PORT TOWNSEND — The Michael J. Pierce double-murder retrial is on hold after a juror said she might have seen Pierce walking by the side of the road on the night of the slayings.
“This is the sort of trouble that we thought we might run into when we had a trial in Jefferson County,” said Pierce’s attorney Richard Davies after the court recessed Thursday.
“This is why we asked to be moved to another county.”
Juror 13, Laura Meynberg of Port Townsend, told the bailiff after testimony had ended Wednesday that an incident that was referred to in opening statements had triggered a memory of a large man walking along the side of U.S. Highway 101 at night, though she was uncertain as to when the incident occurred.
“During the opening, they mentioned how there was a large man walking along Highway 101 at night shielding his face,” Meynberg said.
“I remember driving with my husband and seeing someone walk down the road that way, although I can’t even tell you what year that was.”
After dismissing Meynberg from the jury and consulting with attorneys from both sides, Jefferson County Superior Judge Keith Harper recessed the trial until 9 a.m. Monday to allow lawyers to determine how to proceed.
Davies said he may ask for a mistrial but needs time to make that determination.
Prosecuting Attorney Scott Rosekrans said he may want to use Meynberg as a witness for the prosecution.
Having a member of the jury become a witness would be unprecedented in Rosekrans’ experience.
“I’ve been at this for a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
Meynberg was one of 16 jurors — which includes four alternates — seated after a five-day selection process and did not indicate any previous knowledge of the case during that time, Harper said.
All 16 have listened to the testimony. The designation of jurors as primary or alternate does not occur until after both sides rest their cases, Rosekrans said.
This the second trial for Pierce, 38, who is accused of killing Pat and Janice Yarr of Quilcene and setting their house ablaze to hide the deaths March 18, 2009.
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.
Meynberg’s account corresponds to the testimony of another witness, Pamela Roberts, that was presented during the first trial in 2010. It was alluded to in the prosecution’s opening statement this week.
Harper brought up the matter during a hearing before the trial resumed Thursday, saying he did not know the veracity of the account but that it needed to be addressed.
Meynberg was brought into the courtroom out of the presence of the other jurors Thursday to give her account.
“I remember a large person, walking fast and covering his face, and he was wearing dark clothes,” Meynberg said.
“I thought they could have been out jogging, but that was odd since they weren’t wearing any reflectors, and no one does that [while jogging] in Quilcene.”
Meynberg recalled that she had seen a white car at the side of the road near where the man was walking and remarked to her husband that it was a Toyota Corolla, but her husband said it was a Honda, the make of car that Pierce was driving when the crime occurred.
“He is always correcting me,” Meynberg said of her husband.
Meynberg said she hadn’t talked to her husband about the memory, since she was under strict instruction not to discuss the case outside of the courtroom.
Meynberg was escorted into the jury room to retrieve her belongings and instructed to provide her contact information to the court.
The jury was brought in and told of the delay and that a juror had been dismissed “for reasons that do not affect the case.”
Pierce has been in the Jefferson County jail since January.
Davies has made two change-of-venue motions. Harper denied both.
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
