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Man sentenced to 84 years for 'vicious' Maple Valley double murder
Brandon Gerner, the leader of a white supremacist prison gang, was sentenced to 84 years in prison for the 2023 brutal murders of Robert Leroy Riley and Ashley Nicole Williams in Maple Valley.
MAPLE VALLEY, Wash. - The leader of a white supremacist prison gang will spend the rest of his life behind bars for a 2023 double murder in Maple Valley.
What we know:
Brandon Gerner, 42, was sentenced to 84 years in prison for the killings of Robert Leroy Riley and Ashley Nicole Williams. The victims' bodies were discovered in November 2023, dumped in bushes and buried under trash on a Maple Valley property where Gerner had previously worked.
Brandon Gerner appears in court for his double murder sentencing on April 30, 2026. (FOX 13 Seattle)
Court documents reveal a night of extreme violence that began when Riley confronted Gerner and his accomplices, Kody Olsen and Joshua Jones, on his property. After Riley was shot and killed, Gerner and Olsen turned their attention to Williams.
Prosecutors say Williams, a mother of five, was begging for her life when she was stabbed more than 20 times and shot because she had witnessed Riley's murder. The group also shot Riley's "old, blind dog" during the attack.
Ashley Williams, one of Gerner's murder victims.
Gerner’s primary partner in the crimes, Kody Olsen, was never charged. On Dec. 12, 2023, Olsen was killed in a shootout with Pierce County deputies following a DUI traffic stop and pursuit. Olsen wounded two deputies before he was fatally shot.
White supremacist prison gang and a 'sacrifice to Odin'
What they're saying:
"He ordered the execution of Robert, my best friend. Shot Robert's old, blind dog...then he brutally, violently, viciously and horribly butchered Ashley...a mother of five kids that was begging for her life," said John, Riley’s best friend of 30 years, during the sentencing hearing.
Meanwhile, before receiving his 84-year prison sentence, Gerner made a statement proclaiming his innocence.
King County Sheriff's Office detectives on scene of a double murder investigation in Maple Valley in 2023. (FOX 13 Seattle)
Dig deeper:
The violence continued even after Olsen’s death. One day after Olsen died, a horse in Pierce County was found shot in the face. Gerner told police informants that he killed the horse as a sacrifice to the Norse god Odin in retaliation for the death of his "good friend" and gang associate.
Investigators identified Gerner as the founder of the Omerta white supremacist prison gang. Gerner had previously served 22 years in prison for assault and burglary before being released just eight months prior to the murders. At the time of the murders, Gerner was on Department of Corrections supervision.
Gerner's sentencing marks the end of a case that spanned multiple counties, involving the King County Sheriff’s Office, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, and federal informants.
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The Source: Information in this story came from the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office and previous FOX 13 Seattle reporting.