Update:

Steven Hayes has been sentenced to die on 6 separate counts, and the judge accepts the verdicts.

The emotional verdict came after four days of deliberation.  Two of the jurors just started crying. The rest are comforting each other, wiping their eyes with tissues.

Here is a summary of the counts:

Count 4: Capital Felony Murder – charged with murdering two or more persons (Hayley and Michaela Hawke-Petit) at the same time and in the course of a single transaction.

Count 4 – death
No statutory mitigating, yes to both aggravating factors
Weighed and found death

Count 5: Capital Felony Murder of a person under 16 (Michaela Petit).

Count 5 – death
No statutory mitigating
Yes to all 3 aggravators
Yes to non-statutory mitigating
Weighed and found death

Count 10: Capital Felony murder of Jennifer Hawke Petit during the course of her kidnapping

Count 10 – death
No statutory mitigators
Yes to both aggravators
Yes to non-statutory mitigators
Weighed and death is appropriate punishment.

Count 11: Capital Felony for murder of a kidnapped person (Hayley Petit)

Count 11 – death
No mitigators
Yes to both aggravators
Yes to non statutory mitigators
Weighed and decided death

Count 12: Capital Felony for murder of a kidnapped person (Michaela Petit)

Count 12 – death
No statutory mitigating factor
Yes to all aggravators
Yes to non statutory mitiagtors
Weighed and found death

Count 14: Capital Felony – Murder during the course of sexual assault on Jennifer Hawke-Peti

Count 14 – death
No statutory mitigating factors
Yes to all aggravators
Yes to non statutory mitigators
Weighed and found death

Developing:

The verdict in the Steven Hayes penalty phase has been reached.

The questions aren’t if he committed the crimes, the questions is if he had the mental capacity to carry out the crimes.

The judge has just informed the public, jurors have reached their decision in the case. We are standing by waiting for jurors to be brought into the courtroom for the reading.  This could take one hour to go through all the counts.  There are six.

Family and lawyers being brought in now.