Judge In Petit Family Murder Case Rejects Request For A Mistrial
Sept. 29 2011, Published 9:00 a.m. ET
By Breaking Celebrity News Staff
Following the early exit from the courtroom of Dr. William Petit and other family members the day before, the defense attorney for triple murder suspect Joshua Komisarjevsky unsuccessfully asked the judge for a mistrial on Thursday, Breaking Celebrity News has learned.
The request was made by Jeremiah Donovan on the grounds that the commotion caused by the Petit family’s exit was prejudicial to his client, but was rejected by Judge Jon C. Blue, reported the Hartford Courant.
"They left en masse. It seems to be that is so prejudicial to my client," said Donovan, who asked the judge to prohibit Petit family members from pulling "any stunts like that again."
Judge Blue responded by stating that trial spectators are free to come and go from the public courtroom.
As Breaking Celebrity News previously reported, just minutes after the state's chief medical examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver took the stand to testify on Wednesday, grieving father and husband Dr. Petit and more than a dozen other distraught family members left the courtroom.
Komisarjevsky is charged with 17 counts including murder, abduction and assault in the triple homicide of a mother and her two children, and the beating of their father.
The grisly case revolves around the seven-hour abduction of Dr. Petit, his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit and their daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, who were held hostage in their Cheshire, Connecticut home on July 22, 2007.
The incident in court on Wednesday was not the first time that disturbing details of the trial has had a dramatic affect on those watching it.
On Monday, Dr. Petit, the sole survivor of the brutal home invasion, was so overcome with emotion as jurors heard how 17-year Hayley's body was found at the top of the family's stairs after struggling to free herself from the ropes that bound her wrists to her bed that he left the court.
The father and his family members were not in court on Thursday morning as Komisarjevsky's lawyer moved for the mistrial.