DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County judge has sentenced now-former police officer Robert Olsen in the shooting death of Air Force Veteran Anthony Hill in 2015.
Hill, who was off his medication for treatment he was receiving as a result of his service in Afghanistan, was acting strangely outside his apartment complex, and worrying his neighbors, who called 911 hoping to get help for him. Hill was naked and unarmed when Olsen arrived, and Olsen said he feared for his life, and shot and killed Hill.
Friday, DeKalb Superior Court Judge LaTisha Dear Jackson sentenced Olsen to 20 years with the first 12 to serve in custody.
A jury found Olsen not guilty of felony murder, but guilty of aggravated assault, making false statements, and two counts of violation of his oath.
Aggravated assault carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and the other three crimes carry maximum sentences of five years, each.
Hill's family and friends were given the chance to offer their victim impact statements about their grievous loss, asking the judge for what they believe is just punishment.
11Alive talked with Legal Analyst Meg Strickler before the sentencing.
“The judge has to consider everybody’s interests, here,” said Strickler. “I think both sides are going to bring a lot to the table tomorrow, and she’s got to consider all.”
Strickler said that, in most cases involving first offenders, judges impose sentences shorter than the maximum.
“He was not a rogue cop, by any stretch of the imagination. He just made some seriously bad judgments and bad decisions very quickly, that day,” which, Strickler said, may influence the judge to reduce the sentence to some degree.
Has Strickler ever seen any judge impose the maximum 20 for aggravated assault?
“Not in my career. Not in my career,” she said.
But Olsen was a police officer, committing his crimes in the line of duty. Will the judge hold Olsen to a tougher standard, and impose a tougher sentence closer to the max?
She is an elected official, and Strickler said there’s no doubt the judge is aware of the many protests and marches of those demanding no less than the max for Olsen.
Will the protesting influence her?
Ideally it should not, Strickler said, but “the fact that it exists, and that this is a community issue, I have a suspicion she is taking that into consideration, and will, tomorrow, when she renders whatever sentence she ultimately renders.”
But the maximum possible, of 35 years?
“I don’t expect that to happen," she said. "I can’t fathom that she would stack 20 years [for aggravated assault], plus the three five-years [for the other three crimes], on top of each other.”
This is a case that, since March, 2015, has torn this community - and grieved law enforcement officers, too. And now one judge will balance calls for punishment, and for mercy, and then apply the law to decide what justice is for Robert Olsen and Anthony Hill.
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