MAPLE VALLEY, Wash. — A man convicted of a double murder in Maple Valley is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.
Prosecutors are asking the judge to impose an 84-year prison sentence on 43-year-old Brandon Gerner.
Gerner was convicted of killing Ashley Williams and her boyfriend, Robert Riley, in November 2023 at a commercial property Riley had been hired to guard following a series of break-ins. Prosecutors said Williams was shot and stabbed multiple times, while Riley was shot to death.
Authorities said Gerner and two accomplices loaded the victims’ bodies into a truck and dumped them along a roadside.
One accomplice was sentenced to six years in prison. The other was shot and killed by Pierce County sheriff’s deputies about a month after the killings.
Williams family: ‘Mr. Gerner is pure evil’
Court documents from the case include victim impact statements from the victims’ family members.
“Mr. Gerner does not deserve to see the light of day outside of prison walls because he is nothing but a monster,” Ashley Williams’ mother, Kathleen Ladd, wrote. “He is my worst nightmare! To say Mr. Gerner is pure evil is an understatement!”
Ashley Williams leaves behind five children.
Deanna Powell adopted two of them.
“Now we have to pick up the pieces of these kids’ broken hearts,” she wrote in her statement. “I’m speaking from my heart, and from the hearts of the children Ashley left behind. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Gerner doesn’t deserve me to sugarcoat my feelings for his comfort. May he rot in hell.”
In their statement, the Riley family said: “Gerner has no respect or regret for causing harm to others.”
“Robert will never get to come to another family BBQ. He will never again feel the joy of our family time. He will never see his 6 grandchildren grow up, graduate high school, go to college, or get married,” the family wrote. “We will never get to hug and enjoy Robert’s laughter again.”
This story was originally published on mynorthwest.com.
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