Defense cites sexual abuse in home invasion trial

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — An attorney trying to persuade a jury to spare a Connecticut man the death penalty for killing a woman and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion says the man was sexually abused for years as a child but his ultra-religious family failed to get him proper help.

Defense attorney Jeremiah Donovan says Joshua Komisarjevsky’s adopted parents increasingly isolated him through home-schooling and joining a church that had cult-like practices. He says the family failed to get him counseling and medications and as he got older he began to abuse drugs and commit nighttime home burglaries.

Komisarjevsky was convicted Oct. 13 of capital felony killing, kidnapping, arson and sexual assault.

He faces life in prison or the death penalty. His accomplice is on death row.