Sentence imminent for Idaho prisoner who escaped after hospital attack

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho inmate who escaped from custody at a Boise hospital after violently attacking correctional officers guarding him is scheduled to be sentenced Friday morning for escape.

Skylar Meade pleaded guilty to fleeing and received a sentence enhancement because he was a repeat offender and caused bodily harm during the crime earlier this year. He faces up to life in prison when sentenced by 4th District Judge Nancy Baskin.

The case began in the early morning hours of March 20, after the Idaho Department of Correction took Meade to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center for treatment of his self-inflicted injuries. As correctional officers prepared to take Meade back to prison around 2 a.m., an accomplice began shooting outside the hospital, prosecutors say.

According to prosecutors, Nicholas Umphenour shot two of the correctional officers.

A third officer was shot and injured when another officer mistook him for the shooter and opened fire. All three officers survived their injuries.

Meade and Umphenour fled the scene, investigators said, driving several hours into northern Idaho and then returning to the southern half of the state, where they were arrested about 36 hours after the hospital attack.

Police described both men as members of a white supremacist gang who were incarcerated at Idaho’s maximum security prison in Kuna and were at times housed in the same building.

At the time of the escape, Meade, 31, was serving a 20-year prison sentence for shooting a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released in January after serving his sentence for grand larceny and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Umphenour is charged with three counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, use of a firearm during a crime and aiding and abetting an escape. All three offenses are felonies. He remained silent when asked to plead guilty to those charges in May. The judge then entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. He is scheduled to stand trial on those charges in October.

Both men were charged with murder in Nez Perce County in June in connection with the death of 83-year-old James Mauney of Juliaetta, Idaho. Idaho State Police said Mauney’s remains were found near Leland, Idaho. State police are still investigating the death of another man in the area who they believe may be connected to the case.

Neither Meade’s nor Umphenour’s defense attorneys immediately responded to Associated Press requests for comment.

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