Jurors in Conn. trial get counseling

Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn.

In his sleep, Maico Cardona sees a little girl tied to a bed, burning up in a house fire. She cries out for help, but he can’t reach her.

So graphic was the testimony he heard as a juror in the case of a Connecticut home invasion, a shocking crime that left two girls and their mother dead, that the nightmares haunt him a week later.

Out of concern for the shell-shocked jury, Connecticut’s Judicial Branch took the rare step of offering counseling services. Cardona, who was part of a jury that convicted and sentenced Steven Hayes to die by lethal injection, said he is grateful for the help.

Only a handful of states provide counseling services for jurors, including Minnesota, Ohio and Texas, according to Greg Hurley of the National Center for State Courts. For now, Connecticut is offering it only through a pilot program for those involved in the home-invasion trial. But legal experts say such assistance can be invaluable for those picked at random and thrust into emotionally trying murder cases.

The trial in New Haven had several factors that can aggravate jurors’ stress: multiple victims including children, sexual assault, graphic evidence and — as a capital case — the responsibility of deciding whether a defendant should live or die, jury scholar Valerie Hans said.

The family was tormented for hours in their home in the New Haven suburb of Cheshire one night in 2007 before the girls — age 11 and 17 — were tied to their beds with pillowcases over their heads, doused with gasoline and left to die in a fire. Hayes, a paroled burglar, also forced their mother, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to withdraw money from a bank before he sexually assaulted and strangled her.

Jurors were shown autopsy pictures of the victims, as well as photos of the girls’ charred beds, rope, ripped clothing and ransacked rooms.