Rob Ollikainen
For the Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — The medical examiner who performed autopsies on Dennis Marvin Bauer’s alleged murder victims described the 19 gunshot wounds that injured and killed a Clallam County trio.
Dr. Eric Kiesel, the forensic pathologist who examined the bodies of Darrell and Jordan Iverson and Tiffany May, used manikins and rods to detail the trajectory of each small-caliber bullet in the victims’ bodies during testimony on Monday afternoon.
Bauer took notes as Kiesel displayed for the jury dozens of autopsy photographs from the January 2019 examinations.
Bauer, 53, is charged with three counts of first-degree aggravated murder, eight counts of illegally possessing firearms and six counts of possessing stolen firearms.
Investigators said Bauer and two co-conspirators — Ryan Warren Ward, 40, and Kallie Ann LeTellier, 37 — shot and killed May and the Iversons at 52 Bear Meadow Road and robbed them of guns, drugs and other items on Dec. 26, 2018.
The bodies were found on New Year’s Eve 2018.
May, 26, was shot seven times, Kiesel said. She had bullet entry wounds on her head, neck, shoulder, back and arms, according to Kiesel’s testimony.
May also had postmortem abrasions on her neck and face and drag marks on her exposed abdomen, said Kiesel, a Tacoma pathologist who contracts with Clallam and other counties.
Investigators said May was dragged from the driveway of the Iverson residence and left in a folded position in a shed on the property.
Darrell Iverson, 57, was shot seven times, Kiesel said. He had five entry wounds on his back, one on the left side of his chest and one “loose contact” bullet wound on the top of his head, indicating that the shot was fired from close range, Kiesel said.
The elder Iverson also had blunt force trauma on the top of his head, bruising and tearing of the left ear and a puncture wound on his right jaw, Kiesel said.
Jordan Iverson, 27, who was May’s boyfriend and Darrell Iverson’s son, had five bullet entry wounds to his head and chest, Kiesel said. One shot to the top back of the head was fired from close range, he said.
“It courses across the head through the brain and then out of the left temporal bone,” Kiesel told Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michele Devlin on direct examination.
On cross-examination, Kiesel said he did not know which of the victims was shot first or the distance between the shooter and the victims, expect for the Iversons’ loose-contact head wounds.
All of the bullets from the shootings were small caliber, Kiesel told defense attorney Karen Unger.
Some of the bullets were jacketed and some were not jacketed, he said.
“That tells you that you’ve got at least two different types of ammunition, but it really requires a ballistics expert to look at the firearms markings on the bullets to tell if they came from the same weapon or not,” Kiesel said.
Unger has argued that Bauer was a bystander to the murders.
Tuesday morning testimony revolved around photographs taken of Bauer’s rented Lower Elwha Road home and property on the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation.
The acreage was packed with seven trailers, a cabin, a yellow mobile home, sheds, a small barn and several vehicles parked randomly and identified by former Port Angeles Police Detective Shane Martin, called as a prosecution witness.
He described himself as the scene photographer for investigators who scoured the property in January 2019, just after the murders.
LeTellier and Ward lived there with Bauer, according to court documents.
The photographs showed debris and metal piled high next to the trailers and Bauer’s wooden cabin.
Ward pleaded guilty last November to three counts of first-degree aggravated murder and numerous weapons charges. He is serving three life sentences without the possibility of parole.
LeTellier pleaded guilty last November to second-degree murder for May’s death. She was sentenced to 35 years in prison and has testified against Bauer.
Bauer’s trial began Nov. 15 and is expected to continue through December.
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Rob Ollikainen is a freelance reporter.
Senior Reporter Paul Gottlieb contributed to this story.