PORT ANGELES — Dennis Marvin Bauer was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday. He was handed three consecutive life sentences without parole for committing three murders the morning after Christmas in 2018.
A seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated for three days after a seven-week trial before convicting Bauer, 53, on Jan. 10 of three counts of first-degree aggravated murder, seven counts of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and six counts of possession of a stolen firearm.
The firearms charges added an additional 42.5 years — 510 months — to Bauer’s sentence.
Bauer’s attorney Karen Unger could not be reached for comment Thursday on whether or not she would appeal the decision.
The jury found that Bauer and his accomplices, Ryan Warren Ward and Kallie Ann LeTellier, shot and killed trucking company owner Darrell Iverson, 57; his son Jordan, 27; and Jordan’s girlfriend Tiffany May, 26, on Iverson’s property east of Port Angeles on Dec. 26, 2018.
Both Ward and LeTellier pleaded guilty in the killings and were sentenced last fall without trials.
Ward, 40, is serving three life sentences without the possibility of parole for his role in the murders. He refused to testify against Bauer.
LeTellier, 37, is serving a 35-year prison term for May’s death after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. She agreed to testify against Bauer.
Unger had argued that Bauer, a commercial floor cleaner, was a bystander to the murders carried out by Ward and LeTellier. Bauer had testified that he committed the acts out of fear of Ward and under the influence of methamphetamine.
Michele Devlin and Jesse Espinoza of the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office had argued that Bauer planned and helped carry out the murders because he owed money to Darrell Iverson, the alleged financier of drug activities.
LeTellier said the shootings were instigated by retribution Bauer and Ward wanted to inflict on the Iversons for allegedly raping LeTellier.
Prior to Bauer’s sentencing, statements from May’s family spoke to who she was and said she was having a positive impact on Darrell and Jordan Iverson before their deaths.
May’s grandmother, Linda Brown, said May had convinced the Iversons to get treatment for their drug addictions. They were to start that treatment two weeks after Christmas 2018, Brown said.
“I will never be able to see, hug or talk to Tiffany ever again. I will not see her become a wife or a mother. For that, I wish the same for you, that you never hear the sound of your son or daughter’s voices or see their smiles. I do wish that every day you hear the sounds of Tiffany’s screams,” Brown said.
Said May’s mother, Angela: “She will never get to be what she wanted to be. All over something stupid.”
Wendy Peterson, Darrell Iverson’s sister-in-law and one of the people who found his body and Jordan’s at 52 Bear Meadow Road, said in her statement that she did not believe that LeTellier was raped and that Bauer would blame everyone but himself for what happened.
“Whatever reasons you have come up with to justify what you did are simply to satisfy your own conscience and not what is reality,” Peterson said.
Unger also said she did not believe that LeTellier was raped by the Iversons when making her statements at the sentencing.
“Personally, I don’t believe that the three victims were involved in any kind of sexual misconduct in any way, and I want to make that clear to the families, and I hope that came out of our presentation,” Unger said.
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Reporter Ken Park can be reached at kpark@peninsuladailynews.com.
