PORT TOWNSEND — Michael J. Pierce shot Patrick and Janice Yarr at point-blank range in a robbery gone bad, the prosecution told a newly empaneled set of jurors Wednesday, while the defense attorney warned the jury that “not everything is as it first appears.”
Jefferson County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Scott Rosekrans and Public Defender Richard Davies presented opening arguments to a jury of nine women and three men, with three alternates, that had been sifted from a jury pool of at least 130 people examined during three days.
Testimony in the trial, which is expected to last for three to four weeks, is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. today in Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser’s courtroom on the third floor of Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office security has been stepped up for the trial.
March 18 deaths
Pierce, 35, of Quilcene is charged with the March 18 shooting deaths of Patrick, 60, and Janice Yarr, 57, at their Boulton Farm Road home north of Lake Leland.
After the two were killed, their house was set ablaze in an alleged robbery to cover up the evidence, Rosekrans said.
After the fire that destroyed the home was doused, the Yarrs’ remains were found charred beyond recognition, bullet holes in the floor beneath their heads, he told the jury.
Davies said that testimony would show a lack of physical evidence linking Pierce to the crime.
“The only physical evidence linking Mr. Pierce to this horrendous scene is a block of knives, supposedly,” Davies said.
Before a jury was empaneled, Davies had argued for a change of venue, saying that extensive newspaper and broadcast reports of the murders and events leading up to Pierce’s trial had tainted the jury pool, and that his client could not get a fair trial in Jefferson County.
Verser denied the motion, saying he had read some of the news coverage, and “I saw nothing inflammatory.”
Saying his opening remarks were more theory in the case or a “road map,” Rosekrans outlined a description of the final day in the life of Patrick and Janice Yarr.
“Some time during that same day Michael Pierce decided that he needed some money,” Rosekrans said.
Prosecutor’s account
Having previously lived next door to the Yarrs and even worked for Patrick on the farm, Pierce knew they had money but didn’t have a gun to rob them, Rosekrans said.
So, the prosecutor told the jury, Pierce stole a pellet gun from Henery Hardware in Quilcene that night at about 6:40 to force his way into the Yarrs’ home and rob them.
Once he was in the Yarr home, he knew he could use one of Patrick’s rifles, the prosecutor said.
The Yarrs said they had no money to give him, Rosekrans said, so Pierce demanded their debit care and PIN code.
“Then he shot them both in the back of the head point blank with a high-powered gun,” Rosekrans said.
After dousing their bodies and the house with gasoline, Pierce set the place ablaze to cover up the crime, the prosecutor said.
Pierce then drove to the Bank of America in Quilcene where he was photographed at the automated teller machine, pulling his shirt over his face and taking money from the ATM, Rosekrans said.
Rosekrans said after Pierce was arrested on March 28 and charged with second-degree felony theft, Pierce told a sheriff’s detective that he would tell everything he knew up to the bank video for immunity in the case.
“He tells them about things that happened up there [at the Yarrs’ home] that only someone up there would know,” Rosekrans told the jury.
The physical evidence later identified by family members as taken from the Yarr home was a block of knives, with one of the knives with a plastic red handle.
“I’ll bring you more of the evidence about the forensics, the CSI stuff,” Rosekrans told jurors.
Davies opened and closed his arguments by telling the jury: “Not everything is as it first appears.”
He said that Rosekrans presented information as evidence that is not evidence.
Davies urged jurors to hold the prosecutor to his assertion that more evidence would come.
Block of knives
The knives were discovered among other household items jammed in a car trunk, Davies said.
Pierce was moving from one place to another when the car was searched, he said.
Davies said those knives came from Pierce’s mother and were a set that many people might have.
Testimony from Pierce’s brother and mother would be heard to that effect, Davies said.
Pierce is being held without bail. He has been in the Jefferson County jail in Port Hadlock since his March 23 arrest.
The Yarrs owned Pat Yarr Logging and Yarr Cattle Co. Pat Yarr had worked as a log trucker across the North Olympic Peninsula since the early 1960s, and the family had lived in Forks and Chimacum before settling in Quilcene. Their memorial service drew 700 people.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
