PORT TOWNSEND — A fire at the home of Pat and Janice Yarr on March 18, 2009, was deliberate and was intended to cover up two murders, according to Tuesday’s testimony at the retrial of Michael J. Pierce.
“The burn damage was consistent with the use of an accelerant, and it appeared that it was used to cover up the commission of a crime,” said Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Tracer, who was acting as fire marshal during the period following the killings and arson in a farmhouse north of Quilcene.
The double-murder trial is expected to continue through Aug. 1, with the prosecution’s case likely to extend into next week, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chris Ashcraft said.
The trial continues today at 9 a.m. at Jefferson County Superior Court in the courthouse at 1820 Jefferson St.
It is the second trial for Pierce, 38, who is accused of killing the Quilcene couple and setting their house ablaze to hide the deaths.
He was convicted of two first-degree murder charges in 2010 and was serving a life sentence in Walla Walla State Penitentiary when the Court of Appeals reversed the conviction last July 27.
That came after Pierce’s attorneys successfully argued that his post-arrest statements should have been suppressed.
Tracer, the first witness on the second day of testimony, was part of an investigative team that spent about four days at the Yarrs’ home near Lake Leland after they were found dead.
The team also included investigators from East Jefferson Fire-Rescue and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Tracer said it was impossible to tell how much accelerant was used.
He said he did not know if the Yarrs were alive when they were doused with accelerants but added they were dead when the fire started.
“If they were alive at the time of the fire, they would have been able to get out,” he said.
Bullet fragments were found under the heads of the Yarrs, Tracer said.
FBI Special Agent Ted Halla, based in the Kitsap County office, said he took several pictures of Pierce to compare them with video evidence taken from security cameras to determine whether Pierce was in those videos.
Mary Wilson, a forensic investigator for the Tacoma Crime Lab, testified that she examined Pierce’s car.
She did not find any evidence in the car but added that such evidence often is not found in cars with excessive clutter and dirt.
Wilson said it was her opinion that a floor mat had been in the car due to a line on the floor that designated a cleaner area, but she could not determine when the mat may have been removed.
While most of the information to be presented over the next few weeks will be identical to that in the original trial, some will be new.
Defense attorney Richard Davies said he intended to call Pharaby Ryan, Pierce’s stepmother, as “she has some information that I was not aware of.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.