28 year old Christian Olsen, who was convicted of the beating death of a neighbor, 68 year old Etta Jean Westbrook, was officially resentenced Tuesday in Brazos County district court.
In April 2012, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the death sentence handed down by a jury in 2009.
Initially, the Brazos County district attorney’s office sought to reimpose death. But DA Jarvis Parsons cited two reasons for changing his mind.
One was the suicide of Olsen’s girlfriend, who was in prison serving time for soliciting him to murder her mother. Parson says she gave a confession to authorities while in prison.
Parsons says they also discovered DNA evidence that would have been used to argue for the death penalty was mishandled and would have been challenged in court.
Parsons says at Tuesday’s hearing, Olsen agreed to waive all future attempts to be released from prison and oppose anyone else who would attempt to do the same.
Parsons says Olsen will not be charged in the death of his girlfriend’s mother, Geraldine Lloyd, because of the punishment Olsen received for killing Westbrook.
Lloyd was killed in her home several months before Westbrook was murdered.
Click below for comments from Jarvis Parsons, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver:
News release from the Brazos County district attorney’s office:
Christian Olsen, 28, will spend the rest of his life in prison without the chance of parole, for the 2007 Capital Murder of Etta Jean Westbrook, after being resentenced today.
Olsen was convicted of the 2007 Capital Murder of Etta Jean Westbrook in March of 2009 and was sentenced to the death penalty by a Brazos County Jury.
In May of 2012, the Court of Criminal Appeal affirmed the Capital Murder conviction, however, they reversed the death penalty punishment and sent the case back to the trial court for a new punishment trial.
The District Attorney’s Office made the ultimate decision not to seek the death penalty a second time after months of investigation and preparation.
During that time there were a number of new pieces of information that came to light.
While preparing to send evidence to the Department of Public Safety for DNA testing, it was discovered that several items of biological evidence in the court reporter’s custody had been mishandled.
Because of this, any results of the required subsequent testing would be compromised and put into doubt, thus undermining the validity of any jury verdict in this case.
Additionally, Kelly Sifuentez, the defendant’s girlfriend and a key witness in the case, committed suicide in May of 2015. As the state was preparing for the retrial, Sifuentez confessed to a number of facts relating to her relationship with the defendant, and the manner in which that relationship played into Olsen’s actions.
This information included admissions made by Sifuentez and corroborated by other witnesses, regarding her emotional manipulation of the defendant, a sexual relationship with the defendant that she initiated when he was 14 years old, and then introducing the defendant to methamphetamine when he was 16 years old.
Ms. Sifuentez was 20 years older than the defendant. All of these actions were prior to her urging the defendant to kill her mother Geraldine Lloyd. At the time of Ms. Sifuentez’ suicide she was serving a 30 year sentence for Solicitation of Capital Murder.
With the sentence, handed down today, the State of Texas has ensured that the defendant will answer for his crimes and spend the rest of his natural life in prison without the possibility of parole.