At a hearing in Salt Lake City, U.S. Magistrate Samuel Alba agreed to allow Brendan Taylor Brown out of jail.

He will have to report to federal pretrial services and meet several standard conditions, including staying away from alcohol and drugs and working or attending school.

The 20-year-old defendant is charged with selling a handgun to a person he believed to be a juvenile and with lying to investigators. Teenage gunman Sulejman Talovic allegedly used the Smith & Wesson .38 Special during a rampage Feb. 12 at the Salt Lake City mall that left five shoppers dead and four seriously wounded.

Brown, who also has a state drug distribution charge pending against him, was ordered not to keep a firearm or other destructive device in his home. He told Alba he did not have any.

On Thursday, another defendant in the case - Fort Jackson, S.C., soldier Matthew Hautala - finished basic training in the morning and was arrested that night on a charge that he lied to investigators tracing the weapons used in the Trolley Square shootings, according to The State, a Columbia, S.C., newspaper.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph McCrorey in Columbia released Hautala on Friday on an unsecured bond, meaning he did not have to put up money or property. Hautala was told to appear in federal court May 31 in Utah, the newspaper reported.

Hautala told the judge he was leaving Columbia on Friday night to fly to San Antonio to complete his military training. He is training to

become a medic, said Jim Hinnant, a Fort Jackson spokesman.

In Salt Lake City on Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Huber argued there are several reasons to keep Brown in jail.

Among them was the fact that Brown is unemployed and allegedly has "depression issues" coupled with drug usage.

Huber also cited the intense publicity surrounding the case.

"It just seems like a lot of stress he has to take on," the prosecutor said.

Brown's federal public defender, Kristen Angelos, argued the firearm count is a misdemeanor and if found guilty Brown would likely face two to eight months incarceration or probation.

Brown also is charged with making a false statement to U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents for allegedly denying that he transferred the handgun to someone else in the summer of 2006, and that he had never owned a gun, "whereas the opposite was true," the indictment says. That felony charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Angelos also said there was nothing to suggest her client - who is studying full time at Utah Career College for an associate's degree in health and exercise science - was aware Talovic intended to use the gun in a crime.

Charges connected to the alleged transfer of guns to Talovic are contained in two federal grand jury indictments unsealed Thursday.

One indictment accuses licensed firearms dealer Westley Wayne Hill of selling a pistol grip shotgun to a buyer who was under 21 and failing to keep a record of the transaction.

A second indictment accuses Brown and Mackenzie Glade Hunter of selling or transferring the .38 Special to Talovic.

Hunter, who also was charged with being a drug user in possession of a firearm, had reason to know the weapons would be used in a crime, according to the indictment.

Hunter and Hill were released Thursday after appearing in court.

Hautala is accused of making a false statement when he told ATF agents he knew nothing about the transfer of a handgun from Kolby Darlington to Hunter in Rock Springs, Wyo., in June 2006.

pmanson@sltrib.com

Hearing notices available

Victims of the Trolley Square shootings can get advance notice of the federal hearings in the firearms cases by calling the U.S. Attorney's Office victim coordinator at 524-5682.

The coordinator will keep these people updated on the progression of the cases.