A Fort Bridger man who is serving a life sentence was denied an appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court late last month.

Matthew Justin Olson, 35, was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of committing conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in 2023, while he was about halfway through serving a four- to eight-year sentence for a domestic violence conviction. He was also scheduled to begin a sentence of five to nine years for another conviction once his first sentence is completed.

While incarcerated at the Platte County Detention Center in Wheatland in 2021, Olson attempted to hire a cellmate to help kill Olson’s ex-wife.

After that conviction, Olson appealed the decision.

One of Olson’s convictions involved him driving his ex-wife somewhere in the Bridger Valley with their young child in the vehicle while Olson loaded a 9mm handgun.

“I knew what was about to happen,” the woman told investigators after the Dec. 23, 2020 incident. “I started crying and asked him not to do it in front of (her child).”

According to an April 2, 2021 report in the Uinta County Herald, “She said Olson stopped the car in a remote area, made her exit the vehicle and start walking until he ordered her to stop, at which point she said she was sure he was going to kill her. She said she did not turn around but heard him walking up behind her until he suddenly fired the gun right next to her head. He then ordered her to get back in the vehicle and told her she was lucky to be alive.”

While Olson was incarcerated in Wheatland, he told another inmate known as “Sinner” that he needed help killing his ex-wife. Sinner said he could arrange the hit through members of a gang to which he belonged.

According to court documents, “Sinner” accepted the murder-for-hire partly based on Olson promising to give him a stimulus check. That exchange got Olson’s girlfriend at the time, Shannon Ambriola, three months in jail as she attempted to facilitate payment to Olson.

“Sinner” originally intended to carry out the murder-for-hire, but changed his mind after he was transferred to a Nebraska jail, according to court documents.

Although he said Olson’s scheme was “half-baked and poorly executed” and stood little chance of success, Third District Court Judge James Kaste noted that the only two sentencing options were severe. He sentenced Olson to life as a matter of law, meaning the defendant may eventually seek parole. “Maybe there’s a chance he can reenter society,” Kaste said during the sentencing.

Olson’s appeal was based on Rule 404(b) of the Wyoming Rules of Evidence. Olson’s public defenders claimed the district court had erred when it ruled the state could introduce evidence that he had other “serious” charges pending at the time he committed the conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

The Wyoming Supreme Court ruling, denying Olson’s appeal, was issued on Friday, Nov. 22. The opinion, written by Justice John. G. Fenn. The Court wasn’t convinced that it affected Olson’s “substantial right to a fair trial when the challenged evidence was never admitted at trial.”

Olson is currently incarcerated at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins.