By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch A 34-year-old man has been convicted of shooting and killing another man in Frederickson while they drove in separate cars. Christopher William Olsen was found guilty by a Pierce County Superior Court jury of murder in the first degree in the incident last year that left Robert Ward, 24, dead in apparent retaliation for allegedly stealing a vehicle. Olsen is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 23. After the shooting, Pierce County Sheriff investigators used cell phone records to track Olsen to Idaho, where he was arrested and extradited to Washington to face charges. Mark Lindquist, Pierce's prosecuting attorney, called Olsen "a serious threat to the public's safetyGÇ¥ and said deputy prosecutors Tim Lewis and Sean Waite "worked hardGÇ¥ with detectives to convict him. Authorities gave this account of the murder: On Feb. 16, 2014, Olsen told his friends that Ward stole a truck from him and asked them where he could find Ward. Olsen's plan was to lure Ward to a phony drug deal and ambush him. Later that night, Ward drove into the parking lot of a commercial and retail complex at Canyon Road and 176th Street for the purported drug deal. Olsen drove up behind Ward and began firing shots at him. Ward drove away, with Olsen following and firing from a pickup truck. One of the bullets struck Ward in the head, causing him to crash his car. He died the next day at a hospital. Last year, after Olsen's arrest, Lindquist called the case "vigilante justice run amok.GÇ¥ Two other people GÇô Presley Diane Lind, 29, and Nathan Stevenson, 25 GÇô who were arrested as co-conspirators in the shooting have since pleaded to charges in connection with the case. They were awaiting sentencing last week.
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