Connecticut ? A paroled burglar was convicted Tuesday of murdering a woman and her two daughters in their suburban home during a night of terror that drew comparisons to “In Cold Blood” and bolstered efforts to retain the death penalty in Connecticut.

The mother was sexually assaulted and strangled. Her two girls died of smoke inhalation after the youngest was sexually assaulted, they were tied to their beds and doused in gasoline, and the house was set on fire.

Steven Hayes, 47, could be sentenced to death. His attorneys have admitted his involvement and will argue for a life sentence.

Prosecutors said Hayes and another ex-con broke into the family’s house in Cheshire in 2007, beat the girls’ father with a baseball bat and forced their mother, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to withdraw money from a bank before she was sexually assaulted and killed. Eleven-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley were tied to their beds, with pillowcases over their heads, before they were killed by the gas-fueled fire, authorities said.