A convicted triple murderer who asked for early release will now spend more than 20 additional years in prison after a board reviewed his sentence.
Timothy Pauley, 57, received three life sentences after killing three people with an accomplice at a tavern near Seatac, in Washington State, in 1980.
He asked to be set free earlier than planned last year after 35 years in prison, as state legislation allow inmates who committed crimes before 1984 to request parole.
But instead of reducing Pauley’s sentence, the Department of Corrections’ Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board found he should spend at least two additional decades behind bars, the Seattle Times reported.
Members of the review board said Pauley’s role in the murder was ‘egregious’ and that his original sentence didn’t meet current standards for similar crimes.
Pauley said earlier this year during a hearing that he panicked as he and another man, Scott Smith, attempted to rob the Barn Door Tavern near Seatac, King5 reported at the time.
He and Smith killed Loran Dowell, the tavern’s night manager, Robert Pierre, the bartender, and Linda Burford, a former waitress and Pierre’s girlfriend, the Seattle Times wrote.
Dowell and Pierre were shot in the head while they were tied up in a walk-in cooler and Burford was found raped and hanging from a railing by her neck.