‘A career criminal’: Prisoner who escaped in Boise hospital ambush sentenced for crimes
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Alex Brizee, Idaho Statesman
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Idaho Department of Correction Officer Daniel Lopez said he wanted to believe that the actions taken by Skylar Meade, the prisoner who escaped in a hospital ambush, were an “extreme slipup” in judgment from someone tired of being incarcerated.
But after viewing text messages that detailed Meade’s plans to target correction officers and escape from the Boise hospital, Lopez said he felt differently. The officer, one of three who were injured during the Boise hospital attack, saw a “repugnant and repulsive disregard for human life.”
“We weren’t human to him,” Lopez told an Ada County courtroom Friday. “I have loved ones too.”
Yet Lopez still asked 4th Judicial District Judge Nancy Baskin to give Meade the chance for rehabilitation, and the chance to eventually be released from prison.
Baskin said Meade’s actions warranted a “significant” punishment. The Ada County judge Friday instead sentenced Meade to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 35 years, for five felonies, three of which were related to his escape, including assaulting an officer and an enhancement for causing bodily injury.
“You are a career criminal,” Baskin said.
Meade, 32, will start his new prison sentence after he finishes serving his initial sentence for assaulting an officer in Twin Falls. He was also sentenced for possession of a controlled substance and unlawfully introducing contraband into a correctional facility. He’s expected to be in prison for at least the next four decades.
Nicholas Umphenour, who was accused of conspiring with Meade on the ambush, is expected to face a jury trial in October on six felonies, including several assault charges and a persistent violator enhancement, according to court records. Baskin entered not guilty pleas on his behalf in May after Umphenour stood silent, according to prior Idaho Statesman reporting.
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TEXT MESSAGES DETAIL ESCAPE PLANS
Meade was taken by three correction officers to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center for self-inflicted injuries in March. He escaped from custody after 29-year-old Umphenour shot two of the officers as they were loading Meade into a prison van, according to testimony from law enforcement during an April hearing. The third officer was shot and injured by a Boise officer, the police agency said. All of the officers survived.
Meade at the time was serving a minimum 10-year prison sentence at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise, and Umphenour had been living in Florida after he was released from prison in January. The men knew each other from prison and are members of a white supremacist prison gang known as the Aryan Knights, according to police and the Idaho Department of Correction.
The men fled and drove to North Idaho, police said, where they’re suspected of killing two men before law enforcement apprehended them near Twin Falls. Police have so far only charged them with one first-degree murder count in Nez Perce County.
Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Heather Reilly during Meade’s sentencing presented text messages between Umphenour and Meade detailing plans for the escape, which included avenues to secure enough money, discussion about purchasing ammunition and information about the guards who would be carrying weapons. Police obtained the texts from the phone Umphenour tossed from the car during the escape, Reilly said.
In one text, Umphenour told Meade that he’d kill the officers if he needed to and that it “depends on them.” Meade responded by saying they would “only do it if we have to.”
While Meade didn’t pull the trigger, Baskin said he organized the events, even directing Umphenour on which correctional officer to go after first.
“You are just as liable as the person who actually fired the firearm,” Baskin told Meade.
Reilly on Friday outlined Meade’s extensive criminal record, which dates back to his adolescence. In 2010, Meade fled Tennessee before being convicted of grand theft the next year in Twin Falls, Reilly said. He spent five years in prison before being released in 2016 and was charged and convicted the next year for several charges, including assault on an officer.
Had Meade not been convicted of his escape charges, he would have been eligible for parole in 2026.
“In as little as two years, the defendant was in the position of taking advantage of rehabilitative opportunities within Idaho Department of Correction and earning his way onto parole,” Reilly said. “Not only did he not take advantage of that opportunity, he did the exact opposite.”
Meade’s attorneys didn’t present any testimony or evidence during the sentencing.
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‘THIS TRULY WAS AN AMBUSH’
The sentencing Friday also provided new details about the high-profile escape that led to a 36-hour statewide manhunt.
Reilly said Meade faked his medical injury so that he’d be escorted to the hospital. Meade claimed that he’d taken somebody else’s medication, swallowed razor blades and injured himself on his hand, Reilly said. But once they arrived at the hospital, Meade refused treatment from the medical staff because he knew Umphenour was in the parking lot.
“All of it was fake, all of it was contrived,” Reilly said.
Just after 2 a.m. March 20, Meade was being escorted out of the hospital’s emergency room department by the correction officers into the ambulance bay, where the prison van was located, according to prior testimony from law enforcement.
Typically, two officers accompany a prisoner on medical visits, but because of Meade’s security level, three officers accompanied him, the Idaho Department of Correction previously said. Meade was restrained on his legs, wrists and waist.
As officers were bringing Meade to the van, Umphenour shot at them from behind, Reilly said. Lopez was the only armed officer and didn’t have a chance to pull his weapon out before Umphenour shot him from behind in the glute and clavicle area, according to the prosecutor. Lopez couldn’t see where the rounds were coming from and was concerned about shooting an innocent bystander, since they were in the range of the emergency room doors, Reilly added. The other officer was shot in the abdomen.
“This truly was an ambush,” Reilly said.
Boise Officer Wayne Anderson accidentally injured a third correction officer in the eye with either a bullet or shrapnel. Reilly said the correction officer was holding Lopez’s gun in the hospital when Anderson responded to an “active shooting” and him with the weapon.
Reilly blamed Umphenour and Meade for what happened, attributing it to the chaos they created.
“The defendant was willing to take the lives of at least three correction officers during his escape and anyone else who got in his way,” Reilly said. “It‘s frankly a miracle that he’s not facing a triple homicide along with Umphenour in Ada County.”
MEADE, UMPHENOUR CHARGED WITH MURDER
Meade will now likely be moved to the Nez Perce County Jail to face his first-degree murder charge after a Nez Perce grand jury indicted him and Umphenour in the death of James Mauney, an 83-year-old man in Juliaetta, north of Lewiston.
Meade and Umphenour encountered Mauney in North Idaho while he was walking his dogs, according to Idaho State Police. His body was later found in a desolate area.
That same day, deputies from neighboring Clearwater County found the body of Gerald “Don” Henderson, 72, in his cabin outside of Orofino. Police said shackles that belonged to Meade, along with Mauney’s dogs, were found in the cabin.
“Nez Perce County isn’t expecting any updates until the defendants are transported and appear in our court,” Nez Perce County Prosecutor Justin Coleman previously told the Statesman.
Police said Meade and Umphenour are also suspected of killing Henderson but have not been charged yet in that death.