MAPLE VALLEY, Wash. (TCN) — A man has been sentenced to 84 years behind bars for the 2023 murders of a man and woman whose bodies were found hidden in the bushes under a pile of trash.
On November 15, 2023, Brandon Gerner and two accomplices, Kody Olsen and Joshua Jones, trespassed onto a property in Maple Valley, Washington, where they encountered Ashley Williams and Robert Riley, KCPQ reports. When Riley confronted Gerner and the other trespassers, Gerner opened fire. After Riley died, Gerner then stabbed Williams, a mother of five, more than 20 times as she reportedly begged for her life and then he shot her. The group also shot a blind, elderly dog.
According to Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brent R. Kling, KING reports that “Ashley’s death is because she witnessed a crime.”
Prosecutors said, “The level of violence her body sustained is, frankly, unfathomable,” KOMO reports. After the two were killed, Jones and Gerner reportedly took the bodies to a nearby property in a wheelbarrow and left them there. KCPQ reports the bodies were in the bushes and found hidden under trash.
Olsen was killed in a police shootout after being stopped at a DUI checkpoint less than a month after Williams and Riley were killed; he was never charged, per KCPQ. Two deputies were wounded in the shootout.
KCPQ reports that Gerner founded a white supremacist gang called Omerta when he was incarcerated. He served 22 years behind bars for assault and burglary. When Williams and Riley were killed, Gerner had been released from prison eight months prior and was on supervision.
The day after Olsen’s death, Gerner allegedly shot a horse in the face. According to KCPQ, Gerner told police informants this was done to appease the Norse god Odin. KOMO reports that according to prosecutors, Gerner allegedly killed the animal so Olsen would have a steed to ride to Valhalla. Olsen and Gerner reportedly shared the same white supremacist beliefs.
KING reports that Gerner was found guilty of first- and second-degree murder in March. Jones pleaded guilty to concealing the deaths and received a six-year sentence. KOMO reports that a King County Superior Court judge handed down the maximum sentence of 84 years on April 30.
According to KOMO, Gerner filed appeal paperwork immediately following the sentencing. He told the court, “Someday the truth will come out… I’m a [expletive] bad guy, it’s true, but there’s no physical evidence I did anything.”
MORE:
