PORT TOWNSEND — The prosecution used a bunch of knives Monday to link accused double-murderer Michael J. Pierce to the March 18 shooting deaths of Patrick and Janice Yarr, whose Quilcene home authorities say Pierce set ablaze to mask the crime.
Authorities who searched the car of Pierce’s girlfriend, Tiffany Rondeau of Sequim, on March 29 — one day after Pierce was arrested — found a butcher block with knives in it, testified Joe Nole, chief criminal deputy and a detective with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Family members had said a block of knives — one with a plastic red handle — was taken from the house when Patrick Yarr, 60, and Janice Yarr, 57, were shot in the head in a robbery gone bad.
But authorities, though aided by Penny, the arson canine, did not find blood, weapons, bullets or evidence of the gasoline-set fire the intruder sparked to cover up the assassination-style deaths when they searched Rondeau’s Honda or the North Fifth Avenue mobile home in which Pierce and Rondeau lived, according to testimony.
“Primarily, we were looking for blood,” Nole told county Public Defender Richard Davies.
“We did not find any.”
More testimony today
Pierce faces life in prison if convicted of murder, arson, robbery, burglary, theft of a firearm, theft and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Testimony resumes today at 9 a.m. in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser at the Jefferson County Courthouse, 820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.
Pierce, 35, had worked for the Yarrs and had lived next door to them.
Pierce and Rondeau rented the North Fifth Avenue mobile home while he attended Peninsula College to take automotive classes, Davies said.
In other testimony Monday, a high-powered rifle .25-06 caliber rifle — identified as likely belonging to Patrick Yarr — that had been missing from their home, was later found to have no traces of blood, Sheriff’s Detective Mark Apeland said.
The gun had been anony Âmously left in the Port Townsend Goodwill drop-box, Nole said, adding he learned that by reading about it in the newspaper.
The weapon was brought to court in a flat, long box that was opened for the jury, though the gun was hidden from view of more than 30 spectators.
In addition, a projection screen that lawyers are using to project dozens of photographs, diagrams of the Yarrs’ house and other images for the jury’s consideration also has its back turned to the spectators, preventing them from seeing what the jury sees.
In other testimony, Nole said Tommy Boyd of Quilcene had been administered a DNA swab-test.
Thomas Harry Boyd of Quilcene is on Rosecrans’ lengthy witness list, as is Rondeau.
During an interview that Apeland had with Pierce, “[Apeland] was led to believe Tommy Boyd was possibly involved in the murder,” Nole said.
Apeland’s and Nole’s testimony ended a day of proceedings that featured fire investigator Edward Bentley of Poulsbo, forensic scientist Mary Wilson of the State Patrol and Special Agent Ted Halla of the FBI’s Silverdale office — all prosecution witnesses — to describe the retrieval of evidence, including bullet casings, from the Yarrs’ Boulton Farm road home north of Lake Leland.
Bentley said there was “no doubt” the fire traveled from the carport to the kitchen-dining room area, where the Yarrs’ bodies were found, gasoline-soaked carpet underneath them.
He pointed to the brutally obvious: Had the Yarrs been alive when the fire was set, they could have easily escaped, they said.
Neighbor’s role
Nole’s testimony included mention of a neighbor of Pierce’s and Rondeau’s who played a key role in retrieving evidence but whom Nole did not name.
The help came when Nole executed the search warrant on the couple’s Sequim residence.
A neighbor came out of his house, went up to Nole and told him that a day or two before, he had seen Pierce place a black plastic bag in the Dumpster “and suggested we might want to take a look at it,” Nole said.
“He pointed out where he thought the bag was, then he backed off,” Nole said.
In the bag was a soaking wet T-shirt and dripping wet socks, Nole said.
Other evidence collected from Rondeau’s car and the couple’s home included receipts and a piggy bank.
Rosecrans did not explain the significance of the clothing or other evidence.
Before sending jurors home late Monday afternoon, Verser gave them the same warning as he had at the outset of proceedings Monday morning: Don’t discuss the case with anyone, don’t research it on the Internet, don’t Facebook about it with friends or each other.
A spate of mistrials was hitting the state Court of Appeals because of an increase in jurors with newfound and immediate access to electronic information that allowed them to easily violate restrictions on whom they can talk to and what they can read, Verser said.
The trial is expected to last three more weeks.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
