'I don't know why it happened, I just wanted money': Connecticut home invasion killer tells how he raped and killed victim's wife before burning daughters alive in chilling interview

Death row inmate Steven Hayes has offered up his version of events of the horrifying 2007 murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, at their home in suburban Cheshire

Hayes, 50, said that he could not explain why he and Joshua Komisarjevsky raped and murdered them

Has said that he no longer feels suicidal and understands the pain he feels is part of his punishment



Chilling interview: Steven Hayes told how he 'snapped' when he raped and killed Dr William Pettit's family in 2007

A man convicted in the brutal home invasion killings of a Connecticut woman and her two daughters in 2007 said no one was supposed to get hurt and he "just snapped" before he and an accomplice set fire to the house.



"To this day I don't know why it happened, I just wanted money. That's all I was looking for," Steven Hayes said in an hour-long jailhouse interview with the New Haven Register, which published his comments in Sunday's editions



Hayes, 50, and Joshua Komisarjevsky, 33, were convicted of capital felony, murder, sexual assault and other crimes and sentenced to death for the July 2007 killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, at their home in suburban Cheshire.



The two men, both convicted burglars, spotted Hawke-Petit and Michaela at a local grocery store, followed them and later broke into their home.



Komisarjevsky beat Dr. William Petit, the only survivor, with a baseball bat, and Hayes later went with Hawke-Petit to a bank and forced her to withdraw $15,000 under the threat of harming her family.

Hayes said when he walked back into the house with Hawke-Petit, 'at that point, we were just going to leave. Nobody was going to get hurt — at least not by me.'

'But that’s when Josh told me about him and the girl,' Hayes said, referring to Komisarjevsky sexually assaulting Michaela while Hayes was out of the house.

Authorities said Hayley and Michaela were tied to their beds. Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted Michaela, and Hayes strangled and sexually assaulted Hawke-Petit.



The two girls were burned alive after Komisarjevsky and Hayes set the house on fire and fled before crashing into police cruisers and being arrested.

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Victims: Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11all died in the brutal crime. Dr William Petit, right, survived Scene of the tragedy: The burned out Petit home where the girls and their mother died

Hayes said he and Komisarjevsky were going to leave after he returned from the bank with Hawke-Petit. But then, he said, Komisarjevsky told him that he sexually assaulted Michaela.



"I started to lose it," Hayes said. "Then I looked out the window and saw an unmarked police car. And I just snapped."



He said what happened next, including his assaulting Hawke-Petit, "wasn't who I am."



"I wasn't thinking right; I don't know what I was thinking. It was so unlike me. I'd never done anything like that," he said.



Both Hayes and Komisarjevsky have blamed each other for escalating the crime.

In his first interview since being convicted in 2011, Komisarjevsky told The Associated Press last year that he tries not to think about the crime and suffers no nightmares about it. He declined to talk directly about the crime, citing advice from his lawyers.

'It took a year before I could even remember what happened in those last few minutes,' Hayes said to the New Haven Register.



'I was told it was rage and stress or something. I just know that for a couple of minutes I became somebody else.'

'I’ll never forgive myself for that.'

Remarried: Dr Petit with his new wife Christine

At the Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, Hayes told the Register he can't stop thinking about the Cheshire murders. He also said he no longer thinks about killing himself.



"I realize now I've got to live with this pain," he said. "It's something I'm supposed to live with."



William Petit didn't respond to a request for comment.

When asked by the New Haven Register what he would tell Petit if they were face-to-face, Hayes said, 'I don’t know if there’s anything I could say. I definitely feel sorry but that doesn’t change things. I’d try to answer his questions.'

Hawke-Petit's sister, Cindy Hawke-Renn, called Hayes' comments "too little, too late."



"How do you plan such behavior and allow people to die at your hands and burn alive, especially when you have children of your own? Snapped? Doesn't sound like an excuse to me," she told the newspaper.

Horrifying: The charred bedroom of Hayley Petit, who was tied to her bed before petrol was poured over her

Telling the newspaper that it was Komisarjevsky who lit the match, Hayes admits though, that he doesn't blame anyone but himself for the events that transpired that day.

Killers: Joshua Komisarjevsky sentenced to death in 2011 for brutal murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11

He added that his decision making had been affected by his relapse into drugs - after having been clean for over four years.

However, despite claiming not to have been on drugs the evening of that attack, Hayes did say that he made a lot of incoherent decisions.



Hayes attempted to claim that throughout the Petit family's ordeal, except for a 'couple of minutes', Komisarjevsky and he were, 'nice to everyone. I was trying to keep people calm. I get them water, I let them go to the bathroom.'



Convicted of multiple murder counts, kidnapping, assault and third-degree burglary in 2010, A Superior Court jury sentenced Hayes to death.



Before the trial, Hayes attempted suicide by overdosing on prescription medication - and told the New Haven Register he wishes he was successful.



'I don’t deserve to live,' he said. 'I don’t want to live.'



'I realize now I’ve got to live with this pain. It’s something I’m supposed to live with.'