No verdict after day 4 in Conn. home invasion

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A Connecticut jury ended its fourth day of deliberations Thursday without reaching a verdict on whether a man convicted of killing a woman and her two daughters in a home invasion should get the death penalty or life in prison.

Jurors are weighing punishment for Joshua Komisarjevsky, who was convicted in October of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters. The girls were tied to their beds and left to die in a fire.

His accomplice, Steven Hayes, is on death row for strangling Hawke-Petit and killing her daughters. Jurors have now been deliberating about as long as Hayes' jury did before reaching a verdict.

"I think we're all just tired and assume the jury is being very careful," said Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor of the crime who was beaten with a bat and tied up but managed to escape to get help. "It's a complicated verdict form."

Asked how he was coping, Petit said, "It's not easy. We have a lot of family here, lot of support."

Komisarjevsky's parents, who testified during his sentencing, were not in the courtroom.

The Komisarjevsky jurors sent out their first note Wednesday as they sought guidance on how to weigh his role against that of Hayes. They will continue deliberations Friday afternoon in New Haven.

The later start is because a juror has a morning meeting. Jurors plan to skip lunch.

"We'd like to get as much time as possible," the forewoman told the judge.