Prisoner who escaped from Boise hospital enters another guilty plea. Here’s what’s next

The prisoner accused of coordinating an ambush at a Boise hospital that led to his escape and to the shooting of three Idaho Department of Correction officers pleaded guilty Tuesday to an enhancement crime, bypassing a jury trial.

He’ll now face sentencing for a litany of crimes later this month.

Skylar Meade, 32, who was serving a minimum 10-year prison sentence at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution outside of Boise, pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal to an enhancement for causing bodily injury during the escape — which increases the minimum prison time. In exchange, an enhancement for crimes tied to his alleged involvement in a white supremacist gang was dismissed.

Meade, who was taken by three correction officers to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center for self-inflicted injuries in March, escaped from custody at the Boise hospital after alleged co-conspirator Nicholas Umphenhour, 29, 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 police officer.

The officers all survived.

The men, said by police to be members of a prison gang known as the Aryan Knights, fled and drove to North Idaho — where they are suspected of killing two men but so far have been charged in only one death — before law enforcement apprehended them the next day near Twin Falls.

Meade pleaded guilty in May — without a plea deal — to felony escaping from prison and an enhancement for being a persistent violator, a charge that can be added by prosecutors when someone has been convicted of three felonies. It adds at least another five years of prison time, with a maximum of life in prison.

Meade didn’t enter pleas on the other enhancements during that May 15 hearing, causing 4th District Judge Nancy Baskin to schedule a June hearing to give prosecutors additional time to decide whether they’d take Meade to trial or dismiss the remaining charges, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.

Ada County Prosecutor Heather Reilly told the court during that June hearing that if a deal wasn’t reached, the prosecution planned to take Meade to trial. Robert Chastain, one of Meade’s attorneys, asked Baskin for some additional time to review the offer.

Meade’s sentencing on all of his outstanding crimes is now set for July 19, as his cases were consolidated in court Tuesday. He also has pleaded guilty to a drug charge and a contraband charge for having methamphetamine in prison.

At the time of his escape, Meade was in prison for assaulting a police officer, drug possession and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Umphenhour 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 Umphenhour stood silent, a tactic in which a defendant refuses to enter a plea, causing the judge to do it for them, according to prior reporting.

Idaho State Police investigation into North Idaho homicide ongoing

Once Meade’s criminal charges are finalized in Ada County, he’ll likely be taken to the Nez Perce County Jail to appear on a first-degree murder charge. Quickly following Meade’s and Umphenour’s apprehension in March, law enforcement announced that the men were suspects in a pair of homicides.

After fleeing the Boise area, Meade and Umphenour encountered James Mauney, 83, in Juliaetta, north of Lewiston, 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.

Meade and Umphenour were indicted by a Nez Perce grand jury and charged in mid-June with first-degree murder in the death of Mauney, according to the Nez Perce County Prosecutor’s Office. Grand jury proceedings aren’t public, even to those accused of the crimes, and give prosecutors a way to charge someone while bypassing a preliminary hearing.

“Nez Perce County isn’t expecting any updates until the defendants are transported and appear in our court,” Nez Perce Prosecutor Justin Coleman said in a statement provided to the Statesman.

Any additional information about the charges has been sparse, as their cases haven’t been unsealed and aren’t available on the state’s online public court system. Meade and Umphenour are also suspected in the killing of Henderson, but face no charges yet in that death.

“This case remains under investigation,” Idaho State Police previously said in a news release.