Michael J. Pierce's future in prison after being convicted a second time for the murders of Patrick and Janice Yarr is set to be argued Friday in Kitsap County Superior Court.

Prosecuting Attorney Scott Rosekrans plans to argue that Pierce, who had committed 14 felonies in four counties before the murders of the Quilcene couple in 2009, should be sentenced to the maximum possible of 117.9 years in prison.

“I think even the minimum on this will be enough to keep him in prison for the rest of his life,” Rosekrans said.

Rosekrans had argued for an exceptional sentence in 2010 when a jury in Jefferson County found Pierce guilty of eight felonies associated with the murders. Rosekrans said the late Judge Craddock Verser agreed with him and imposed the high end of the sentencing range – 117.9 years. Rosekrans said nothing has changed other than that Pierce was found guilty a second time, on Nov. 12, 2014 by a jury in Kitsap County.

“The court can do whatever it wants, but I see nothing in the case to do anything but dictate the maximum,” Rosekrans said last Friday.

Defense attorney Richard Davies said Monday he will argue that Pierce be given the standard range of 711 to 988 months in prison – essentially 59 to 82 years.

“Why?” Davies said when a reporter asked why that standard range. “Because Mr. Pierce is going to be dead by the time 711 months pass.

“Giving him an exceptional sentence is just grand standing and doesn't mean anything,” Davies said, noting that Pierce is 39 years old and weighs over 300 pounds.

Pierce also has mental-health issues, which became publicly acknowledged for the first time during a third trial in March that ultimately was declared a mistrial because Kitsap County Jail's contract medical provider had not given Pierce his antipsychotic drugs during several days of the trial.

APPEAL EXPECTED

Davies said Monday that the jail's failure to give Pierce drugs Pierce needed to participate in that trial as well as issues during the last, fourth trial in Kitsap are grounds for an appeal.

“That's going to happen,” Davies said of an appeal.

“The other (ground for appeal) is related to the testimony of the snitches and the court's limiting what the defense could get into cross examination,” Davies said.

Davies will not be doing the appeal. He said the state Office of Public Defense would assign someone to “check the prosecutor's work as well as the judge's as well as mine.”

Because an appeal is expected, Davies said he would not allow Pierce to be interviewed by a reporter. Davies expects Pierce to be moved from Jefferson County Jail shortly after he is sentenced.

Sentencing is set for 2:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12 in Kitsap County Superior Court by Judge Sally Olsen, who presided over the last trial.

PAST RECORD

Pierce was found guilty in 2010 and again in 2014 of two counts of first-degree murder, one count each of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, first-degree arson, theft of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm, and theft.

A state Court of Appeals overturned that 2010 conviction in 2012, citing jail errors and trial errors.

Before the murders in 2009, Pierce had been convicted of 14 felony charges dating back to 1992, according to a sentencing memorandum prepared by Rosekrans dated Nov.20, 2014.

Those convictions include: burglary in Snohomish County in 1992, violation of the uniform controlled substance Act in Skagit County in 1995; theft in Skagit County in 1997, burglary in Snohomish County in 2001, attempt to elude a police officer and taking a motor vehicle without the permission of the owner in Kitsap County in 2000; four counts of burglary, possession of stolen property and theft in Kitsap in 2003 and attempting to elude a pursing police officer in Jefferson County in 2005.