NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The same jury that quickly convicted Steven Hayes of killing a mother and her young daughters is having a harder time deciding on his sentence.
The jury completed its third day of deliberations Sunday and is expected to continue deliberations Monday. At issue is whether Mr. Hayes gets life in prison or the death sentence.
Judge Jon Blue had asked the 12 men and women to deliberate through the weekend in hopes of streamlining the case.
The jury's notes during the weekend suggested the group was divided over whether there were mitigating factors that impaired Mr. Hayes's mental state during the killings. If the jury finds that there were, Mr. Hayes will receive a life sentence. A unanimous decision from the jury is necessary for the sentence.
The judge asked the jurors for permission to attend his local church for about a half hour. Then around lunchtime, when the jury said it wanted to continue its deliberations over pizza, Judge Blue offered to go pick up the order himself.
The oddities were just the latest in the two-month-old trial, which saw Mr. Hayes convicted in October.
Another defendant in the killings faces trial next year.
Just last week, Judge Blue gave a stern warning to the lone remaining alternate juror after she wrote a flirtatious note that was intended for a court marshal, but was intercepted by a clerk. The trial began with six alternates.
The trial's proceedings have been watched closely throughout the state, prompting most of the 20 or so news reporters covering the case to use Twitter to send minute-by-minute updates from the courtroom.
The jury took about five hours in early October to determine Mr. Hayes's guilt in 16 of the 17 charges he faced in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters in 2007.
Write to Chris Herring at chris.herring@wsj.com
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