Timothy Pauley victim on parole decision: ‘We’re still in shock’
Mar 16, 2016, 10:25 AM | Updated: 10:25 am
Rather than receive early parole, Timothy Pauley, who pleaded guilty to murdering three people in 1980, had approximately 22 years added to his minimum term. (AP)
(AP)
Angie Dowell, and other families victimized by Timothy Pauley, were bracing for terrible news: That the convicted murderer sentenced to life in prison would be released in February of 2018.
Instead, Dowell told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that all of their hopes were fulfilled.
“We were essentially preparing ourselves for the worst and yesterday’s decision was beyond what our family could ever have expected or hoped for,” she said. “We’re still in shock and still trying to digest everything.”
Related: Daughter of Timothy Pauley victim: He refused to look at us
Pauley, who pleaded guilty to murdering three people, including Dowell’s father, at the Barn Door Tavern in south King County in 1980 is serving three life sentences. Dowell said she was told last week by the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board that, not only did they decide against parole, but that they did a complete reverse from June’s decision to reduce his sentence — adding approximately 22 years to his minimum term.
Dowell says the board ultimately agreed with the prosecution’s argument that Pauley’s new minimum sentence set by the Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board did not adequately align with the crime.
“They set his minimum term at the very bottom of that scale, even given what he had done and the aggravating factors that attributed to the three murders, as well as the robbery and the assault,” she said.
Dowell credited the media attention for helping in this case, saying the ISRB received approximately 253 concerned citizens about his potential release after the story came to light.
Dowell said part of the reason she was so adamantly opposed to Pauley’s early release was to protect her mother, Margarett, who was assaulted during the attack.
“She did everything she could to protect us from these (Pauley and Scott C. Smith),” she said. “She did not want these two men to ever be released and back out into society for what they put her … and our families through. She felt that by looking at the decision and where this board was going, that she somehow had failed, and it broke our hearts. So we just felt that it was our turn to pick up the fight and protect her.”
