A 65-year-old Burien man was sentenced Friday to over 46 years in prison for killing a couple in 2020, dismembering their bodies and disposing of their remains in a suitcase and duffel bags that were later pulled from Puget Sound and the Duwamish River.
A jury in December found Michael Dudley guilty of two counts of second-degree murder for the fatal shootings of Jessica Lewis and Austin Wenner on June 9, 2020. The jury, which deliberated for 1 1/2 days following a two-month trial, also determined Dudley, the couple's landlord, was armed with a gun — an enhancement on each of the murder charges that cumulatively added a mandatory 10 years to his sentence.
Given Dudley's age, the 560-month prison term handed down by King County Superior Court Judge Aimée Sutton is a de facto life sentence.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz said Dudley deserved a sentence at the top of the standard sentencing range because of his "contempt and utter disrespect for the victims" and the subsequent treatment of their bodies, which he left to decompose in his backyard before he "dumped their parts in the Sound and the Duwamish."
Raz said Dudley also deserved a long sentence for the trauma he inflicted on Lewis' and Wenner's families, who spent weeks not knowing what happened to them, and for the disgust, fear and horror he inflicted on Greater Seattle residents.
Aside from the victims' remains, which showed Lewis, 35, and Wenner, 27, had been fatally shot, all of the state's evidence against Dudley was circumstantial. Police never found the gun used in the killings, and only a small smudge of Wenner's blood was found in the bedroom where investigators think the couple's remains were dismembered.
Phone records played a large role in the state's case. They showed Lewis' cellphone, which she and Wenner both used to stay in regular contact with their families and friends, went dark just after 7 p.m. the night they were killed. Around the same time, a couple called 911 and reported hearing gunshots coming from inside Dudley's house on Ambaum Boulevard South.
The records also showed Dudley's cellphone pinged off a tower near West Seattle's Alki Beach late on June 18, 2020 — the only time it did so in nearly three months' worth of records obtained by police. The next afternoon, a group of teenagers called 911 after finding a suitcase in the rocks off Duwamish Head and opening it with a stick while recording a TikTok post.
Some of the couple's remains were found inside the suitcase, another duffel bag nearby and a third bag that sheriff's deputies recovered from the Duwamish River four days later.
But not all of Wenner's remains were recovered, which is still a deep source of pain for his family.
"Dudley is a predator who seeks people out for his own benefit," said Wenner's mother, Charleen Kriens. "He's manipulative, calculated. He deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars."
She lamented that she'll never again get to see her son's "beautiful smile and sparkling eyes" or hear "his belly laugh that filled up a room."
In a letter read aloud by a victim advocate, Wenner's father, Dean Wenner, said he has recurring nightmares about the couple's deaths and "the haunting and brutal way they left this world."
Gina Jaschke, Lewis' aunt, called Dudley a coward for shooting Lewis and Wenner in the back and said, "His ego and denials will only continue to hurt his own family."
During trial, Dudley's defense team criticized the Seattle police investigation as shoddy, impugned the credibility of the state's star witness and said an attic-to-basement search of Dudley's house by State Patrol "blood experts" didn't turn up any evidence — other than the smudge of Wenner's blood. Firearms experts also agreed three bullets found in the bedroom had not gone through a human body. No blood was found inside Dudley's vehicles, either.
The state countered that by the time Dudley was arrested Aug. 19, 2020, he had had two months and 10 days to clean up his home.
Defense attorney Bradley Barshis said Friday that Dudley maintains "other people committed this crime" and that Lewis and Wenner were scared of a group of people who had previously held them at gunpoint inside Dudley's house. He argued for a 30-year sentence that would see Dudley released by age 90.
Barshis indicated Dudley intends to appeal his conviction.
In a brief statement to the judge, Dudley said Lewis' and Wenner's deaths had nothing to do with unpaid rent, referencing a possible motive suggested by a witness who told police Dudley had accused the couple of stealing from him, failing to pay rent and resisting his efforts to get them to leave.
"This isn't really about me — it's about justice for Austin and Jessica, and when all things are considered, I'm sure the truth will come out," he said. "In the end they did good, despite their pernicious nature."
In handing down her sentence, Sutton said the facts of the case are not what the court commonly sees in second-degree murder cases.
"Two human beings were murdered, but I think it's what happened after that that is challenging to understand," Sutton said. "Ms. Lewis and Mr. Wenner may not have been perfect in their lives, but I don't think of people as 'pernicious.' "
She said the fact the victims' full remains have never been found is its own tragedy.
"I can imagine peace might be elusive when you can't lay your beloved family members to rest properly," Sutton said.
