Hayes Jurors Still Haunted by Trial

Months after jurors sentenced Steven Hayes to death, the 12 men and women are still haunted by what they saw and heard during the trial.

Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were brutally killed during a home invasion in Cheshire in 2007. The daughters had been tied to their beds in their burning home and jurors saw graphic images of the destroyed home, the clothing. the bedrooms and the women.

About a month after Steven Hayes was sentenced to death, several members of the jury talked to The New York Times about life after the trial.

"It reminds me of what men in war must go through," Paula Calzetta said. "They bond in such a terrible experience, and no one else can understand."

The jurors said they had nightmares about the trial, cry unexpectedly and constantly recheck the locks on their doors and windows.

"During the trial, you think you are dealing with things, and you generally are," Joel Zemke told the Times. "But after the trial, you have trouble falling asleep. It's difficult to realize that's part of humanity, that people have it in them to do things like that."

Hayes was sentenced to death on Dec. 2 . A second man, Joshua Komisarjevsky, is also charged in the case. Jury selection for his trial will begin on Feb. 22.

Herbert Gram, a juror from Madison, told the Times he's not sure these feelings will ever go away.

"I am beginning to feel I am going to go to my grave with this," he said.

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