PORT TOWNSEND — Sentencing for convicted double-murderer and arsonist Michael J. Pierce has been delayed by almost a month — though he could be granted a new trial before then.
Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser signed an April 2 order changing Pierce’s sentencing hearing from April 22 to 1:30 p.m. May 18 in Verser’s courtroom at the county courthouse, 820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.
Verser, who presided over a two-week trial that ended March 26, agreed to delay Pierce’s sentencing at the request of the state Department of Corrections, which said it needed more time to prepare a pre-sentence report.
The eight guilty verdicts against Pierce, 35, include arson, burglary and theft in the March 18, 2009, murders of Patrick Yarr, 60, and his wife, Janice Yarr, 57, who lived north of Lake Leland on Boulton Road.
The county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is seeking a 108-year sentence for Pierce, a Peninsula College student who lived with his girlfriend in Sequim and mother in Quilcene and is the county’s first-ever convicted double-murderer.
But Pierce’s lawyer, Richard Davies of Port Townsend, is seeking a new trial — and could get a ruling before his client’s May 18 sentencing.
Hearing today
A hearing on Davies’ motion is at 8:30 a.m. today in Superior Court — though Davies said Thursday he will ask to put off the hearing until April 22 so he can request affidavits from jurors.
His new-trial motion is based in large part on interviews with jurors conducted by Peninsula Daily News and Leader weekly newspaper of Jefferson County, Davies said Thursday.
The comments were contained in articles first published in the PDN in which at least two jurors misinterpreted key testimony that they believed linked Pierce to the murder scene.
They also linked him to the scene by Pierce’s use of the Yarrs’ debit card and PIN number after the Yarrs were killed.
Those jurors had said prosecution witness Michael Donahue had testified March 22 that Pierce asked Donahue within an hour after the murders whether Pierce smelled of gasoline.
Experts had testified that an accelerant such as gasoline had been used to start the fire at the Yarrs’ house after the Yarrs were shot and killed in the course of a robbery gone bad.
But according to a court transcript, Donahue never linked Pierce with gasoline.
According to the transcript, when Donahue said, “He asked me if he smelled like gasoline,” the “he” asking the question was defense investigator Greg Walsh during a May 2009 interview, not Pierce after the Yarrs’ house was torched.
Donahue affirmed his testimony in a statement he signed Monday that was entered into the court record.
“By way of clarification, may I state that when I testified that [when] ‘He asked me if he smelled like gasoline’ during cross examination, my meaning was ‘Walsh asked me if Pierce smelled like gasoline.'”
Donahue also agreed that Pierce “wasn’t dirty and smelly or bloody or anything like that,” Donahue said, according to the transcript.
“He smelled like he had just gotten out of the shower,” Donahue said.
Davies said Thursday he hopes to obtain affidavits from jurors by April 22, when he expects to argue for a new trial.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladaily news.com.
