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Courthouse cleared in Conn. home invasion trial
September 22, 2011
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Jurors and others are being allowed to return to a Connecticut courthouse after it was evacuated during the trial for a man accused of killing three people during a brutal home invasion.
A court official says a preliminary review indicates a false fire alarm prompted the evacuation Wednesday at New Haven Superior Court.
Jurors were hearing a recorded confession from Joshua Komisarjevsky (koh-mih-sar-JEV'-skee) at the time of the evacuation. He is on trial in the 2007 deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley and Michaela.
Komisarjevsky told police he undressed 11-year-old Michaela and took explicit pictures, and previously confessed he molested her. But he blamed his alleged accomplice, Steven Hayes, for the gasoline-fueled fire that killed the girls.
Hayes, convicted of also strangling Hawke-Petit, is on Connecticut's death row.
(Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
