South Carolina Federal Defense Attorneys

Fox News is reporting that a Connecticut man convicted in a deadly home invasion bragged in a letter from death row that he has murdered 17 people and collected victims’ sneakers as trophies.  He also ridiculed his accomplice as “not even worthy” of being his partner in crime.

The New Haven Register reported over the weekend that it had obtained a letter that Steven Hayes allegedly wrote from prison, where he has been sentenced to death for the 2007 home invasion that resulted in the death of a mother and her two daughters.

Hayes’ convicted collaborator, Joshua Komisarjevsky, had attempted to have Hayes’ letters introduced into evidence as part of his defense after they were confiscated by prison authorities. The judge on the case rejected the request.

The letters have not been released to the public, and the Register did not specify in its report how it acquired access to the letter it attributes to Hayes.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky were convicted of murder, sexual assault and other offenses in the July 2007 deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters. They also were convicted of assault and other crimes against the lone survivor of the brutal attack, Dr. William Petit.

Connecticut authorities confiscated four handwritten letters allegedly written by Hayes to a North Carolina individual identified only as “Lynn.” In the letters, Fox News claims he declared he had killed 17 people, committed numerous sexual assaults of drugged victims in motels, taped 16 hours of one kidnapping and assault, and kept a collection of some victims’ sneakers as trophies.

State’s Attorney Michael Dearington and an FBI spokesman did not say whether Hayes’ purported crimes are being investigated or whether authorities are aware of 17 unsolved homicides matching the information in his letters.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky said each other were at fault during their trials for escalating the violence that left the Petit women dead.

By: Pete Strom, South Carolina Federal Defense Attorney