( CNN ) -- More than six years have passed since Steven Hayes broke into the Cheshire , Connecticut , home of the Petit family , setting off a deadly chain of events that ended in the death of a woman and her two daughters . But even with time , Hayes struggles to explain exactly what happened and why . `` I started to lose it , '' he told the New Haven Register . `` I looked out the window and saw an unmarked police car . And I just snapped . '' Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky have been tried in the case , convicted and sentenced to death . The two men entered the Petit home , beat and tied up William Petit and forced Jennifer Hawke-Petit to go to a bank and withdraw $ 15,000 . They then raped and strangled Hawke-Petit , 48 , and molested 11-year-old Michaela before tying her and 17-year-old Hayley to their beds and setting the house afire . The girls died from smoke inhalation . Their father managed to escape from the basement . `` I was n't thinking right ; I do n't know what I was thinking . It was so unlike me . I 'd never done anything like that , '' Hayes told the Register during an hour-long interview from prison . He said it took him a year to even remember what happened in those final moments . `` I was told it was rage and stress or something . I just know that for a couple of minutes , I became somebody else , '' he said . `` I 'll never forgive myself for that . '' William Petit , who remarried last year , did not respond to Hayes ' comments . But his sister-in-law , Cindy Hawke-Renn , said they were `` too little , too late . `` How do you plan such behavior and allow people to die at your hands and burn alive , especially when you have children of your own ? Snapped ? Does n't sound like an excuse to me , '' she told the Register . Hayes said he was sorry for what he did and expressed feelings of `` guilt , shame and remorse '' about the deadly 2007 home invasion . He reportedly tried to commit suicide before his trial started and told the Register that he wishes he had been successful . `` I do n't deserve to live , '' Hayes told the newspaper . `` I do n't want to live . '' However , he added , he no longer thinks about killing himself . `` I realize now I 've got to live with this pain . It 's something I 'm supposed to live with , '' said Hayes .
Robert Hayes spoke to the New Haven Press from prison . He and Joshua Hayes have been sentenced to death . ` ` I started to lose it ... I just snapped , '' he told the newspaper . Also , two children were killed in home invasion , fire in 2007 .