Petit Murderer's Nine-Year-Old Daughter May Be Forced To Testify, To Save Her Father’s Life
Oct. 28 2011, Published 5:00 a.m. ET
By Breaking Celebrity News Staff
The death penalty trial of the convicted Petit family murderer Joshua Komisarjevsky took a dark turn on Friday as his troubled teenage years were revealed in graphic detail, Breaking Celebrity News has learned.
Equally as disturbing is what may happen in the days to come if the killer's nine-year-old daughter is called to testify, as jurors decide whether her father spends the rest of his life in prison or is put to death by lethal injection.
As Breaking Celebrity News previously reported, Komisarjevsky was found guilty of 17 counts on October 13 for the grisly murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, and the vicious beating of their father, Dr. William Petit, on July 23, 2007 in their Cheshire, Connecticut home.
Sources claim defense attorneys have subpoenaed the girl, who now lives with one of her mother's relatives, reported the Hartford Courant.
Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue said that he would be considering a motion to seal the courtroom and a motion to quash a subpoena. He did not elaborate any details.
In late March, attorney Justine Rakich-Kelly, of the Children's Law Center of Connecticut, was hired to represent Komisarjevsky's daughter because her legal guardian had indicated that the child could be subpoenaed to testify.
She requested that the court use a pseudonym for the young girl so that her real name wouldn't appear on witness lists.
Just six weeks before he was arrested for the Petit murders in 2007, Komisarjevsky was released from a halfway house following a stint in prison for multiple burglaries and won custody of his then five-year-old daughter, arguing that her mother was in hospital for mental evaluation and drug treatment.
Komisarjevsky's sister, Naomi, is