Walden man gets 8.5 years after gun and cocaine cases

A Walden man will spend 8.5 years in state prison after Orange County prosecutors tied him to both a loaded handgun and cocaine in two separate police encounters, a sentence officials cast as another removal of an armed repeat offender from county streets.

Tyler Olsen, 32, was sentenced in Orange County Court to 8 years and 6 months in prison, followed by 5 years of post-release supervision, District Attorney David M. Hoovler said Wednesday. The sentence was imposed on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, the office said.

Olsen had previously pleaded guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree. Prosecutors said the gun case began with a traffic stop on Nov. 5, 2024, in the City of Newburgh, when police saw a vehicle commit a Vehicle and Traffic Law violation and found Olsen riding as a rear-seat passenger in a car with four occupants.

Investigators later recovered a loaded pistol from the trunk. Prosecutors said DNA taken from the grip and trigger linked the firearm to Olsen, giving the case a forensic layer that helped drive the prosecution forward.

While that case was still pending, a separate encounter brought new charges. On May 29, 2025, a detective with the Town of New Windsor Police Department found Olsen slumped over the driver’s seat of a parked vehicle at a business. Police said they observed signs consistent with narcotics use and recovered cocaine from inside the vehicle.

Olsen later admitted that he tried to possess both the loaded firearm and the narcotics, according to the county release. Prosecutors said that admission, combined with the police work in Newburgh and New Windsor, supported the prison sentence now imposed by Orange County Court.

Hoovler’s office framed the case as part of a broader public-safety effort in Orange County, where prosecutors have regularly announced convictions and prison terms in gun cases involving Newburgh, Walden and other communities. The office has recently highlighted multiple firearms prosecutions, underscoring a continuing push to treat illegal guns and drugs as linked threats rather than isolated offenses.

For Orange County residents, the case is another example of how routine traffic enforcement, detective work and DNA evidence can build into a lengthy prison term when a loaded gun and narcotics are found in the same orbit.