PORT ANGELES — Kallie Anne LeTellier, who has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for her role in a triple murder, testified that she saw Dennis Marvin Bauer shoot victim Tiffany May on the morning after Christmas in 2018.
Prosecutors said in opening arguments in Bauer’s triple-murder trial on Monday that Bauer, 53, planned and executed the murders of acquaintances May, Jordan Iverson and Darrell Iverson at Darrell Iverson’s home east of Port Angeles.
Bauer’s attorney, Karen Unger, said then that her client was a bystander to the killings that were motivated by revenge for an alleged sexual assault that occurred about two weeks prior.
LeTellier, who had previously pleaded guilty to May’s murder, testified in Clallam County Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon that she saw Bauer shoot May four times after she had shot her.
“I saw Dennis point a gun at me. … I pointed the gun at Tiffany, and I shot her twice,” LeTellier said.
Then, she said, Bauer “grabbed the gun from me and started walking toward Tiffany and said c’mon, so I followed.”
“As soon as we got within maybe 8 feet of her, he shot her four more times,” LeTellier said.
LeTellier said she had been brutally raped by Darrell and Jordan Iverson for hours at Iverson’s 52 Bear Meadow Road property 16 days prior to their murders.
Under questioning by Michele Devlin, chief criminal deputy prosecuting attorney, the 36-year-old LeTellier said she was raped at the Bear Meadow Road property on Dec. 10, 2018, after she had gone there with Bauer and his nephew Ryan Ward.
Ward is currently serving three life sentences without parole for the murder of Darrell and Jordan Iverson and Tiffany May and for several firearms-related charges.
LeTellier said that evening she had been left alone at the Iversons’ property by Bauer and Ward. She was sitting at the kitchen counter when she was hit in the head from behind.
When she regained consciousness, she found herself bound naked to a bed in the Iverson home with Darrell and Jordan Iverson both standing naked in the room with her.
“I started to struggle to get my arms and legs free; they were bound really tightly,” she said tearfully.
“They started laughing at me. I started to say ‘please let me go, what are you doing?’ I was really confused. I didn’t understand.”
She testified that both men physically and verbally abused her for the next seven to eight hours.
Devlin asked LeTellier several times if she needed a break. LeTellier responded that she just wanted to get it over with.
When they let her go, May handed her her clothing while Jordan Iverson told her that Ward was on his way to pick her up, she said.
“They told me that if I said a [expletive] word to anybody they would [expletive] kill me,” LeTellier said.
LeTellier said she left the property and walked about half a mile down Deer Park Road, where she was picked up by Ward. She told him and Bauer about the rape later.
“A few days later, Ryan (Ward) just started talking about how they need to get back at them for what they did to me,” LeTellier said.
“He talked about that they should be killed, and I told him no, I just don’t ever want to see them again or go up there again. I don’t want anyone to know and to just leave it alone,” she said.
LeTellier said Bauer agreed with Ward.
Telling of the night of the murders — Dec. 25-26, 2018 — she said she spent most of Christmas Day asleep after having been awake for five days. At 11:30 p.m., she, Bauer and Ward went to the Walmart in Port Angeles and found it closed.
Both Bauer and Ward brought guns with them, long rifles, which was not unusual because they always carried guns, LeTellier said.
LeTellier thought they were headed to the Walmart in Sequim when instead Bauer turned up Deer Park Road and went to the Bear Meadow Road property, where he told her to get out of the car.
“I kept my mouth shut, but I was freaking out on the inside,” LeTellier said.
“I never wanted to step foot on that property again, ever. I was thinking about everything that had happened to me. I was scared. I didn’t know if they were taking me up there to have it happen again.”
LeTellier testified that she got high on methamphetamine with Bauer, Ward, the Iversons and May. Bauer, Ward and Jordan Iverson went to work on Darrell Iverson’s semi-truck grate, while she and May stayed in the house.
After several hours, it all began to change, she said.
Bauer came to her and told her that “Ryan doesn’t want to do it anymore. You’re going to have to take care of Tiffany.”
“I started to say, ‘What are you talking about?’ … and he said, ‘Don’t [expletive] question me, just listen. When you hear the gunshots go off, take care of her.’
“I thought he had lost his mind and was too high and didn’t know what he was talking about,” LeTellier said.
“Then he got up and started to walk back outside. I put my head down … and all of sudden I started hearing gunshots go off.”
LeTellier testified that May had been in the office where the Iversons’ security cameras could be viewed. She screamed and ran to the door. LeTellier grabbed Ward’s gun, which he had left, and followed her.
May ran. LeTellier said Bauer pointed a gun at her and told her to shoot May.
“It all happened so fast, only a couple of seconds,” LeTellier said, adding that “taking care of” somebody was slang used by Bauer and Ward for killing somebody.
In her testimony Wednesday morning during questioning by Devlin, LeTellier identified several photos of items she said were owned by Darrell Iverson that were found on Bauer’s property, including guns, knives, and jewelry, including watches.
Unger began her cross-examination of LeTellier on Wednesday afternoon and is expected to continue questioning her Thursday morning.
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Reporter Ken Park can be reached at kpark@peninsuladailynews.com.
