Young murderer up for parole again

A man who shot and killed his father in Ferndale on May 20, 1998, is expected to go before the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole today or Friday.

Terry Charles Olson, now 32, was only 14 when he shot his father Edwin John Olson in the head in his Ferndale home.

Olson told a psychologist that he took his father’s pulse to make sure he was dead, then showered, took money from his father’s wallet and drove off to play arcade games at the mall. When authorities told him that they were going to call his father about his truancy, Olson responded by saying that his father was dead.

His father’s body was found when deputies showed up at his home off Montana 209.

Terry Olson testified in 1998 that his father had been abusive by withholding food and beating him. He told a judge that he thought the murder was the only way to make the abuse stop.

“He wasn’t treating me the way I deserved,” Olson testified.

A teenage friend testified at a sentencing hearing that Olson had idolized his cousins Ted and Jesse Ernst, who killed businessman Larry Streeter in Bigfork on Christmas night 1997. The Ernsts were arrested two days before Olson killed his father.

Olson originally was sentenced by Flathead District Judge Kitty Curtis to 40 years in prison with 10 years suspended, but the Montana Sentence Review Division adjusted the sentence to 40 years with 16 years suspended.

Olson previously was paroled in June 2009, but landed back in prison by late 2010 after he violated terms of parole by beating his girlfriend and consuming alcohol.

Three other high-profile Flathead County felons are slated to go before the Parole Board this week:

n Theodore Carlos Ramon, 58, of Polebridge is up for parole after he was sentenced in 2014 for felony sexual abuse of children in 2011. The handling of Ramon’s case prompted protests by citizens who thought the originally proposed suspended sentence was too light. Flathead District Judge Robert Allison agreed and sent Ramon to prison.

n Thomas Mulligan, 41, was sentenced in 2012 for felony kidnapping in 2010. Mulligan barricaded himself in a Kalispell motel bathroom with a 17-year-old boy he had taken across state lines from Idaho. A six-hour SWAT standoff ensued before authorities were able to resolve the matter.

n Roland Dee Tirey, 64, is to be considered for parole after he originally was given a 50-year sentence in Flathead District Court in 1997 for sexually assaulting a young woman numerous times in 1996. Half of his sentence was suspended.

He was paroled in 2004 only to return to prison in 2005 after parole violations.

Tirey discharged the unsuspended part of his sentence in 2008 and was released to begin the suspended part of his sentence, but was sent back to prison in 2009 for violating probation.

One Lincoln County prisoner of note is up for parole.

Wayne Allen Hixon, 63, of Eureka is serving 65 years in prison for deliberate homicide and felony tampering with evidence for the 2005 killing of Bob Mast.

All the parole hearings are held at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. Hearings begin at 8 a.m.