PORT ORCHARD — A Kitsap County jury Wednesday found Michael J. Pierce guilty of double-murder charges.
The verdict ended a five-year, four-trial judicial journey.
Pierce, 39, was originally convicted in 2010 of the murder of Pat and Janice Yarr on March 18, 2009, in their Quilcene home.
The state Court of Appeals overturned his conviction in 2012. Two retrials ended in mistrials before the latest trial that resulted in a verdict.
“I’m glad this is over. It’s been a long time for the family to have to keep dwelling on this,” said acting Jefferson County Sheriff Joe Nole.
“The jury reached a good verdict, and we can finally put this thing to rest.”
The jury handed in its verdict at 2 p.m. after about five hours of deliberation.
It convicted Pierce of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree theft, one count of first-degree robbery, one count of first-degree burglary, one count of first-degree arson, one count of second-degree theft and two firearms charges.
The trial had begun Oct. 20 and ran for 3½ days each week.
Pierce was scheduled to spend Wednesday night in the Kitsap County jail before being transported to the Jefferson County jail today.
He will remain there until his resentencing hearing Dec. 12, Nole said.
Neither Prosecuting Attorney Scott Rosekrans nor defense counsel Richard Davies returned calls for comment Wednesday afternoon.
The prosecution had said Pierce entered the Yarrs’ home, took the couple’s ATM card and obtained their PIN number at gunpoint, shot the two with Pat Yarr’s high-velocity rifle while the two lay side by side on their kitchen floor, doused their home with gasoline and set it ablaze to cover up the crime.
In his closing statements, Davies argued that the evidence against Pierce was all circumstantial, while Deputy Prosecutor Chris Ashcraft said Pierce’s possession of the Yarrs’ ATM card put him in the Yarrs’ house at the time of the murders.
Friends and relatives of the Yarrs, along with representatives of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, attended nearly every day of the proceedings in all four trials.
On Monday, Rosekrans requested that announcement of the verdict be delayed one hour to allow the family to drive in from Chimacum.
Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Sally Olsen denied that request.
Pierce was serving a life sentence in prison when the state Court of Appeals overturned the verdict after Davies appealed it.
The appeals court ruled that Pierce’s constitutional rights were denied after his arrest and that Rosekrans’ closing argument represented prosecutorial misconduct.
The Washington State Bar Association later said it could not find that Rosekrans had committed an ethical violation for speculating during closing arguments what the Yarrs and Pierce were thinking during the night of the murders.
The first retrial began in Jefferson County Superior Court in July 2013 but was declared a mistrial after four days when a juror, Laura Meyring, said she may have seen Pierce on the night of the murder.
A change of venue was granted to Kitsap County, but a mistrial occurred there when Pierce was not given his anti-psychotic medication while he was in custody in the Kitsap County jail.
Olsen denied in September a motion from Davies to dismiss all charges primarily based on Kitsap County’s failure to provide medication.
Davies has indicated that he would appeal a guilty verdict, using the denial of medication as grounds for that action.
________
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
