Young killer poised for release

Terry Olson was 14 years old when he shot and killed his sleeping father in Ferndale.

That was on May 20, 1998. He was sentenced to 40 years with 10 suspended. Now, at age 21, Olson is on the cusp of being paroled.

Olson was back in court Monday for a review hearing before District Judge Kitty Curtis. As a criminally convicted youth, he has the right to ask the court to review his sentence if he can show he is "substantially rehabilitated." If so, part or all of his remaining sentence can be suspended.

In Olson's case, prosecuting County Attorney Ed Corrigan and defense attorney Julianne Hinchey agreed on a plan. They asked Curtis to suspend six more years of Olson's sentence. That would make him eligible for parole almost immediately.

In December of 1998, Olson pleaded guilty to mitigated deliberate homicide, admitting he shot his father, Edwin John Olson, with a .22-caliber handgun, although Terry Olson originally said an intruder killed his father.

The mitigation was the abuse Olson said he suffered. He testified that his father beat him and withheld food from him.

"He wasn't treating me the way I deserved," Olson testified at the time.

Curtis sentenced Olson to the 40-year penalty, but Olson was returned to court after the Montana Supreme Court, in April 1999, changed the way that youths are charged with certain crimes in adult court.

In June of 2000, Olson again pleaded guilty and Curtis resentenced him to the same term.

Finding a place for Olson in the correctional system was problematic because of his age. The judge recommended that Olson go to Pine Hills Correctional Facility for boys at Miles City until he was 18, then, if eligible, to the prison's boot camp. If Olson successfully completed that training, he'd go to a year-long pre-release center in Great Falls before being paroled. Then, the judge would recommend the balance of his sentence be suspended.

It didn't work quite that way. The boot camp wouldn't take Olson.

He went to the Pine Hills program and then spent a year and a half in prison. He was moved to a pre-release facility in Missoula, but was sent back to prison for eight months. He is currently in the Missoula facility again.

Now, Olson has to have an infraction-free 90-day period before he can officially apply for parole to the parole board. If it's granted, he will be under the supervision of the parole department.

Olson won't be just abandoned into the community, where he was last free as only an adolescent boy. He will be placed in a transitional living program in Missoula, where he is required to work and report to a supervisor. After that, he'll be on intensive supervision. Supervisors will be able to see whether Olson will be able to function in the community.

"That is really what we all wanted to accomplish," Curtis said.

Employees of the pre-release center Monday testified that Olson is performing well there.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com