He carried through on threats to kill ex-wife. Pierce County man now sentenced
The 55-year-old man who admitted to fatally strangling his ex-wife in her Bonney Lake area home was sentenced Friday to nearly 29 years in prison. The murder came after years of threats against the woman’s life while she sought legal intervention, court records show.
Ronald Eugene Krier pleaded guilty to domestic violence first-degree murder and two counts of violating a no-contact order last month in Pierce County Superior Court. He pleaded guilty just as his trial was getting started with jury selection.
Judge Philip Thornton sentenced the defendant Jan. 30, handing Krier a punishment at the high end of the standard sentencing range, 28 years, 11 months.
Attorneys for Krier from the Department of Assigned Counsel had requested a low-end sentence of 21 years, nine months. In a sentencing memorandum, the defense attorneys included a psychological report that diagnosed Krier with major depressive disorder, anger dysregulation and an alcohol-use disorder.
The defense attorneys argued that Krier’s exposure to alcohol at a young age and his prolonged abuse of the substance likely affected not only his health and relationships but also his executive functioning, and that it likely exacerbated his anger and emotional dysregulation. None of it excused his behavior, the attorneys wrote, but they said it contextualized it.
“Mr. Krier acknowledges the terrible impact that his actions have had on his children and pled guilty, in part, to avoid forcing them to return to court to testify and relive the death of their mother,” the sentencing memorandum states. “Mr. Krier acknowledges the irreparable harm that he has caused and regrets his actions every day.”
In a victim-impact statement submitted to the court, Lisha Krier’s grandson said he loved his Papa, but he didn’t like that he took his Nana away from him.
“All I can do is sit here and stare at her dead ashes,” the grandson wrote. “That’s what makes me so mad that he took my Nana from me …”
Sheriff’s Office deputies found the victim, Lisha Krier, 53, dead the afternoon of July 5, 2024, when they responded to her home for a welfare check. According to court documents, the check was prompted by a 911 call from the victim’s daughter, who reported that her father had texted her that he had killed her mother or that she would be dead soon.
Surveillance video from the front door of the house showed Krier backing his truck into the driveway hours earlier, according to court documents. Ronald Krier and his ex-wife argued on the porch, and Lisha Krier told her husband to leave several times before she went inside. Court documents state that a struggle could be heard as Ronald Krier followed her inside. He left the house a little more than 15 minutes later.
Auburn police arrested Krier later that day after Pierce County deputies issued a notice to be on the lookout for him and Krier’s truck was located. While he was transported to Pierce County, according to prosecutors’ trial brief, Krier said, “I’m just glad that [expletive] is dead. She deserved it.”
Ronald Krier and his ex-wife were married in 1989, and their divorce was finalized in June 2024, The News Tribune previously reported. Prosecutors said Ronald Krier threatened to kill Lisha Krier throughout their marriage. Between 2020 and 2023, she filed divorce petitions and domestic-violence protection orders that documented Ronald Krier’s threats and attempts to take her life.
The last protection order she petitioned for was made a day after Ronald Krier reportedly showed up at a grocery-store bakery where she worked. She reported that Krier told her she was going to die and made a slitting motion across his throat. The June 2023 incident was reported to the police, and a case was referred to prosecutors two weeks later, but felony harassment charges were not filed until after Lisha Krier was murdered. The protection order also expired two days before the murder.
Prosecutors previously told The News Tribune that the delay was due to a backlog of cases, and that they had since increased staffing in their Domestic Violence & Human Trafficking unit to cut through it.
Before Krier pleaded guilty, prosecutors had charged him with aggravated first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. He was also accused of first-degree murder and first-degree burglary.
In a court filing about the amended charges, deputy prosecuting attorney Lena Berberich-Eerebout said the resolution was reached as part of plea negotiations and in consideration of the facts contained in police reports.
“This amended information is appropriate because it considers potential proof issues should this matter proceed to trial, the fact that this resolution prevents the children of the victim from having to testify against their father, as well as the fact that the Defendant is taking responsibility for his actions,” Berberich-Eerebout wrote.
In other news out of Superior Court
Lakewood man arrested for threatening Gov. Bob Ferguson gets time served
The 34-year-old Lakewood man who was arrested last year for sending “veiled” death threats to Gov. Bob Ferguson on social media was given no further jail time after he pleaded guilty.
Casey Cutter Patterson pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court on Jan. 29 to making threats against the governor or their family, a felony, and two misdemeanor offenses of harassment for threatening bodily injury.
Judge Pro Tem Brian Tollefson sentenced Patterson the same day as a first-time offender, handing him 90 days in jail, which the defendant had already served.
On the misdemeanor offenses, Tollefson gave Patterson a suspended sentence of a year in jail. He will remain on court supervision for two years with terms including maintaining law-abiding behavior, undergoing an alcohol/drug evaluation with follow-up treatment, a referral to Veterans Affairs for mental health services and a minimum 36 hours of counseling.
Patterson also was ordered to forfeit any firearms and ammunition, not have contact with Ferguson for five years and not attend any political rallies attended by the governor.
In his guilty-plea statement, Patterson apologized to Ferguson and his family, stating that he had let his mental health and alcohol issues go unchecked and untreated for too long.
“I now realize that I clearly went too far and took my speech and actions far beyond what is acceptable to others and myself,” Patterson wrote. “I’ve said and done things that are clearly threats and caused fear and alarm in others. I regret them all and apologize for the distress they caused.”
Patterson began replying to Ferguson’s posts on X when the governor was the state’s attorney general in 2023. Investigators with the Washington State Patrol later described the replies in a report as protected by the First Amendment, but Patterson’s tone began to change in 2024. He repeatedly posted a photograph of the front door of Ferguson’s home.
“Hey Bob, here’s your frequent reminder that you actually have no power over the people,” one post stated along with the photo. “The constitution limits you, not us. We have the right to alter or abolish our government when it no longer serves us. Here’s a picture of a quaint front door to help you sleep at night.”
Patterson stopped posting for some time after a State Patrol lieutenant spoke to him on the phone, but the posts started up again in November 2024 and continued into 2025. In August, Patterson posted a photo of an AR-15 rifle and referred to the governor’s personal security detail.
Man serving life for Lakewood murder gets sentence reduced
A man who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2016 under Washington’s “three strikes” law for his part in a botched Lakewood drug hit has been resentenced to 35 years, 10 months.
Mazzar Gerald Robinson was one of seven defendants either convicted at trial or by plea for their involvement in the Nov. 12, 2012 killing of 32-year-old Jaime Diaz-Solis.
When Robinson was sentenced in 2016 for first-degree murder and other offenses, prosecutors said the group planned to kill Diaz-Solis’ cousin and roommate, a rival drug dealer, and to keep drugs and cash they expected to find in his apartment.
Diaz-Solis was shot instead. During the trial of Robinson and another defendant, according to previous reporting from The News Tribune, prosecutors said Robinson fired a gun during the attack.
The murder was Robinson’s third “strike” offense. His prior strikes were from convictions for second-degree robbery in 1998 and first-degree manslaughter in 1993. In 2019 the state Legislature removed second-degree robbery from the list of crimes considered most serious offenses. The change later became retroactive, eliminating a “strike” from Robinson’s record and making him eligible to receive a new sentence.
The man who ordered the attack that led to Diaz-Solis’ death, William Manuel Alvarez Calo, 39, is serving a 30-year, 10-month prison term at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Snohomish County for first-degree murder and burglary. The getaway driver, Michael Rowland, 41, is serving a 25-year sentence for the same offenses at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Grays Harbor County.
The four other men convicted of manslaughter and other crimes received sentences of about seven to 12 years and appear to have since been released from prison.
Ahead of Robinson’s resentencing hearing Jan. 28, prosecutors requested in court filings that Robinson, now 54 should receive a high-end sentence of 55 years, eight months, which included two five-year firearm enhancements.
Prosecutors argued Robinson’s criminal history showed he was violent and used firearms, saying that the defense’s request for a punishment below the standard range was not appropriate for a defendant convicted of killing two people in less than 20 years.
Defense attorneys for Robinson asked for a sentence of 27 years, 11 months based on his rehabilitation during his incarceration and strong community support. The attorneys said during the 12-and-a-half years he has been in prison, Robinson has pursued educational and training programs, forged relationships with his family and in the community and worked to better himself and others.
“The first half of Mr. Robinson’s life was marked with numerous adverse childhood experiences and traumas,” a sentencing memo states. “The second half has been filled with processing that trauma, healing, and being a source of support for others with similar experiences. His time incarcerated has been impactfully characterized with mentoring troubled incarcerated youth, helping them find a better path and encouraging them to do better, one day at a time.”
