Steven Hayes, Cheshire Home Invasion Killer, Found Unresponsive In Cell

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) — An inmate sentenced to death for killing three members of a Connecticut family during a 2007 home invasion was found unresponsive in his cell Monday, state prison officials said.

A guard conducting a routine check at the Northern Correction Institution found Steven Hayes unresponsive at 9:35 a.m., authorities said. The staff initiated measures to revive him, and he was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was in stable condition Monday evening.

Hayes was sentenced to death in 2010 for the strangulation and rape of Jennifer Hawke-Petit of Cheshire and leaving her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, to die in a fire.

His accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, was also convicted and sentenced to death.

Since being imprisoned, Hayes has waived all appeals in an effort to proceed to his execution, WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reported. He has also admitted to trying to kill himself in the past by tying clothes around his neck.

In a letter to the Hartford Courant in October 2012, Hayes wrote: “I cannot live with the intense tourcher (sic), torment, harassment, and the resulting psychological trauma dished out by the Dept. of Corr. staff here at Northern. I was sentenced to death, not sentenced to tourcher (sic) and punitive treatment until death.”

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