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Idaho prisoner back behind bars after hospital ambush enabled his escape

Inmate Skylar Meade and Nicholas Umphenour, who is accused of helping him escape, are suspected in two deaths in Nez Perce and Clearwater counties.

By Frances Vinall | 2024-03-22

A medical transport was about to return Skylar Meade to prison from Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise when he escaped. (Sarah A. Miller/AP)

An escaped inmate and his suspected accomplice have been captured in Idaho after 36 hours on the run, during which time authorities believe they killed two men.

Skylar Meade, 31, escaped custody about 2 a.m. Wednesday during a medical transport after Meade injured himself in prison, authorities said. The transport was about to return him to prison from Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise when Nicholas Umphenour, 28, is accused of ambushing the transport and shooting two officers. A third corrections officer was shot by Boise police on arrival, police said.

Authorities believe the pair fled in a gray four-door Honda Civic that had been reported stolen. They are suspected of killing two adult men in separate locations before they were recaptured about 2 p.m. Thursday in Twin Falls.

Meade and Umphenour are both members of the Aryan Knights, Idaho Department of Correction director Josh Tewalt said at a news conference Thursday -- a white supremacist prison gang based primarily in Idaho.

The pair shared "common acquaintances" in and outside prison, and shared a housing unit at times inside Idaho Maximum Security Institution between December 2020 and Jan. 17, 2024, when Umphenour was released, Tewalt said.

He added that their mutual Aryan Knights membership "does not necessarily indicate that this was some sort of gang-sanctioned event."

Little is known about two men who were killed, including any connections to the pair, Lt. Col. Sheldon Kelley, deputy director at the Idaho State Police, said at the news conference. The homicides took place in Nez Perce County and Clearwater County, police said. Handcuffs were found at the scene of one killing. The Honda was recovered near Leland, and the fugitives had switched to a second car owned by one of the victims, he said.

Two of the three injured corrections workers remain in hospital and their "spirits were lifted" by the capture, Tewalt said, adding it had been a "tough ordeal for the corrections family."

The department is "in the process of reviewing our policies and practices" relating to how the escape happened and investigating how the "planned event" was coordinated, he added.

Meade was incarcerated in October 2016 for aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer with a firearm enhancement, and was due for release in 2036. His prior convictions include felony possession of a controlled substance, grand theft and introduction of contraband into a correctional facility.

Umphenour's past convictions include grand theft and unlawful possession of a weapon, according to court records viewed by Boise news outlet KTVB.

The Aryan Knights were formed in the mid-1990s and had about 100 members in and outside prison as of 2021, the Justice Department said that year when its leader Harlan Hale was sentenced to life in prison.

The gang has a white supremacist and white separatist ideology and deploys violence and threats against non-White and other targeted inmates, and is involved in drug trafficking, extortion and gambling, it added.


This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/03/22/idaho-prisoner-escape-boise-aryan-knights/


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