

Two men are now on death row for a deadly 2007 home invasion robbery in suburban Connecticut that shocked the nation with its violence and cruelty, and claimed the lives of a mother and two daughters.

But the sole survivor of the attack said that the sentence handed down Friday provides scant justice -- his loss will forever be his "personal holocaust."

"I lost my family and my home," Dr. William Petit said during Friday's sentencing hearing for one of the killers. "They were three special people. Your children are your jewels."

A New Haven Superior Court judge sentenced Joshua Komisarjevsky, 31, to death for his role in the home invasion robbery, even though Komisarjevsky tried again to shift blame to his accomplice.

"I know my responsibilities, but what I cannot do is carry the responsibilities of the actions of another," he said during the hearing, which was covered by the Associated Press. "I did not want those innocent women to die."

The sentence brings to a close a night of horror that began in July 2007 when he and his accomplice, Steven Hayes, 48 -- both on parole at the time for burglary -- burst through the Petits' front door and overpowered them.

Petit was beaten with a baseball bat and tied up in the basement of his Cheshire home. His wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, was forced to go to a bank and withdraw money before Hayes raped and strangled her.

The girls, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley, were tied up in their bedrooms and Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted the younger girl. The children died of smoke inhalation after gasoline was used to set the house on fire in an apparent bid to destroy evidence.

Meanwhile, a bloodied and battered Petit managed to free himself and crawl out a window to run for help. But help arrived too late.