Connecticut: 2nd trial begins for 2007 home invasion murders

photo This June 2007 file photo provided by Dr. William Petit Jr., shows Dr. Petit, left, with his daughters Michaela, front, Hayley, center rear, and his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, on Cape Cod, Mass. Dr. Petit was severely beaten and his wife and two daughters were killed during a home invasion in Cheshire, Conn., July 23, 2007. A trial for Joshua Komisarjevsky, the second of two men charged with the crimes, begins Monday, Sept. 19, 2011, in New Haven, Conn., Superior Court. (AP Photo/William Petit, File)
photo This March 14, 2011 file photo provided by the Connecticut Department of Correction shows Joshua Komisarjevsky. Komisarjevsky's trial starts Monday, Sept. 19, 2011, in New Haven Superior Court, where he faces the death penalty on charges of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters in a July 2007 home invasion in Cheshire, Conn. (AP Photo/Connecticut Department of Correction, File)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A second man is going on trial in connection with the killings of a woman and her two daughters during a 2007 home invasion in Connecticut.

Thirty-one-year-old Joshua Komisarjevsky (koh-mih-sar-JEV'-skee) is set to go on trial Monday in New Haven Superior Court and faces a possible death sentence if convicted. His co-defendant, Steven Hayes, was sentenced to death last year.

Authorities say the two paroled burglars broke into a Cheshire home in July 2007, beat Dr. William Petit and killed his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit and their two daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley. Dr. Petit survived.

Prosecutors say Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit, and Komisarjevsky sexually molested Michaela. The two girls were tied up and died of smoke inhalation after the home was set on fire.

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