Man charged in Connecticut home invasion wants co-defendant prosecuted for talking to writer

Book about Conn. home invasion sparks complaint

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A lawyer for one of two men charged with murder in a deadly home invasion in Connecticut wants the other defendant held in contempt of court for talking to an author about the case, saying it jeopardizes his client’s right to a fair trial.

Thomas Ullmann, who represents Steven Hayes, said Joshua Komisarjevsky should be prosecuted for violating a court gag order by talking to Brian McDonald for his book if McDonald’s statements are reliable.

Ullmann also said Komisarjevsky should be punished by having his trial go first. Hayes’ trial had been scheduled first, with jury selection to start in January.

“In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood,” released Tuesday, is based partly on interviews with Komisarjevsky. It contains new details about what happened inside the home in the upscale town of Cheshire.

“This publication is a fictionalized account masquerading as a bona fide version of the Cheshire tragedies,” Ullmann wrote in court papers. “In reality it is a scandalous, scurrilous salacious piece of journalistic trash that offends any notion of compassion and empathy for the victim and his family, and has the overwhelmingly probability of irrevocably affecting the defendant Hayes’ ability to receive a fair and impartial trial.”

McDonald, a freelance writer who also teaches journalism and writing, disagreed with Ullmann’s criticism.

“I’m a journalist and I did my job as a journalist,” McDonald said. “Every journalist in Connecticut would have liked the access I got.”

McDonald said he has not heard from attorneys in the case. Asked if he would comply with any subpoenas for information, he said, “We’ll cross that bridge if and when it happens.”

Jeremiah Donovan, Komisarjevsky’s attorney, said he did not know of the interviews until prison officials learned of them.

“No defense attorney in his right mind would allow a client to give detailed interviews to someone who was writing a book about a crime with which he was charged,” Donovan said.

Donovan declined to comment on the motions. But he has previously said in court he would not be ready for a trial in January.

A message was left Wednesday for a prosecutor.

Komisarjevsky and 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.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky are accused of breaking into the home, 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.

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.

Ullmann is also seeking communications and correspondence between McDonald and Komisarjevsky. He wants to know when prosecutors became aware that McDonald was communicating with Komisarjevsky, whether they tried to stop publication of the book and whether they have copies of letters Komisarjevsky sent McDonald as well as digital recordings of the prison interviews.

The book portrays Hayes as smiling and laughing during the horrific crime and during his escape from the house, wearing the school hat of one of the girls who was killed.

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

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.