A 41-year-old woman pleaded no contest Thursday to fatally shooting a man whose body was discovered in a Harbor Gateway backyard in 2018, officials said.
Kristen Olson, aka Kristen King Olson, entered the plea to one count of voluntary manslaughter with a gun use allegation, according to a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office news release.
Olson will be sentenced to 21 years in state prison as a result of the plea, officials said. Sentencing is scheduled for July 14.
The Gardena woman was renting a room in the home of 62-year-old Royce Leon Lanham, who she allegedly shot and killed sometime between Sept. 5 and Sept. 12, 2018.
Lanham’s body was found on Sept. 12, 2018, in the backyard of his home, wrapped in a tarp and on a dolly next to a shovel and a newly dug grave, according to prosecutors.
Officers discovered his body after receiving a report of a woman apparently attempting to dispose of a body in the back of a home in the 800 block of 173rd Street, the Los Angeles Police Department said at the time.
Neighbors told KTLA at the time that they believed Lanham had been trying to evict Olson over possible drug use.