Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Former piano prodigy gets 17 years in prison for killing his roommate

- Elliot Hughes

Ten years after debuting as a profession­al pianist before his 18th birthday, Garrick Olsen was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the brutal murder of his roommate.

At one point during Olsen’s sentencing hearing Wednesday before Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner, the courtroom heard audio from an interview Olsen gave as a 16-year-old with PBS Wisconsin. His voice was light and happy as he spoke energetica­lly about practicing piano six hours a day.

Less than an hour later, that audio was contrasted by Olsen, now 27, speaking in a low and tired rumble, rambling somewhat before apologizin­g to the victim’s family.

With his back turned to the gallery, there was no visible reaction as Wagner handed down his sentence, which included another four years in prison for a separate violent incident while he was in the Milwaukee County Jail last year. Olsen pleaded guilty in both cases.

“What you’ve left is a legacy of sadness behind,” Wagner said.

Michael B. Sieg, 34, was beaten to death in March 2020 after a night of drinking with Olsen in the house they shared in the 3300 block of North Buffum Street.

The next morning, he was found in an alley behind the house, with multiple blunt force injuries to his face, chest, stomach, back, arms and legs, along with multiple laceration­s to the liver.

The incident concluded a remarkable downfall for Olsen, who was considered by some to be a child prodigy at the piano and had been recruited to study at Oberlin College after high school. He made his profession­al debut with the Madison Symphony Orchestra at 17, according to his attorney, John Birdsall.

Sieg was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was remembered as a kind and caring person by his family. They said he would host his parents for dinner on Sundays and regularly help them with yard work and other chores.

Birdsall said his client began experienci­ng a range of mental health and substance abuse issues when he began attending Oberlin College, which coincided with his parents’ separation.

After getting expelled and returning to Wisconsin, he was in and out of substance abuse programs, and it was through them that he eventually met Sieg.

Sieg had looked out for Olsen before. When a recovery house the two were staying at wanted to kick Olsen out, Sieg defended him and advocated for him staying, according to Assistant District Attorney Christophe­r Schindhelm.

Birdsall said Olsen suffers from schizophre­nia and bipolar disorder. In a written statement to the court, he said he experience­s psychotic episodes and hallucinat­ions.

On March, 26, 2020, Olsen called an ex-girlfriend and showed her footage of an injured Sieg, saying he “beat the brakes off this guy” and hoped he would wake up so he could pay rent, the criminal complaint said.

After Sieg’s body was discovered the next morning, police questioned Olsen and noticed blood on his socks and shoes. He said it was from cooking with spaghetti sauce the previous night and that Sieg’s death was the result of an overdose, according to the criminal complaint. Police later found blood in multiple locations inside the home and evidence that someone tried to clean it.

Olsen was initially charged with first-degree reckless homicide, and later faced two additional felony charges — strangulat­ion and battery by prisoners — after an incident while he was incarcerat­ed at the Milwaukee County Jail in July 2021.

According to the criminal complaint, Olsen attacked another man in a cell after he would only share one of two sodas with Olsen. The complaint pointed out the significant difference in size between Olsen, who is 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, and the victim, who is 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds. The victim was hospitaliz­ed with two broken ribs, a swollen left eye and other injuries.

In a written statement to the court, Sieg’s aunt, identified only as Terri, also drew a contrast between the size of Olsen and her nephew, who weighed about 160 pounds.

In July of this year, Olsen pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree reckless homicide and to the two felony charges stemming from the jail incident.

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