Robber Will Serve At Least 33 Years

A man jailers say wreaked five months of mayhem in the Latah County Jail has been sentenced to at least 33 years in prison for robbery and assault last fall.

“I’ve never had a defendant, that to me, is a greater threat to society,” said 2nd District Judge John Bengtson, as he ordered Michael Wachholtz, 34, to spend 25 to 30 years in prison for a $109 robbery of a grocery store last October.

Wachholtz, labeled a violent, professional criminal by the prosecution, also was sentenced to 8 to 10 years for aggravated assault stemming from a November attack on a corrections officer during a foiled escape attempt.

Bengtson ordered the sentences served consecutively, meaning Wachholtz will have to serve the 25-year minimum robbery sentence and then earn institutional parole from it before starting to serve the assault sentence.

Despite spending the morning in shackles, Wachholtz managed to spit in the face of a Latah County sheriff’s deputy on his way out of the courtroom.

, DataTimes