Doctor: Abuse led home invasion defendant to drugs

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A psychiatrist has testified that a Connecticut man convicted of killing a woman and her two daughters in a home invasion had an abusive father and turned to drugs to cope.

Dr. Eric Goldsmith was the second mental health expert to testify Wednesday for the defense as a New Haven jury considers whether Steven Hayes should get the death penalty.

Goldsmith says Hayes told him his father once knocked him down for coming home five minutes late. He says Hayes recounted that his father forced Hayes and a sibling to “duke it out” over who would get a beating for a household infraction.

Goldsmith says Hayes turned to break-ins to feed a drug habit so severe that he and a woman went through about $200,000 worth of cocaine in 2002.