OLYMPIA, Wash. — Maggie Dowell was relieved when she learned her husband’s killer would spend the rest of his life in jail.
“He was never getting out of there,” said Dowell.
Her husband Loren Dowell, along with Robert Pierre and Linda Buford, were killed during a robbery of the Barn Door Tavern in King County in 1980.
Timothy Pauley and Steven Smith confessed to the killings and received life sentences.
But thanks to changes in sentencing laws in the 1980s, Pauley was able to appear Wednesday before the Washington state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board to plead for his release.
“I would like to become known for something more than the horrible crime I committed in 1980,” Pauley told board members.
He said he has completed years' worth of counseling for drug and alcohol abuse and for post-traumatic stress disorder for a workplace injury he suffered before the killings.
Pauley was asked about the 1980 killings and he said he panicked during what he thought was only going to be a robbery.
”I don’t know why…I shot these two men. I didn’t even make it out the back door and I regretted that,” said Pauley.
During the hour-plus-long hearing, Pauley said he regretted and was ashamed of what he had done, but he did not offer an apology to his victims' families, who were watching the online hearing.
Kelley Tarp, a daughter of Loren Dowell’s, said she does not think Pauley has been rehabilitated. She said releasing him would be an insult to her father.
“He deserves justice, and we deserve peace. We’re the ones sentenced to the lifelong sentences,” said Tarp.
One of the first detectives on the 1980 scene was future King County Sheriff and Congressman Dave Reichert.
He called it one of the most gruesome he’s ever seen.
Reichert also listened to Pauley’s testimony Wednesday and said it was telling Pauley did not offer any apologies.
”If you're a person who doesn't show remorse for executing two men with a pistol, bound and gagged in a cooler for $1,500, and you can't shed a tear, and apologize? I don't think there's been a rehabilitation in that case,” said Reichert.
The ISRB is expected to announce a decision on Pauley within 30 days.