State v. Komisarjevsky

Citations

• 338 Conn. 526

Syllabus

Convicted of numerous crimes, including six counts of capital felony, in connection with the invasion of the P family home in the town of Cheshire that resulted in a triple murder, sexual assaults, kidnappings, and arson, the defendant appealed to this court. The defendant, along with his accomplice, S, entered the home around 2 a.m. and proceeded to tie up the members of the P family, which consisted of J, her husband, W, and their daughters, H and M. Discovering that there was no money in the house, and concerned that his and the defendant's DNA would be found there, S drove J's car to a nearby gas station to buy gasoline and then, around 9 a.m., took J to a bank so she could withdraw a large sum of cash. While S was gone, the defendant sexually assaulted M and took sexually explicit photographs of her with his cell phone. After returning to the home, S sexually assaulted J and strangled her to death. Upon realizing that W was escaping and that the police, responding to a 911 call from the bank, were surrounding the house, S poured gasoline throughout the home, ignited it, and fled with the defendant in J's car. The defendant and S crashed the vehicle and were apprehended, while H and M perished in the ensuing fire. S was tried first and convicted. This case originally was scheduled to be argued before a panel of this court consisting of Chief Justice Robinson, Justices Palmer, D'Auria, Mullins, Ecker, and Judges Alvord and Keller. Although Justice Mullins was not present when the case was argued before the court, he has read the briefs and appendices, and listened to a recording of the oral argument prior to participating in this decision. The listing of justices reflects their seniority status on this court as of the date of oral argument. 338 Conn. 526 OCTOBER, 2021 527 State v. Komisarjevsky Prior to the defendant's trial, the defendant filed a motion to change the venue from the judicial district of New Haven, arguing that the pretrial publicity surrounding h