Hayes' Jury Begins Deliberations - Hartford Courant

The jury deciding whether to sentence Steven Hayes to death ended deliberations today without a decision. The jury will resume deliberations on Sunday.

Hayes was convicted of murder in the death of three members of the Petit family during a 2007 home invasion in Cheshire.

It had been decades since a Superior Court jury deliberated on a weekend, but with just one alternate left and the high-stakes nature of the widely publicized trial, jurors went back to work today.

The jury of five men and seven women first told Judge Jon C. Blue that they would work through lunch today but then indicated that they would take a lunch break. They reported to Blue at about 4:15 p.m. that they wanted to return to deliberations tomorrow.

Cindy Hawke-Renn, the sister of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, who was killed along with her daughters, told reporters outside the court that the time it will take to decide on a sentence, "has to be the jury's choice, not mine."

Jurors went into the deliberation room at 9:31a.m. today and deliberated for about 90 minutes before sending a note asking to rehear a portion of Prosecutor Michael Dearington's cross-examination of defense expert witness Dr. Eric Goldsmith.

Goldsmith interviewed Hayes over several hours. He testified that Hayes told him that Hayes' accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, told Hayes he had killed the Petit family after Hayes had returned from the bank with Hawke-Petit. The expert said Hayes became enraged and as a result, raped and strangled Hawke-Petit.

The expert said that this extreme emotional reaction was the type that a jury considering the death penalty could view as a mitigating factor.

Before the jury began deliberations, Blue acknowledged the unusual Saturday proceedings. The only business at the Church Street courthouse today is the Hayes trial.

Court staff and judicial marshals were brought in for duty.

"I just want to thank everyone for their extraordinary professionalism to be willing to come to court on this Saturday."

Blue told jurors the court would adapt to their schedule and said they controlled today's clock.

"If you want to work deep into the night, we are here," Blue said.

Two notes jurors sent Friday with hypothetical vote counts on charges suggest they are divided on mitigating factors in the case, which could result in Hayes' being spared the death penalty for the killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley and Michaela.

Hayes was convicted Oct. 5 of breaking into the Petits' home in the middle of the night on July 23, 2007, beating Dr. William Petit Jr. and tying up the family while he and an accomplice robbed the family's Cheshire home. At one point, Hayes forced Hawke-Petit to drive to a bank to withdraw money.

When they returned to the home, Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit. The house was doused with gasoline and set on fire. Hayley, 17, died of smoke inhalation. Michaela, 11, suffered the same cause of death and was also sexually assaulted by Hayes' accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, according to trial testimony.

Petit was the only family member to survive the attack and arson.

Komisarjevsky, 30, of Cheshire, will go to trial next year. He also faces execution if convicted.

Six of the 16 counts Hayes was found guilty of are capital felonies, making Hayes, 47, of Winsted, eligible for death by lethal injection.

Blue began Friday's juror discussions at 10:19 a.m., telling the panel, "With much thanks and appreciation, we will let you go to work." The jury then went to the deliberation room while members of the victims' family and news reporters waited in the courtroom. The mood in the gallery was mostly light, and the talkative crowd was quieted often by judicial marshals and the judge, who stepped out from his chambers from time to time.

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Sludge cleanup begins in Hungary as search for victims goes on - CNN International

Toxic sludge slams Hungarian villages4 people dead, 6 missing, 116 injured in southwest HungaryWorkers use metal sticks to poke for more victimsFlow may reach the Danube River

Devecser, Hungary (CNN) -- Rescue workers searched Wednesday for six elderly people missing at Kolontar, one of three villages in southwest Hungary that was hit Monday by a wave of toxic red sludge from an alumina plant reservoir that burst.

Wearing chemical protection suits, the workers used metal sticks to poke through muck three-feet deep (1 meter) for the presumed victims, reported MTI, Hungary's official news agency.

At least 116 people were injured, eight of them seriously, when the mishap occurred Monday afternoon, the agency said. Most of them were flown to hospitals in the capital, Budapest.

The reservoir has been repaired and the flow from the pool has halted.

But the material that flowed out of the reservoir continued to pose a threat. On Wednesday, more than 500 National Disaster Management Authority staffers and soldiers and employees of Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company (MAL), the company that owns the alumina plant's reservoir, were trying to halt the advance of the sludge before it reaches the Danube River's tributaries, said Jeno Lasztovicza, head of the defense committee, according to MTI.

The sludge had already reached the Marcal River, which flows into the River Raba, which empties into the Danube. It was expected to show up in the Danube as soon as this weekend, said Imre Szakacs, head of Gyor-Moson-Sopron County's defense authority, MTI said.

Emergency workers were pouring plaster and fertilizers into the Marcal River in hopes that it would bind with the sludge and counter its alkalinity before it reached the Danube, the continent's second-longest river, some 70 km (43 miles) north, reported MTI.

But the material will have been neutralized by the time it reaches the Raba, Interior Minister Sandor Pinter told reporters.

Untreated, the sludge contains heavy metals, which cause burns and eye irritation, he said.

Four people -- two children ages 1 and 3, an elderly woman and a 35-year-old man whose SUV overturned in the sludge -- have been confirmed dead in the environmental disaster, which occurred 160 km (99 miles) west of Budapest, near the town of Ajka.

Residents were advised not to eat produce from gardens that were covered when the dam burst, releasing at least 1 million cubic meters of thick red mud.

It was not clear when residents evacuated from affected areas in the villages of Kolontar, Devecser and Somlovasarhely would be able to return home, nor were the long-term consequences clear.

A state of emergency has been declared in three counties, the State Secretariat of Governmental Communications said.

In a statement on its website, MAL said it "offers its honest condolences to the relatives of all of the victims who lost their lives in the catastrophe."

CNN's Nic Robertson contributed to this story.

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