison officials said they reported each week to their parole officers and were employed full-time, a requirement of their release.

Farr said the parole board's staff scoured its files Tuesday to see if any mistakes were made and couldn't find any obvious problems.

"But three people died," Farr said. "We're not going to say, 'Those things happen.' We've got to see if there is anything we can do that would reduce the likelihood of this happening in the future."

In Connecticut, prisoners may be released from confinement and receive parole after serving more than half of their sentences.

Authorities have not said what they believe led Komisarjevsky and Hayes to the Petits' home.

The family issued a statement Tuesday through the hospital where the doctor was being treated.

"Our precious family members have been the victims of horrible, senseless, violent assaults. We are understandably in shock and overwhelmed with sadness as we attempt to gather together to support one another and recognize these wonderful, giving beautiful individuals, who have been so cruelly taken from us," the statement said.

Petit, president of the Hartford County Medical Association, is a specialist in diabetes and endocrinology and is the medical director of the Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate at The Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain. Hawke-Petit, 48, was a nurse and co-director of the health center at Cheshire Academy, a private boarding school.

The attack stunned Cheshire, an upper-middle class community of 29,000 just east of Waterbury and about 15 miles north of New Haven.

Four bouquets of flowers and a single rose were left at the Pettit home Tuesday, reports WFSB.

Komisarjevsky lived less than two miles from the Petits' home, with his parents and a 5-year-old daughter. His family also released a statement Tuesday.

"This is an absolute tragedy. Our deepest sympathy goes out to the Petit family (and all those whose lives they touched). We cannot understand what would have made something like this happen. There is nothing else we can say at this time," the statement said.

Wow, just wow.  Check out the mugshots on these two assholes.  Cases like these just reaffirm why I believe in the death penalty.  I mean, they raped all the women, look how young the youngest daughter was.  This whole case makes me sick.

[turtleande]

They deserve nothing less than the death penalty, for sure.

They followed the mom and daughter home from a Wal-Mart? Jeezus.

[alliekat]

This was on CNN while I was at the Doctor this morning.  They haven't charged the guys with murder yet.  I think that's weird and it makes me wonder why.  Obviously.  What the hell are these guys telling them??

[HyperU2]

I'm surprised a Doctors wife went to Wal Mart but other than that, I'd like to kill them if Connecticut won't.

[Cadaver Synod]

I, too, was suspicious and thought the doc had a role in the crime until I read the horrid details. Raping and then leaving those girls to burn to death _ how evil can two people be?

Cadaver Synod

[DreamRai]

Geez not only did they have to suffer a horrible death but also they were brutally beaten and raped repeatedly. I really hope the bastards that did this are sentenced accordingly. :mad:

R.I.P. The Petit's

[JustGretch]

The more I read, the sadder I get.


http://cbs2.com/topstories/topstories_story_208093258.html

Jul 27, 2007 6:07 am US/Pacific

Home Invasion Suspects Charged With Murder
Quiet Connecticut Town Shaken By Brutal Attack

(CBS News) CHESHIRE, Conn. Two men accused of killing and raping a physician's wife and two daughters, beating him severely, and setting fire to their home could face the death penalty if convicted.

Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were charged with six capital felony counts in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters during a home invasion, New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington said Thursday. They previously were charged with assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery, arson and other counts in Monday's attack.

The seeming randomness of the attack has scared residents around the normally peaceful New Haven suburb of Cheshire, with its upper-middle class neighborhoods and Colonial homes with well-kept lawns.

Residents are lining up for gun safety classes so they can buy firearms, said Scott Hoffman, owner of Hoffman's Gun Center in nearby Newington.

"You talk to these people and you can see it's hit home, this particular crime," he said. "It's the sheer grotesqueness of the crime and the fact that it's such a normal family."

A police source close to the investigation confirmed reports that Komisarjevsky and Hayes spotted Jennifer Hawke-Petit and one of her daughters at a grocery store Sunday and followed their car home.

Police gave family members the same account, said Glenn Petit, Hawke-Petit's brother-in-law.

"They were attracted to the car," he told The Associated Press, though he was not sure what model Hawke-Petit was driving. "They liked the car, followed her home, thought she lived in a nice house."

Charles Turnier, whose home had been burglarized by Komisarjevsky in 2002, said that police told him that Komisarjevsky had been watching his family for days before the crime.

"When police questioned him, he told them he studied our routine by hiding in the bushes. He knew when my wife left the home," Turnier told CBS affiliate WFSB-TV.

Authorities say the men broke into the home of Dr. William Petit Jr. early Monday and held the family hostage for several hours. One of them forced Hawke-Petit to make a withdrawal at a bank later that morning, triggering suspicion among bank employees, police said.

Police were notified and rushed to the Petits' home, where they encountered the fleeing suspects and found the family's home ablaze. Petit, who remained in stable condition at St. Mary's Hospital on Thursday, had been beaten and bound in the basement but managed to escape the fire. The bodies of his wife and their daughters - 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela - were found inside.

"He's doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances," Glenn Petit said of his brother. "Emotionally, he's a mess. He is stunned right now. He's had his family taken from him."

More than 100 neighbors held a candlelight vigil outside the Petit home Thursday night, reports the Waterbury Republican-American. They wept, prayed and sang "Amazing Grace."

"I think a lot of people are asking how God could let this happen," neighbor Kevin Mahan told the paper.

Three white bows hung on trees outside the home. Flowers were also placed at the sign outside Dr. Petit's medical office.

The suspects were caught after they crashed their getaway vehicle - the Petits' car - into three police cruisers. Komisarjevsky, 26, and Hayes, 44, were each being held on $15 million bond.

Convicted burglars with lengthy criminal records, they were out on parole when the attack occurred. They had been roommates for a time at a drug treatment center and halfway house in Hartford last year.

Komisarjevsky is a member of a prominent family in the stage arts. He is the grandson of Theodore Komisarjevsky, a Russian theater director and designer, and Ernestine Stodelle, a former dancer, dance critic, author and studio director.

"It was a monstrous, deranged act, beyond comprehension," his family said in a statement released Thursday.

"We cannot and will not condone anything the accused have done. Justice needs to take place," the family said. "We can add nothing more - simply to repeat how tragic this is and how much our thoughts and prayers go out to the Petit family and friends."

Chris Komisarjevsky said in his statement that his nephew was adopted by Ben and Jude Komisarjevsky, who he said are both very religious. He said that his nephew was estranged from his family while in prison for five years.

Komisarjevsky lived a few miles from the Petits, but it was not clear if there was any connection between them.

Hawke-Petit, 48, was strangled and her daughters died of smoke inhalation, according to the state medical examiner. The mother and younger daughter were sexually assaulted, according to arrest documents.

Private funerals were being held Friday. A memorial service was scheduled for Saturday at Central Connecticut State University.

The crime has prompted the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Parole to review its policies. Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Thursday she wants an in-depth review of the state's procedures for charging, sentencing and releasing criminals.

"I think the entire parole process seems to be in shambles," Sen. Sam Caligiuri, who district includes Cheshire, told the Hartford Courant.

Neither suspect had any history of violent crimes when they were paroled this spring, though Komisarjevsky had committed a string of burglaries where he wore military night vision goggles and burglarized homes while the occupants slept.

Caligiuri said many of his constituents feel burglar is a violent crime.

"You're breaking into someone's private domain," Caligiuri said. "It should be their sanctuary.

[HyperU2]

They should be dead already.

[Heels2005Champs]

This is just too horrible.

Those two bastards should not be alive right now.

RIP Petit family you didn't deserve this torture.

[MAVEN]

These sorts of heinous crimes just sicken me to the core.  I still haven't gotten over the Harvey family slaughter that happened here in 06.  The level of brutality exacted on these poor innocent people is just beyond comprehension.  These cannot be human beings doing such horrid things to other human beings!  They are animals and I would gladly put a bullet between each monsters eyes.  rip petit family

ps
i had the same suspicions initially about the husband too.  we are all jaded.

[g r ee n ey e s]

http://www.courant.com/community/new-haven/hc-ap-ct-homeinvasionjan10,0,155648.story

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Two men charged with a deadly home invasion in Cheshire more than two years ago will be in court again as the case heads to trial.

Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky (koh-mih-sahr-JEV'-skee) are scheduled in New Haven Superior Court on Thursday.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to capital felony murder and other crimes in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley. They face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.

Jury selection for Hayes is scheduled to start Jan. 19.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky are accused of breaking into the Petit home, beating William Petit and forcing his wife to withdraw thousands of dollars from a nearby bank before they strangled her.

[g r ee n ey e s]

An older article, with some details, don't think this is a repost...

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/30/crimesider/entry5353560.shtml

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CBS/AP) One of the men awaiting trial for capital murder in a horrific home invasion cackled as he escaped from the burning home where a family lay dying, according to a new book. On his head, was a school cap from one of the victims.

Author Brian McDonald writes in "In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood," that one of the girls who was killed had tried to call 911 on her cell phone and one of the accused killers watched as the mother of two girls begged for her life while being strangled to death.

McDonald based the book partly on interviews with one of the suspects, Joshua Komisarjevsky, and contains new details about what happened inside the home in the upscale Connecticut town of Cheshire.

Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted in the 2007 killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela. Hawke-Petit's husband, Dr. William Petit, was beaten but survived.

The two are accused of breaking into the home in Cheshire, beating the doctor and forcing his wife to withdraw thousands of dollars from a nearby bank before they strangled her. Their daughters died of smoke inhalation from a fire police say the intruders set as they fled after holding the family hostage for several hours.

"In a full sprint Joshua is first out of the house. Next comes Steven Hayes, screaming in a high-pitched insane laugh," McDonald writes. "On his head is Hayley's gray-and-green school hat."

The two are awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to capital felony murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and arson. Their attorneys have said they offered to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences, but prosecutors turned them down.

McDonald said he began corresponding with Komisarjevsky, leading to four interviews. When prison officials discovered that a writer was visiting Komisarjevsky, they removed McDonald's name from a visitor's list.

"I remember the look of fear, the tear rolling down the cheek, the sight of pain, the spray of blood," Komisarjevsky told McDonald. "The sound of a tremble in a voice."


(AP)Photo: Firemen investigate a burned area of the home of Dr. William Petit in Cheshire, Conn., July 23, 2007.

Prosecutors, Hayes' attorney and a prison spokesman declined to comment, citing a gag order. Petit's attorney also declined to comment.

A telephone message left by The Associated Press for Komisarjevsky's attorney was not immediately returned, and neither was an e-mail the AP sent to McDonald.

According to McDonald's book:

Komisarjevsky was a smart but troubled young man who was sexually abused as a child and had a history of depression, drug use and suicide attempts. He claimed to have burglarized hundreds of homes, including fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger's house in Greenwich.

He called the break-ins "a form of extreme sport," but this one was different. Komisarjevsky had bought zip ties and a BB gun and Hayes had asked him if he would commit an armed robbery.

Komisarjevsky spotted Hawke-Petit and her two daughters at a supermarket and followed them to their house.

"And that's when he put it all together," McDonald wrote. "He'd take a family hostage. That would open all sorts of possibilities, endless possibilities. And he liked the way the younger Petit girl looked."

He returned with Hayes later that day and gained entry to the house through a bulkhead door that led to the basement. Inside, Komisarjevsky found a bat, which he used to club Dr. Petit, who was sleeping on a couch. Hayes stood outside, watching through a window with a big grin on his face.

Komisarjevsky struck Petit four or five times with the bat as hard as he could, but Petit did not lose consciousness. The two men tied up Petit and asked him to describe the layout of the house.

"According to Joshua, Dr. Petit told him what he wanted to know and then slumped on the couch," McDonald wrote.

Upstairs, the two men tied Hayley's arms and legs to a bedpost. "Why are you doing this?" she asked.

In another room, Hawke-Petit let out a gasp when the men confronted her, but she held in her emotions as they tied her hands.

They led a confused Michaela, who had been sleeping with her mother, into her own bedroom, which was filled with stuffed animals. Komisarjevsky tied her hands and feet as her eyes filled with tears. At one point, he took photos of the girl.

Hayes stole Hawke-Petit's jewelry, including a string of pearls, and grabbed a jar of coins that Michaela had collected.

Hawke-Petit pleaded with her captors not to hurt her family. Hayes took Hawke-Petit to a bank to get money, but got lost three times. He also took off his latex gloves.

Komisarjevsky thought of killing Hayes after the blunders.

Komisarjevsky claims he liked Hawke-Petit, even calling her "my mom" in an interview with McDonald. He said she even offered to make breakfast for the men.

Komisarjevsky says he watched Hayes strangle Hawke-Petit as she begged for her life and claims he wanted to help her but "froze up."

During the ordeal, Komisarjevsky caught Hayley trying to escape and found her with a cell phone trying to text a friend or call police.

McDonald's other books include two memoirs, "My Father's Gun" and "Last Call at Elaine's." He is also a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers and teaches journalism and writing.

[AlexaC]

They have to wait a long time for the jury pool to refill and become "unbias" and for memory to fade. Two years they have lived past what they deserved, and on our dollar. Ugh. I really hope for a solid conviction. Not-Guilty my arse.

[g r ee n ey e s]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/01/connecticut.petit.trial.coma/index.html

(CNN) -- Jury selection in the case of a deadly 2007 Connecticut home invasion was postponed Monday because the suspect was hospitalized, his defense attorney said.

Steven Hayes was in intensive care, attorney Thomas Ullmann said.

Jury selection in Hayes' murder trial was delayed. A status conference was scheduled for Wednesday, Ullmann said.

"We have no idea how long this is going to take," the attorney added.

Hayes, 46, is one of two men charged with offenses including felony murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and arson in the July 2007 home invasion in Cheshire, Connecticut.

Prosecutors allege that Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, 29, broke into the home of the Petit family. They say the two beat up Dr. William Petit; strangled his 48-year-old wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit; and set the home ablaze. The couple's two daughters, 17-year-old Hayley Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit, died from smoke inhalation.

Trial's start stirs painful memories in Cheshire

Ullmann said he did not know why Hayes was hospitalized, but the Hartford Courant, citing unnamed sources, said he apparently overdosed on medication he receives daily. Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue said in court Monday that Ullmann told him Hayes was found unconscious in his cell and may be in a medically induced coma.

The University of Connecticut Medical Center referred questions Monday to the Connecticut Department of Correction. The department declined comment, citing a court-imposed gag order in the case.

Authorities allege that during the Petit home invasion, one of the attackers drove Hawke-Petit to a bank to withdraw money. She was able to alert a bank teller that the family was being held captive, and the teller alerted police, authorities said.

Media reports said that Hawke-Petit and Michaela Petit were sexually assaulted during the seven-hour ordeal. Prosecutors have declined to confirm details because of the gag order.

The motive in the case remains unclear. Hayes and Komisarjevsky, who is set to be tried separately, could face the death penalty if convicted.