Last Thursday, 39-year-old Justin Andrew Wilke of Shelton was convicted of a variety of serious crimes stemming from his Mason County lumber heist in 2018.
According to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in the Seattle/Tacoma area, Wilke was convicted of conspiracy, theft of public property, depredation of public property, trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber, and attempting to traffic in unlawfully harvest timber. Wilke was convicted in U.S. District Court in Tacoma following a 6-day jury trial. U.S. District Judge Ben Settle scheduled sentencing for October 18, 2021. “When people steal trees from our public lands, they are stealing a beautiful and irreplaceable resource from all of us and from future generations,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Gorman.