Pretrial sessions OK’d for home-invasion survivor

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A judge has rejected a request by attorneys for a Connecticut man charged with a deadly home invasion to exclude the sole survivor of the crime from pretrial arguments and jury selection.

Attorneys for Joshua Komisarjevsky asked that Dr. William Petit be kept out of court proceedings. They said Petit, whose wife and two daughters were killed in 2007, referred to the testimony of other witnesses when he testified at the trial of Komisarjevsky’s co-defendant, Steven Hayes. Hayes was sentenced to death last year.

Judge Jon Blue denied the motion today but said attorneys could bring up the issue at trial. Blue said witnesses are not typically sequestered before trials but can be later if there are concerns their testimony could be affected by that of others.

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