Time out: Felon headed to dentist

COEUR d’ALENE — The 19-year-old ringleader of a robbery and assault case will get a special trip from the Kootenai County jail.

He’s headed to the dentist to get his braces fixed.

Over the objections of prosecutors at a hearing Friday in First District Court, a motion to allow Nolan Brian Mullen-Huber to see a dentist before he’s sentenced later this month was granted.

Mullen-Huber, who pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery and faces a prison sentence of between five years and life, will be sentenced June 28 in Coeur d’Alene.

His attorney, Linda Payne, asked the court to allow her client to keep an appointment to have his braces worked on at his parents’ expense. The visit will require the sheriff’s office to transport him to his dentist and stand guard at the office.

Prosecutors objected, saying the work could be done at the jail. Allowing Mullen-Huber to see his personal dentist would be an accommodation.

“It’s a situation the jail is equipped to take care of,” deputy prosecutor Barry Black said at a Wednesday hearing. “I don’t think it warrants the risk of the community and jail staff.”

First District Judge Fred Gibler gave the state until the end of the week to show the court that work on Huber-Mullen’s special braces can be performed at the jail, but prosecutors didn’t provide any evidence at a Friday hearing.

“Our understanding is that the work can be done at the jail,” deputy prosecutor Molly Nivison told Gibler.

“Don’t give me your understanding, give me facts,” Gibler responded.

“I cannot do that,” Nivison said.

Mullen-Huber was the ringleader in the February robbery of a Coeur d’Alene man at Potlatch Hill, where he and two co-defendants, Jordan Avery Erickson and Nathan K.W. Jones, pistol-whipped Terrel Fruechtl, breaking his nose, and punched him several times in the face. Fruechtl had been driven to Potlatch Hill by two teenage girls he considered friends. The men stole Fruechtl’s clothes, money and keys and left him bloody, wearing just his underclothes on a frigid February night.

Erickson and Jones were convicted by a Coeur d’Alene jury of battery with intent to commit robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery. The felonies carry a maximum sentence of 20 years and life in prison, respectively. They will be sentenced this month.