NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A paroled burglar was convicted today of killing a mother and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion in an affluent Connecticut town.

Steven Hayes was convicted of capital felony and three counts of murder by a jury that heard eight days of testimony about the July 2007 attacks on Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela.

Hawke-Petit attended elementary school in Slippery Rock. Her parents, the Rev. Richard and Marybelle Hawke, still live there.

The verdict triggers a second phase of the trial, in which the same jurors will decide if Hayes should be executed or face life in prison. Hayes was convicted of 16 counts and acquitted of a single count — arson.

Hayes' defense admitted to his involvement in the home invasion but blamed his co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, for being the aggressor. Komisarjevsky faces trial next year.

Komisarjevsky spotted the mother and her two daughters at a supermarket, followed them to their Cheshire home, then returned later with Hayes, authorities say.

The men broke into the Petit house, beat the girl's father with a baseball bat and forced Hawke-Petit to withdraw money from a bank before raping and strangling her, according to testimony.

The men tied up the girls and set the house on fire. The girls died of smoke inhalation.

The men were caught fleeing.