NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A judge denied an effort today by attorneys for a Connecticut man charged with killing a former Slippery Rock woman and her two daughters in a home invasion to reopen their defense based on letters from a co-defendant claiming he had committed numerous murders in the past. The case then went to the jury.

Attorneys for Joshua Komisarjevsky cited letters from Steven Hayes claiming he killed 17 people in the Northeast and committed dozens of drugged date rapes.

Authorities say Komisarjevsky and Hayes broke into the Cheshire home in 2007, beat Dr. William Petit with a bat, tied him and his family up and forced his wife to withdraw money from a bank. The house was doused in gas and set on fire, leading to the girls’ deaths from smoke inhalation.

Hayes was convicted last year of raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit and killing her daughters. He is on death row.

Jury deliberations began late this morning.

Hawke-Petit spent part of her elementary school years in Slippery Rock. Her parents, who kept the house even when they moved to other places, retired to the Slippery Rock house.