‘Played a part:’ Third suspect in ambush freeing prisoner at Boise hospital is sentenced
Moments before sentencing another suspect connected to the March ambush at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, 4th District Judge Nancy Baskin told the young woman that she has a chance — one that doesn’t come often — to reinvent herself.
“This needs to be the conviction that causes you to reinvent yourself, to be different, to act different,” Baskin said, “to associate only with people who are going to move you forward versus people who are going to bring you back into the courtroom.”
Tia Garcia, one of four people tied to what police called a “brazen” and “violent” attack that freed a prisoner, broke down in tears after being sentenced to up to 25 years in prison, with eligibility for parole after 10 years. The Twin Falls resident will receive credit for the nine months she’s spent in jail.
In March, Skylar Meade, an Idaho man serving a minimum 10-year prison sentence at the state’s maximum security prison, and co-conspirator Nicholas Umphenour coordinated Meade’s escape at the Boise hospital. The incident involved gunfire and left three correctional officers injured, one of whom was mistakenly shot by a responding Boise police officer.
Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Heather Reilly said that Garcia was “instrumental” in the escape. The gun used to shoot two of the officers was provided by Garcia, and Meade and Umphenour escaped in her car.
“Now she certainly wasn’t involved in the actual escape, but had she not provided them with the method and means, it may not have happened,” Reilly added. “They may have found someone else — maybe not.”
The two men, who knew each other from prison, evaded law enforcement for 36 hours before they were found and arrested in the Twin Falls area alongside another woman. The men are now linked to two North Idaho homicides — one in Nez Perce County and another in Clearwater County — that happened in that window, according to Idaho State Police.
Both Meade and Umphenour, who were sentenced for their crimes in Ada County, are now in custody at the Nez Perce County Jail awaiting capital trials on first-degree murder charges in the killing of 83-year-old James Mauney. Prosecutors have yet to file charges against the men in the death of 72-year-old Gerald “Don” Henderson, but police have repeatedly said that the investigation is ongoing.
The final suspect, 53-year-old Tonia Huber, was arrested alongside Meade in March. They fled from police in a Chevy pickup truck, at times driving up to 100 mph, until Huber drove into a Twin Falls Walgreens parking lot off of U.S. 93, where an officer struck the vehicle to handicap it and was able to arrest them, according to a Twin Falls Police Department affidavit.
Umphenour was arrested separately on the same day.
Huber, of Filer, pleaded guilty in November to two felonies, possession of a controlled substance and harboring a wanted felon, in exchange for the remaining felony charge of attempting to elude a police officer to be dismissed, according to a plea agreement. Huber agreed to testify against Umphenour and Meade. She’ll face sentencing in January.
‘I still played a part:’ Garcia apologizes for her actions
Garcia’s time in prison won’t be wasted, she told the court Friday.
In a statement read by her public defender before sentencing, Garcia apologized and said that no matter the punishment, she’d accept it.
“I’m not sure how I let myself end up back here,” she added. “There are no excuses for any of the choices I’ve made. I didn’t know to the extent of what was going on, but regardless if I did or didn’t know, I still played a part, and for that, I am truly sorry.”
The prosecution said Garcia minimized her involvement in Umphenhour and Meade’s plans. Text messages between Umphenour and Garcia presented in court showed she was aware of their plan and even encouraged Umphenour to make sure he got his rest the day before the shooting to get his “head right so no mistakes are made.”
“It defies logic that Tia wouldn’t know exactly what they were talking about,” Reilly said.
Nicholas Wollen, Garcia’s attorney, argued that she was “used” by Umphenour and that Garcia’s traumatic childhood played into her need to seek validation and affection from him. Wollen said that Garcia was dealt a “very bad hand” right from birth, as she was abandoned by her mother and abused during her childhood.
“She knows that she is responsible in many ways for what went down at Saint Alphonsus on that day,” Wollen said, ”and that is something that she has been thinking about very seriously for months and months.”
