Prison ordered in lewd case

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County man convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct was ordered to serve 15 years in prison on Tuesday.

Elijah Zachariah Nuss will have to serve at least seven years of the sentence before he can be considered for release onto probation, according to documents filed in 1st District Court. Nuss was also given credit for 111 days of pretrial incarceration.

Nuss was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl in 2014. The allegations didn’t emerge until early 2016, when the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare turned over a note the alleged victim wrote to a friend to Bonner County sheriff’s investigators.

In it, the teen disclosed that Nuss had been having sex with her and she was under orders to keep quiet about it, court records indicate.

Nuss, 35, pleaded not guilty to the charge and stood trial last month.

The teen testified she wrote the note to unburden herself and gave it to a friend, court records indicate.

The note was subsequently discovered by the boy’s guardian, who testified during the trial that she kept the note and waited for him to speak with her about it. She ultimately confronted him about the note and he said that the she needed to “save” the teen, according to trial testimony.

The guardian turned the note over to Health & Welfare.

A jury of six men and six women found Nuss guilty on Sept. 14, following a two-day trial.

Nuss was charged with rape in Bonner County in 2004, although the charge was amended to felony injury to a child via plea agreement, according to the Idaho Supreme Data Repository. Nuss was given a one- to seven-year term and was released in 2006.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee