NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP/WCBS880) -- A judge ruled Wednesday that jury selection will resume next week in the trial of a man charged in a murderous attack on a Connecticut family, after hearing testimony from a psychiatrist that he is still suicidal and is resigned to receiving the death penalty.
Dr. Suzanne Ducate, who heads psychiatric services for the state's prison system, also said she has no concerns about Steven Hayes' ability to participate in jury selection.
Ducate said Hayes told her he still felt hopeless after a failed suicide attempt in January.
"He said that he continued to feel very hopeless and his new strategy for dealing with his sense of hopelessness was to wait for the state to kill him,'' Ducate said.
New Haven Superior Court Judge Jon Blue ordered the trial to resume Monday.
Jury selection had been on hold since officials said Hayes overdosed on medication he had hoarded in a suicide attempt on Jan. 30 and while his prison conditions were evaluated.
Hayes is one of two men charged in the 2007 home invasion in Cheshire. If convicted, he faces either the death penalty or life in prison.
Hayes and another man, Joshua Komisarjevsky, have pleaded not guilty to capital felony murder, sexual assault and other crimes in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley.
Hayes and Komisarjevsky were accused of breaking into the Petit home, beating Dr. William Petit and holding the family hostage for hours before strangling his wife and setting the house on fire. The girls, who had been tied to their beds, died of smoke inhalation.
The judge held two hearings on Hayes' treatment in prison after his lawyer raised concerns.
Public Defender Thomas Ullmann had said that the lights in Hayes' cell were on 24 hours a day, he had not been receiving his anti-psychotic medication and he had to eat with his hands because officials would not give him utensils.
Ducate said last week officials had to stop giving Hayes anti-psychotic and other medications for anxiety and insomnia because he wasn't cooperating with doctors and there's concern he may try to overdose on them again. She said officials have dimmed the lights in Hayes' cell and he's been given a rubber spoon to eat with.
More recently, a warden disconnected a call box in Hayes' cell after Hayes complained about the noise, Ducate said. Hayes also requested a television, but Ducate said she does not believe it would be safe to put a TV in his cell.
A request by Hayes' daughter to visit him was turned down last week, Ducate said.
Dr. Petit, who survived the attack, said Wednesday he was glad jury selection will resume. He said Hayes "put himself in a tough situation.''
"I assume anyone accused of participating in the murder of three people would be highly stressed,'' Petit said.
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