Farm Worker Pleads Innocent In Shooting Deaths 19-Year-Old Of Pair Charged With Killing Elderly Waverly Couple

One of two ranch hands charged in the shooting deaths of a retired farm couple pleaded innocent Thursday.

K.C. Therriault, 19, entered the plea in Spokane County Superior Court to two counts of aggravated first-degree murder.

Co-defendant Cheyenne T. Brown, 20, pleaded innocent to the same charges Feb. 20. Both men were being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Prosecutors have said they may seek the death penalty against both men if they win convictions.

Brown and Therriault have confessed to shooting Allen Mattausch, 66, and Gertrude Mattausch, 63, in their rural Waverly home on Jan. 23, according to a court affidavit.

The Mattauschs, married for 42 years, were found in their home by a son.

Brown pleaded guilty last year to taking the Mattauschs’ pickup without the owners’ permission and was ordered to pay restitution, court records showed. He was released from jail Jan. 12 after having served about two months.

Allen Mattausch agreed to let Brown and Therriault work on the farm to pay off Brown’s debt. They lived in a mobile home on the property outside Waverly, a small town about 20 miles south of Spokane.

Brown reportedly was angry with the couple for reporting the stolen truck.