The panel had deliberated for slightly more than three full days. Hayes, 47, sat motionless at the defense table as the recommendation was made in the courtroom. He had been found guilty of six death-penalty counts on Oct. 5.
The other defendant in the case, Joshua Komisarjevsky, 30, goes to trial on the same charges next year. The two men stood accused of holding the family of Dr. William Petit hostage for hours before setting the house on fire.
Dr. Petit's wife, Jennifer-Hawke-Petit, 47, was strangled to death. Their daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley, died of smoke inhalation.
As the verdicts were read in the courtroom, Dr. Petit looked emotional and his eyes – which he closed when the names of his murdered family were said aloud – well up with tears, reports the Hartford Courant.
Petit Murders
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