Suspects' Records

Joshua Komisarjevsky
26, Cheshire
Began burglarizing homes at age 14
Started a nine-year prison term in 2003 for nearly a dozen burglaries in Bristol after being called a "cold, calculating predator" by a judge.
Released to a halfway house in June 2006.
Granted parole on April 10.


Steven Hayes
44, Winsted
Entered the correctional system in 1980, at the start of a criminal career that included dozens of arrests on charges such as burglary, larceny and forgery.
Disciplined nearly two dozen times in prison.
Sentenced to five years in prison in 2003 for burglary; released to halfway house in June 2006.
Returned to prison in November 2006 for using illegal drugs; granted parole May 3.

Sources: State Department of Correction; state Superior Court records

The 35-year-old from Boston was awaiting trial in Connecticut for stealing a ring from a jewelry store.  He was a problem inmate, according to court documents, and had been diagnosed with paranoia and depression.

On June 6, 2002, he was alone in a cell in a restricted housing unit at the MacDougall-Walker prison. As a punishment for misbehaving, he had been denied contact with his family for months. He used a sheet to hang himself from the top bunk.  His sister, Suzanne, has sued the prison system, claiming it fails to do enough to protect suicidal inmates.  According to her lawsuit, her brother's last mental health assessment, conducted the day he died, consisted of a psychologist asking him through the door of his cell if he was OK. He did not reply.

"They deprived him of the help he needed," Suzanne Walsh said Friday. "Just help him. We're not asking you to give him steak dinners. Just help him."  Since Walsh died, there have been 17 other inmate suicides in Connecticut prisons and jails. There have been 13 suicides since April 2004, and four since January of this year.

The latest happened Tuesday, when 23-year-old Adnan Saeed of Meriden killed himself at MacDougall-Walker.  Like most other inmates who commit suicide, he tied one end of a bed sheet around his neck and the other to the upper bunk in his cell, according to prison officials.  Acknowledging a problem, the Correction Department last fall hired outside experts to examine its suicide prevention program. Since then, the department has made numerous changes, said Brian Garnett, a spokesman.

Because many suicides happen within the first 72 hours an inmate is in custody, the department has set up "orientation units" at its jails and intake facilities that are monitored more frequently, Garnett said.  Inmates coming into the system are given more thorough mental health screenings, and they wear slip-on sneakers to prevent hangings with shoelaces, he said.  All state prison cells have also been modified to be more suicide-resistant, he said.

"For example, anything on the wall, like a smoke detector, we've taken off so that people can't hang themselves on it," Garnett said.

The state also has special suicide-watch cells that have nothing in them but mattresses on the floor. Instead of regular prison jumpsuits, inmates are given Ferguson gowns, thick quilted garments that are collarless and sleeveless and cannot be torn or fastened into nooses.

"These experts told us ours are some of the most progressive policies in the nation," Garnett said.  But critics say they are not nearly enough.  A recent report on mental health services at the Garner Correctional Institution and Northern Correctional Institution, the state's highest security prison, found serious problems with the way suicidal inmates are treated.

"In fact, the `treatment' a prisoner receives after disclosing suicide ideation, on average, is more punitive than therapeutic," according to the report written by Dr. Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist from the Wright Institute in Berkley, Calif.  Instead of receiving one-on-one therapy with mental health professionals, suicidal inmates are often written up as disciplinary problems.  They are transferred to observation cells and often kept in restraints until they say they are no longer suicidal, according to the report.

"At that point, he will in many cases be deemed a malingerer for having mentioned suicide ideation or exhibited suicidal behavior without actually killing himself," according to the report, prepared for the state Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities.

Kupers' report led to an agreement to overhaul the mental health services at Northern and Garner. The agreement is awaiting approval in U.S. District Court.  Attorney Antonio Ponvert III, who represents Walsh and the families of other inmates who have committed suicide, said he believes the department needs more mental health staff and better mental health services.  He said the department also must make it harder for inmates to kill themselves.

"One is, don't put suicidal inmates alone in cells with top bunks and sheets," Ponvert said. "There is no reason to have an inmate alone in a cell with a top bunk."  Garnett said no inmate known to be suicidal is left alone. He also said the department is adequately staffed does not need more mental health workers.

Connecticut's suicide rate is about 29 for every 100,000 inmates, Garnett said. Nationally, it is about 14 for every 100,000 prison inmates and 54 for every 100,000 people in jails.  Connecticut is one of the few states where the Correction Department is responsible for both jails, which are local facilities where people are held after being arrested, and prisons, which house convicts and those accused of more serious offenses.

David Fathi, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union's national prison project, said Connecticut's inmate suicide rate is still high.

"In such a controlled environment, where the state controls every movement of someone's life, there is no excuse for someone being able to kill himself," he said.

Somers — After months of legal wrangling over his right to die by lethal injection, Michael Ross was executed early today. He was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. as he lay strapped to a prison gurney.

The death of the 45-year-old serial rapist and killer, a graduate of Cornell University and a native of eastern Connecticut, was the first execution in the state and New England in 45 years. It also marked, perhaps, the final chapter in a bizarre legal case that began with Ross' arrest in June 1984.

Ross was sent to death row in 1987 for the murders of four girls and young women from eastern Connecticut. He raped three of them. He also raped and killed two others from Connecticut and two young women in New York.

Those who witnessed his execution included his friends, relatives of his victims and five reporters.

The death announcement was made by prison warden Christine Whidden to news reporters who had waited hours at the Carl Robinson Correctional Institution, about a mile away from the prison where the execution occurred.

The last legal obstacles to the execution appeared to fall shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday when word came that the U.S. Supreme Court had denied two appeals by Ross' relatives to stop the execution. When that news reached the Robinson prison in Enfield, camera crews jockeyed for quick interviews with state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

“Only Ross can stop this,” said Blumenthal, “but there is always the possibility that something can be filed at the last minute. ... Clearly if anything is filed at this point, it is a transparent effort to manipulate the system.”

At 12:30 a.m. today, a couple hundred protesters started walking the mile from Robinson prison to the Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, where they were allowed to stand at the bottom of a long driveway leading to that prison.

Ross spent his last 17 hours in a cell next to the execution chamber at Osborn. He had communion, read from his Bible, had a final meal, and said goodbye to family and friends, according to a spokesman with the correction department.

Ross' death came seven months after a New London Superior Court judge first set a date for him to die. That decision in October set off a string of court fights to save Ross' life, despite the efforts of the serial killer himself and his attorney, T.R. Paulding, to go forward with the execution.

Ross' decision to give up any voluntary appeals of his death sentence prompted numerous court attempts to reverse his course.

The state's chief public defender, Ross' father and a sister, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut and the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty are among those who have tried to save his life. Many of their arguments focused on Ross' state of mind, saying he was not competent to make a decision that would end his life.

On Thursday night, Ross' sister, Donna Dunham, and Antonio Ponvert III, an attorney representing Ross' father, tried to get the execution stayed. They took their appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court after their cases were rejected in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York earlier in the day.

Both Blumenthal and Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano said they were prepared to carry out the execution.

Ross was sentenced to death for the murders more than 20 years ago of Leslie Shelley and April Brunais, both 14 and from Griswold; Robin Stavinsky, 19, of Norwich; and Wendy Baribeault, a 17-year-old from Lisbon. All were walking along roads in eastern Connecticut when he snatched them and strangled them to death. Three were raped.

About six hours before the execution, anti-death protesters arrived at the Robinson prison to voice their opposition to the death penalty. The prison was the staging area for media from throughout Connecticut and neighboring New England states.

About a dozen protesters had started a six-mile walk at Somers Congregational United Church of Christ and ended up at Shaker Field, across the road from the entrance to the Robinson prison.

They carried “Abolish the Death Penalty” banners.

“We make a hero or celebrity out of (Ross),” said Robert Nave, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty. “He should have been forgotten 20 years ago. The death penalty doesn't work.”

There was only one demonstrator at Shaker Field advocating the execution.

Late Thursday, Morano said that a command center was set up at his Rocky Hill office to counteract any 11th-hour lawsuits filed with the intention of stopping the execution.

At midnight, he operated the command center from Osborn prison.

He said Ross' execution was needed to end the pain of his victims' families.

“I can guarantee you it has been the same ripple effect of pain since these acts happened so long ago ...” Morano said. “The bottom line is we are going to be doing everything we can to carry out a lawful sentence that has been reviewed again, again and again.”

Blumenthal said the recent appeals were filed by “intermeddlers” who wanted to stop a lawful execution. He said the execution would only be stopped if Ross requested it.

Speaking to media Thursday afternoon at the Robinson prison, Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the correction department, said Ross woke up early, at 5:45 a.m., and had a light breakfast of oatmeal and grapefruit juice.

Shortly after 8 a.m., he said, Ross was taken to a holding cell next to the room where he was to die. He had a Bible, a book of biblical verses, a coffee mug and some candy.

During the day, Garnett said, Ross watched television, read newspapers and greeted visitors through a Plexiglas window. He received communion at around 9:15 a.m. from a department chaplain, Garnett said.

Ross had his last meal shortly after 3 p.m., Garnett said, and chose to eat what was being served for dinner to prisoners throughout the state –– turkey a la king with rice, mixed vegetables, bread and a beverage.

Correction Commissioner Theresa Lantz said that, since her department received the first death warrant back in October and then again in February, it started to formulate a plan to carry out the execution safely and lawfully.

The selection and training of the volunteer execution staff started in November, Lantz said. At least 30 simulation drills were carried out in preparation, she said.

“In my 29 years in the field of correction in various positions, I personally never experienced a more complex and comprehensive and challenging operation,” she said. “I can assure you we have done extensive research, networking, planning and training in carrying out this responsibility.”

As described by correction department procedures, the execution occurred as follows:

Thirty minutes prior to his execution, all visits with Ross were ended.

The execution team escorted him from the holding cell to the execution room, where a primary intravenous line was put in his left arm and a backup line in his right arm.

Ten minutes later, witnesses were escorted into an observatory room with a large window looking into the room where Ross was strapped down.

Ross, who had a microphone near his mouth, was allowed to give a one-minute statement.

At 2:01 a.m., at the direction of the warden, the executioner started the lethal injection.

Three drugs were administered: 2,500 milligrams of thiopental sodium, an anesthetic; 100 milligrams of pancuronium bromide to paralyze his body; and 120 milliequivalent of potassium chloride to stop his heart.

Ross' body was to be taken to the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Farmington.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected two last-minute appeals from Ross' relatives late Thursday afternoon but the U.S. Supreme Court was expected to review one if not both cases Thursday night, attorneys in both cases said.  The appeals court rebuffed a lawsuit brought on behalf of Ross' father that claimed Ross' execution would lead to a wave of suicide attempts among Connecticut inmates.

The court also rejected an appeal from Ross' sister, who asked to intervene because she claims that Ross is mentally incompetent to forgo his appeals.

In Connecticut, prison officials said Ross made no special request for his last meal, choosing to eat the same dinner served to all 18,000 inmates throughout the state prison system: turkey a la king, rice, mixed vegetables and fruit.

His family, friends and attorneys visited with him after he was moved in the morning to a holding cell near the death chamber at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers. He had with him a Bible, a book of Bible verses and some candy.

The Ivy League-educated killer was sent to death row for the murders of four young women and girls in Connecticut in the 1980s, and confessed to four more such slayings in Connecticut and New York. He also raped most of the women.  Last fall, he announced he was abandoning all remaining appeals - which could have kept him alive for many years - because his victims' families had suffered enough.

"I owe these people. I killed their daughters. If I could stop the pain, I have to do that. This is my right," the former insurance agent and Cornell University graduate said last year. "I don't think there's anything crazy or incompetent about that."

Desperate to save his life, public defenders and Ross' family argued that Ross suffered from "death row syndrome" - that is, he had become deranged from living most of the past 18 years under a death sentence.

Ross was hours from death in January when a federal judge scolded Ross' attorney and threatened to lift his law license for trying to hasten Ross' execution. The lawyer agreed to a new hearing on whether Ross was mentally competent.

At the hearing, two psychiatrists have testified that he was mentally incompetent. They said he has a personality disorder that compels him to choose death to avoid looking cowardly. Two other experts disputed the finding of incompetence and said he was genuinely remorseful.

Last month, a judge again found Ross competent to decide his fate.

The last execution in New England was in 1960, when Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky went to the electric chair in Connecticut. Of the six New England states, only Connecticut and New Hampshire have the death penalty. New Hampshire has no one on death row and has not executed anyone since 1939.

Death penalty opponents warned that Ross' execution could break down a political and psychological barrier against capital punishment in New England and start a domino effect in the region.

Some opponents have spent the week walking the 25 miles from Hartford to the prison. Bob Nave, the executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, said they are resigned to the fact that the execution will happen.

"I have had no doubt about that for some time," he said. "This has become all about Michael Ross. Capital punishment will be wrong long after Michael Ross and it was wrong long before him."

Edwin Shelley, whose 14-year-old daughter Leslie was Ross' seventh victim, said he planned to watch Ross die.

"It's going to be nice to come home and realize that the case is finished and that he has received his just rewards," Shelley said. "I think I will be very relaxed and at ease with myself."

Barring last-minute legal complications, convicted serial killer Michael Ross will be executed by lethal injection a couple of hours after midnight tonight.

It will be the first execution in New England in nearly half a century - putting Connecticut on a path out of step with much of the world and even the nation, where public opinion is slowly shifting and juries increasingly are reluctant to impose capital punishment.

Understandably, there is little public sympathy for Mr. Ross, a twisted psychopath who admitted killing eight girls and young women and has been on death row for nearly two decades. Even some people who oppose capital punishment favor it in this case.

Mr. Ross will be led to the death chamber because he has abandoned all appeals and, in effect, has volunteered to die. But should such a momentous decision be his to make? Will Connecticut effectively be pushed into a legal corner, where it executes only prisoners who abandon their appeals? Another death row inmate, Sedrick Cobb, recently announced that he, too, wants to die.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the General Assembly have reaffirmed their support for capital punishment in the belief that they are in sync with majority opinion. Poll results, however, show a preference among Connecticut residents for life imprisonment without possibility of parole over the death penalty.

Nationally, dozens of people have been freed from death row because of wrongful convictions. Jurors also are aware of the arbitrary application of the penalty. As a result, death sentences declined last year to the lowest level since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

When the state Supreme Court ruled this week that Mr. Ross was competent to abandon his appeals, Justice Flemming L. Norcott Jr. issued a stinging rebuke to his colleagues, asking, "Has our thirst for this ultimate penalty now been slaked, or do we, the people of Connecticut, continue down this increasingly lonesome road?"

Some politicians assumed that they could appear tough on crime by embracing the death penalty - believing that Connecticut would never actually execute anyone.

We now know that their assumption was wrong. The execution of Mr. Ross should spur lawmakers to take another look at a discredited penalty, which one day likely will be declared "cruel and unusual" punishment barred by the U.S. Constitution.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The state Supreme Court planned to convene Wednesday afternoon to consider hearing an appeal of serial killer Michael Ross' sister, who wants to intervene and stop what would be New England's first execution in 45 years.

The state has asked the high court to dismiss the appeal of Donna Dunham, who claims her brother is mentally incompetent to drop his appeals and accept his death sentence, scheduled to be carried out by lethal injection early Friday.  The high court earlier this week upheld Ross' mental competence in another appeal. It has also previously rejected requests by Ross' father and the state's public defenders to intervene and file appeals against Ross' wishes.

Ross' attorney, T.R. Paulding said Tuesday that because the court has left no doubt that Ross is competent, others will have a hard time stopping the lethal injection.

"The issue of competence was the only potentially valid issue that would allow any of these interlopers to get their foot in the door," he said. "That mechanism for them to get their foot in the door seems to be closed."

Citing that ruling, Rockville Superior Court judge Jonathan Kaplan ruled Tuesday that Dunham has no standing to act on her brother's behalf.  But Dunham's attorney, Diane Polan argues that Ross is not able to make a voluntary decision to die. The harsh conditions on death row, and Ross' narcissism coerced him into thinking that death is a noble choice, and have made it impossible for him to recant, she said.  Polan said Tuesday she expects the issue will end up in the federal courts.

"The constitutional validity of Mr. Ross's waiver of his appellate rights is a legitimate and, indeed, crucial issue," Polan said. "We believe the federal courts are obligated to consider these issues, which requires that the rush to execution be derailed."

Paulding said he was preparing for the possibility that others will attempt to intervene before the execution, scheduled for 2 a.m. Friday, but believes the courts will be highly suspicious of any new claims.  "I assume those claims could have been filed a long time ago," he said.

Ross, 45, was sentenced to death for murdering four young women in eastern Connecticut in the early 1980s and has confessed to four other murders in Connecticut and New York.  Last year, he decided to end his appeals and accept his death sentence. He was hours away from being put to death in January, when Paulding, under pressure from a federal judge, asked for a new hearing to examine his competency.

Edwin Shelley, whose 14-year-old daughter Leslie was killed by Ross in 1984, said he's hopeful it will happen this time.

"None of the people who are filing these appeals have standing," he said. "These are all frivolous lawsuits brought by uninterested parties. They should be made to repay the state of Connecticut for the money wasted defending against them."  Dunham is one of Ross' three siblings and lives in Texas. Ross has no relationship with her, and has not heard from her in years, Paulding said.

On Tuesday, attorney Thomas Groark, who was hired as a special counsel to argue at a competency hearing that Ross is mentally incompetent, said he would file no further appeals following Monday's Supreme Court ruling.  In addition to the court fights, the state Department of Public Health has received formal complaints from at least four doctors asking it to investigate the planned execution.

The department rejected complaints from three Connecticut physicians alleging numerous medical, ethical and legal problems with the state's lethal injection procedures. A fourth doctor, from Ohio, alleges that the Department of Correction and its clinical director improperly volunteered to train Ross' execution team in the medical procedures needed for lethal injection.

The Department of Correction, citing safety concerns, has refused to say who will administer the lethal injection or how they are trained. The department also refused to say how it determined the dosages of the drugs being used or how it will ensure they are properly administered.  The state Freedom of Information Commission is expected to order the department on Wednesday to make some of that information public. But the department will have several weeks to appeal any such order.

Rockville Superior Court Judge Jonathan Kaplan ruled Tuesday that Donna Dunham has no standing to act on her brother's behalf.

Ross, 45, was sentenced to death for murdering four young women in eastern Connecticut in the early 1980s and has confessed to four other murders in Connecticut and New York.

Last year, he decided to end his appeals and accept his death sentence. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection just after 2 a.m.  Dunham's attorney, Diane Polan had argued that Ross is not mentally competent to make a voluntary decision to die. The harsh conditions on death row, and Ross' narcissism coerced him into thinking that death is a noble choice, and have made it impossible for him to recant, she argues.

Those were similar to the arguments used in failed attempts by Ross' father and the state's public defenders to intervene and file appeals against Ross' wishes.  Judge Kaplan's decision, which calls the complaint "wholly frivolous," came a day after the state Supreme Court upheld a ruling that Ross is mentally competent.

Judge Kaplan wrote that in light of the high court ruling, he cannot find that Dunham's claims "even remotely amount to meaningful evidence" that Ross cannot act for himself.

Ross' Attorney T.R. Paulding, who has been helping clear the path to execution, said he believes Monday's Supreme Court ruling removed the last major hurdle.

"The issue of competence was the only potentially valid issue that would allow any of these interlopers to get their foot in the door," he said. "That mechanism for them to get their foot in the door seems to be closed."  Paulding said he believes the courts will be highly suspicious of any new claims being brought in the remaining hours before the lethal injection.

"I assume those claims could have been filed a long time ago," he said.

Dunham is one of Ross' three siblings and lives in Texas. She was not in court Monday, and a call to her home was not returned. Paulding said Ross has no relationship with her, and has not heard from her in years.  Polan has said she plans to take her case to the state Supreme Court and federal courts if necessary. The petition to intervene was brought in Rockville Superior Court because Ross is incarcerated in Somers, which is in the Rockville judicial district.

State's High Court Again Delays Ross Execution;  Date Moved Back To Allow Arguments On Lower Court's Decision On His Competency
By IZASKUN E. LARRANETA, New London DAY
May 3, 2005

For the seventh time, the execution of serial killer Michael Ross has been delayed.

The state Supreme Court announced Monday that Ross cannot be put to death before 12:01 a.m. May 13. He was last scheduled to die May 11. A new execution date is expected to be announced today.
The delay will allow the high court to hear arguments Thursday on whether a lower court erred when it found Ross competent to forgo his appeals and proceed to his execution.

It is not certain, however, how the delay will affect the death warrant, which is worded so that it expires five days after the execution date is set.  Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, said the DOC is in the process of reviewing the ruling and its implications on the death warrant.

In February, New London Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford appointed special counsel Thomas Groark Jr. to play devil's advocate to Ross' assertions that he is competent and able to waive his right to appeal the death sentence. Clifford made the appointment after Ross' attorney, T.R. Paulding Jr., filed a motion Jan. 31 to stay Ross' scheduled execution and reopen a hearing on his competency. Paulding has been an advocate for Ross in his effort to move forward with the execution.

Paulding made the request to reopen the hearing after U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny threatened to take his law license if Chatigny found that Paulding had not adequately explored his client's state of mind.

Groark's appointment enabled Paulding to stay on the case and argue that his client is competent while Groark took the opposing position.  Following a six-day competency hearing last month, Clifford for a second time found Ross competent.

Groark appealed Clifford's ruling.

In response to Groark's complaint, prosecutors on Monday asked the high court to reject the appeal on the grounds that Groark has no standing to file one. The state claims Groark was appointed to argue the issue of competency only, and that his role in the case ended when Clifford rendered his decision.

“Special counsel's role at the trial-court level in this case was extremely limited and it was never intended to authorize special counsel to participate in any litigation before this court, let alone allow it to initiate such litigation,” wrote Harry Weller, a supervisory assistant state's attorney at the Office of the Chief State's Attorney.

The state also argued that Paulding, not Groark, has the right to file appeals on his client's behalf.

Groark, however, wants the high court to determine whether the lower court erred when it concluded that Ross did not suffer from a mental disease that substantially affected his ability to make rational choices.

Four psychiatrists took the witness stand during the competency hearing. Two found Ross competent, two did not.  Neither Paulding nor Groark could be reached for comment Monday.

Ross was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of Leslie Shelley and April Brunais, both 14, Robin Stavinsky, 19, and Wendy Baribeault, 17. Brunais, Stavinsky and Baribeault were also raped. Ross was given two life sentences for the r