NEW HAVEN, Conn. ? A jury heard testimony Tuesday about angels and demons as lawyers for a Connecticut man charged in a deadly 2007 home invasion introduce evidence about his family's religious beliefs.
A religion expert testified that Joshua Komisarjevsky grew up in a family whose religion was a mix of evangelicalism and fundamentalism. The expert said the family believes that demons battle angels for people's souls, and that Komisarjevsky was afraid as a child that a demon would make him hurt his family.
The jury is hearing evidence on whether Komisarjevsky should get the death penalty or life in prison after being convicted last month in the killings of a woman and her two daughters in their Cheshire home. His co-defendant, Steven Hayes, is already on death row.
The defense says Komisarjevsky's family was opposed to psychological counseling and medications.
Julie Ingersoll, a religious studies professor at the University of North Florida, testified that she interviewed Komisarjevsky and members of his family. She said they told her about an episode in Komisarjevsky's childhood in which he believed a demon was in his presence, and the family and church leaders tried to help him through prayer.
Komisarjevsky at the time called it "the darkness" and believed it was part of him, Ingersoll testified, but he later came to believe it was just a panic attack.
Ingersoll said the family believes that mental illness is really just "irresponsibility" and a spiritual problem that can't be treated by psychiatrists or psychologists, whom they believe are among outsiders who can't be trusted.
Ingersoll also described Komisarjevsky's childhood as "isolated" by religion and home-schooling.
Defense lawyers are trying to prove mitigating factors that would spare Komisarjevsky from the death penalty. The only other possible sentence for his capital felony convictions is life in prison without the possibility of release.
Prosecutors objected several times to the testimony about the Komisarjevsky family's religious beliefs, questioning its relevance, but Judge Jon C. Blue allowed it.
Earlier Tuesday, Komisarjevsky's former drug counselor, Michael Daluz, testified that Komisarjevsky did well in a treatment program and said it was hard to believe that he took part in the killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17, during the home invasion.
Daluz said under cross-examination by State's Attorney Michael Dearington that he opposed the death penalty and believed that life in prison is a harsh penalty.
"For a man to know he'll never touch a woman, be with his family or live a normal life is punishment like you wouldn't believe," said Daluz, who spent time in prison for assault.
Testimony was continuing Tuesday afternoon.
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