Brandon Gerner, lower left inset, and Joshua Jones face charges in the deaths of Robert Riley and Ashley Williams, lower right inset. (Mug shots and crime scene screenshot via KOMO News; Williams’ photo via GoFundMe)
Two suspected white supremacists have been charged in connection with the killings of two people, including a mother of five and witness to the first murder, whose bodies were found in bushes by a dog walker who mistook them for trash in Washington state.
Brandon Gerner, 40, was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and unlawful possession of a firearm in the killings of 57-year-old Robert Riley and 34-year-old Ashley Williams, according to King County prosecutors. He also faces first-degree animal cruelty in the killing of a horse shot point blank in the head in December, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office. Joshua Jones, 34, was charged with rendering criminal assistance, authorities said.
The killing allegedly happened in a “drug deal gone bad, The Seattle Times reported a now-dead suspect reportedly told investigators.
Gerner allegedly instructed that man, Kody Olsen, to shoot Riley before Gerner went into a trailer, found Williams and repeatedly stabbed because she was a witness who prosecutors said was “simply present at the scene,” according to charging documents obtained by Law&Crime.
Local Fox affiliate KCPQ reported Olsen shot her when the knife broke. Gerner later allegedly denied to investigators that he stabbed Williams and fingered Olson as the killer of both victims, Spokane CBS affiliate KREM reported. The suspects also allegedly killed a dog on the property, court documents said.
After, they allegedly drove the bodies elsewhere and ditched them on the side of a road.
The bodies were found near the Rock Creek Natural Area under trash and debris on Nov. 16 after a man walking his dog called 911 about a possible body.
“There is quite a bit of garbage covering the one body we could see,” King County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Eric White told NBC affiliate King5. “They’re taking a methodical approach to check for evidence in and around before they actually remove the trash to determine closer what we have.”
Mark Bullard told King5 he was walking his dog when he spotted what he initially thought was a pile of trash. When he looked further, he found much more and called 911.
“I’m like looking at it, and I’m like, ‘Huh, is that a mannequin?’ And I looked again, and I was like,’ Huh, no.’ And so I started hollering, you know, thinking, ‘Are they alive?’ Ya know, ‘What’s going on?’” he said.
Williams was the mother of five children. A GoFundMe page set up by the adoptive mother of her two youngest children said she would be deeply missed.
“Ashley was a mom, a sister, a daughter, and a friend to so many,” the page said. “Her sister Angela would be very grateful for any help you can give toward Ashley’s funeral expenses, as Ashley’s family members were not prepared to deal with her untimely death.”
After the double murder, more bloodshed occurred. One of the suspects, Olsen, 45, died in December, about a month after the killings, days after a shootout with Pierce County sheriff’s deputies pursuing him for DUI in Tacoma.
After Olsen’s memorial service, Gerner allegedly shot a horse named LeMon, in what the Times reported was a “sacrifice to Odin,” the Norse god.
LeMon’s owners woke up to find him dead from a gunshot wound. A neighbor’s surveillance video captured a white car driving by shortly before midnight on Dec. 16 and the sound of a possible gunshot. The video did not capture the shooting, officials said.
Embedded below is an emotional Facebook post, a letter to LeMon from his owner posted on Thursday after news about the arrest broke:
Gerner has a history of run-ins with the law, court documents said. He was sentenced on Feb. 14, 2001, after being convicted of attempt to elude, assault in the second degree, burglary in the first degree, assault in the third, and unlawful possession of firearms. He was released on March 20 of last year after serving 22 years, court documents said.
He was reportedly a founder of a white supremacist prison gang called Omerta, King5 reported.
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