Idaho
Prosecutor says he’ll seek death penalty against inmate accused of killing during prison escape
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho prosecutor says he will seek the death penalty against an Idaho inmate charged with killing a man while he was on the lam during a 36-hour escape from prison.
Skylar Meade, 32, has already been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the March escape from a Boise hospital, where prison officials had taken him for treatment of self-inflicted injuries. But the first-degree murder charge is in a different county, and Meade has not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea in that case. Meade’s defense attorney, Rick Cuddihy, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Nez Perce County Prosecutor Justin Coleman announced Friday that he will seek the death penalty if Meade is convicted in the shooting death of James Mauney.
“After long and careful consideration I have decided to seek the death penalty in this case,” Coleman wrote in the press release. “The senseless and random killing of Mr. Mauney and the facts surrounding what lead to his death, warrants this determination.”
Meade’s alleged accomplice in the escape, Nicholas Umphenour, 29, has also been indicted in connection with Mauney’s death, and had not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea. Umphenour is also awaiting trial on charges including aggravated battery and aiding and abetting escape after a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Umphenour’s defense attorney, Brian Marx, did not immediately respond to a voice message.
The case began in the early morning hours of March 20 after the Idaho Department of Correction brought Meade to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center for treatment of self-inflicted injuries. Prosecutors say that as correctional officers prepared to take Meade back to the prison around 2 a.m., an accomplice outside the hospital began shooting.
Nicholas Umphenour shot two of the correctional officers, prosecutors say. A third officer was shot and injured when a fellow police officer mistook him for the shooter and opened fire. All three of the officers survived their injuries.
Meade and Umphenour fled the scene, investigators said, first driving several hours to north-central Idaho.
Mauney, an 83-year-old Juliaetta resident, didn’t return home from walking his dogs on a local trail later that morning. Idaho State Police officials said Mauney’s body was found miles away.
The grand jury indictment says Meade is accused of either shooting Mauney as he tried to rob the man or aiding another person in the killing. Police have also said that Meade and Umphenour are suspects in the death of Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found outside of his home in a nearby town. Henderson’s death remains under investigation and neither Meade nor Umphenour have been charged.
Police say the men left north-central Idaho not long after, heading back to the southern half of the state. They were arrested in Twin Falls roughly 36 hours after the hospital attack.
Police described both men as white supremacist gang members who had been incarcerated at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, at times housed in the same unit.
At the time of the escape, Meade was serving a 20-year sentence for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a high-speed chase. Umphenour was released in January after serving time on charges of grand theft and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Meade is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on the murder charge.
Nevada
1 of 3 killed in prison brawl was member of white supremacist gang who killed an inmate in 2016
RENO, Nev. (AP) — One of three inmates killed in a Nevada prison brawl this week was a member of a white supremacist prison gang who was serving a life sentence for his role in a murder at another Nevada prison, authorities said Friday.
The local county sheriff identified Anthony Williams, 41, as the third of the three people killed in Tuesday’s fight at Nevada’s maximum security prison in rural Ely. Nine other inmates were injured.
Prison and state officials have released few details since then, although White Pine County Sheriff Scott Henriod confirmed Friday that all three men died of stab wounds, or “multiple sharp force injuries.”
“This is an ongoing investigation,” Henriod said in an email to The Associated Press.
The other victims identified earlier were Connor Brown, 22, of South Lake Tahoe, California, and Zacharia Luz, 42, of Las Vegas.
Luz was identified as a street-level leader of the Aryan Warriors white supremacist prison gang. He and Williams were among 23 reputed members of the gang who were indicted in a sweeping racketeering case in Las Vegas involving murder, drug trafficking and identity theft in 2019.
That indictment tied Williams and another person to the 2016 stabbing death of Andrew Ryan Thurgood in a cell at High Desert State Prison in southern Nevada.
Williams pleaded guilty to open murder in Las Vegas in 2021 in a plea deal that took the death penalty off the table. He also was convicted of being a habitual offender and was sentenced to life without parole at the prison in Ely, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of the Utah line, the Nevada Department of Corrections said.
Luz was sentenced last year to seven to 18 years in prison for his conviction on felony racketeering and forgery charges, the department said.
Brown was serving a seven- to 20-year sentence for robbery with use of a deadly weapon, the department said. He was sentenced in 2021 after pleading guilty to stabbing a gas station clerk and a casino patron in downtown Reno in 2020.
Authorities have not said what prompted the violence at the prison this week. Henriod said sheriff’s deputies were summoned about 9:40 a.m. on Tuesday.
No corrections officers were injured, prison officials said.
Ely State Prison is one of six Nevada prisons. It has almost 1,200 beds and houses the state’s death row for convicted killers and a lethal injection chamber that has never been used. Nevada has not carried out an execution since 2006.
Conditions behind bars in the state have drawn criticism from advocates, particularly during hot summers and cold winters. In December 2022, several people incarcerated at Ely State Prison held a hunger strike over what advocates and some family members described as unsafe conditions and inadequate food portions.
Efforts stalled before reaching the state Legislature last year to respond to a yearslong state audit that found widespread deficiencies in prison use-of-force policies.
Prosecutor says he’ll seek death penalty against inmate accused of killing during prison escape
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho prosecutor says he will seek the death penalty against an Idaho inmate charged with killing a man while he was on the lam during a 36-hour escape from prison.
Skylar Meade, 32, has already been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the March escape from a Boise hospital, where prison officials had taken him for treatment of self-inflicted injuries. But the first-degree murder charge is in a different county, and Meade has not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea in that case. Meade’s defense attorney, Rick Cuddihy, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Nez Perce County Prosecutor Justin Coleman announced Friday that he will seek the death penalty if Meade is convicted in the shooting death of James Mauney.
“After long and careful consideration I have decided to seek the death penalty in this case,” Coleman wrote in the press release. “The senseless and random killing of Mr. Mauney and the facts surrounding what lead to his death, warrants this determination.”
Meade’s alleged accomplice in the escape, Nicholas Umphenour, 29, has also been indicted in connection with Mauney’s death, and had not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea. Umphenour is also awaiting trial on charges including aggravated battery and aiding and abetting escape after a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Umphenour’s defense attorney, Brian Marx, did not immediately respond to a voice message.
The case began in the early morning hours of March 20 after the Idaho Department of Correction brought Meade to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center for treatment of self-inflicted injuries. Prosecutors say that as correctional officers prepared to take Meade back to the prison around 2 a.m., an accomplice outside the hospital began shooting.
Nicholas Umphenour shot two of the correctional officers, prosecutors say. A third officer was shot and injured when a fellow police officer mistook him for the shooter and opened fire. All three of the officers survived their injuries.
Meade and Umphenour fled the scene, investigators said, first driving several hours to north-central Idaho.
Mauney, an 83-year-old Juliaetta resident, didn’t return home from walking his dogs on a local trail later that morning. Idaho State Police officials said Mauney’s body was found miles away.
The grand jury indictment says Meade is accused of either shooting Mauney as he tried to rob the man or aiding another person in the killing. Police have also said that Meade and Umphenour are suspects in the death of Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found outside of his home in a nearby town. Henderson’s death remains under investigation and neither Meade nor Umphenour have been charged.
Police say the men left north-central Idaho not long after, heading back to the southern half of the state. They were arrested in Twin Falls roughly 36 hours after the hospital attack.
Police described both men as white supremacist gang members who had been incarcerated at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, at times housed in the same unit.
At the time of the escape, Meade was serving a 20-year sentence for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a high-speed chase. Umphenour was released in January after serving time on charges of grand theft and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Meade is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on the murder charge.
Nevada
1 of 3 killed in prison brawl was member of white supremacist gang who killed an inmate in 2016
RENO, Nev. (AP) — One of three inmates killed in a Nevada prison brawl this week was a member of a white supremacist prison gang who was serving a life sentence for his role in a murder at another Nevada prison, authorities said Friday.
The local county sheriff identified Anthony Williams, 41, as the third of the three people killed in Tuesday’s fight at Nevada’s maximum security prison in rural Ely. Nine other inmates were injured.
Prison and state officials have released few details since then, although White Pine County Sheriff Scott Henriod confirmed Friday that all three men died of stab wounds, or “multiple sharp force injuries.”
“This is an ongoing investigation,” Henriod said in an email to The Associated Press.
The other victims identified earlier were Connor Brown, 22, of South Lake Tahoe, California, and Zacharia Luz, 42, of Las Vegas.
Luz was identified as a street-level leader of the Aryan Warriors white supremacist prison gang. He and Williams were among 23 reputed members of the gang who were indicted in a sweeping racketeering case in Las Vegas involving murder, drug trafficking and identity theft in 2019.
That indictment tied Williams and another person to the 2016 stabbing death of Andrew Ryan Thurgood in a cell at High Desert State Prison in southern Nevada.
Williams pleaded guilty to open murder in Las Vegas in 2021 in a plea deal that took the death penalty off the table. He also was convicted of being a habitual offender and was sentenced to life without parole at the prison in Ely, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of the Utah line, the Nevada Department of Corrections said.
Luz was sentenced last year to seven to 18 years in prison for his conviction on felony racketeering and forgery charges, the department said.
Brown was serving a seven- to 20-year sentence for robbery with use of a deadly weapon, the department said. He was sentenced in 2021 after pleading guilty to stabbing a gas station clerk and a casino patron in downtown Reno in 2020.
Authorities have not said what prompted the violence at the prison this week. Henriod said sheriff’s deputies were summoned about 9:40 a.m. on Tuesday.
No corrections officers were injured, prison officials said.
Ely State Prison is one of six Nevada prisons. It has almost 1,200 beds and houses the state’s death row for convicted killers and a lethal injection chamber that has never been used. Nevada has not carried out an execution since 2006.
Conditions behind bars in the state have drawn criticism from advocates, particularly during hot summers and cold winters. In December 2022, several people incarcerated at Ely State Prison held a hunger strike over what advocates and some family members described as unsafe conditions and inadequate food portions.
Efforts stalled before reaching the state Legislature last year to respond to a yearslong state audit that found widespread deficiencies in prison use-of-force policies.
