EVERETT — A drug addict who drove off with $300,000 in gems is going to prison for three years.
A Snohomish County judge was persuaded Thursday to give the thief a break, saying the community might be better served if Michael Fuller gets help for his addiction.
The state Department of Corrections had recommended that Fuller, 27, be given an alternative sentence reserved for some drug offenders. He will serve his prison sentence and then be under supervision for three years. He will be required to undergo chemical dependency treatment. If Fuller doesn’t comply, he can be sent back to prison for up to six years.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge David Kurtz warned Fuller not to squander the opportunity to get clean.
“It is important for you to grasp on to it. Opportunities like this may not come along again,” Kurtz said.
Everett detectives haven’t been able to recover all of the stolen gems, which belonged to a 79-year-old traveling salesman. In February, Fuller took the Oregon man’s rental car from outside an Everett hotel.
“The robbery has had a devastating effect on my finances and personal life,” the man wrote to detectives.
Fuller broke into the man’s hotel room, stole his car keys and drove off. The man had just loaded up his jewels and went back inside to get the rest of his belongings and a cup of coffee. There’s no evidence that Fuller knew that there were bags and boxes of sapphires, rubies, emeralds and other jewels inside the car, Kurtz was told Thursday.
The distraught gem dealer first told police he was missing about $100,000 worth of jewels. He later did a more thorough inventory and estimated that up to $300,000 in gems were taken.
Fuller’s girlfriend later was robbed while trying to sell the jewels. Two men are facing charges for that incident.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Robert Grant argued that Fuller should serve six years in prison for his crimes. Fuller also had pleaded guilty to burglary, identity theft and theft in an unrelated incident in Lynnwood.
He’d already been given a break when he was allowed into drug court in the past, Grant argued. He failed to get clean when he was under the supervision of the court.
“He failed big when he picked up these five felonies,” the deputy prosecutor said.
Kurtz said it was a close call. Fuller needs treatment and drug court might have not been the right avenue for him, the judge said.
The defendant will serve a significant prison sentence and will have the other three years hanging over his head if he doesn’t behave.
The judge also said he’d like to see him working and paying his victim back as soon as possible.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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