‘No forgiveness:’ Prisoner who escaped custody sentenced for North Idaho murders
Judge Michelle Evans, who presides over criminal cases in Nez Perce County, said it wasn’t a hard decision Tuesday to hand down an appropriate punishment for 33-year-old Skylar Meade.
“This frankly is not a hard sentence, at all, to impose,” Evans, of Idaho’s 2nd Judicial District, said in court. “You took two lives.”
As a result, Evans sentenced Meade to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In March 204, Meade got help from co-conspirator Nicholas Umphenour to escape from the Idaho Department of Correction’s custody after coordinating an ambush at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade, who was serving a minimum 10-year sentence at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, was taken to the Boise hospital after he faked an injury.
Umphenour shot and injured two correctional officers when they escorted Meade out of the hospital. Another officer was accidentally shot by a Boise police officer who responded to reports of an active shooting.
Meade and Umphenour, who knew each other from prison, evaded law enforcement for roughly 36 hours, driving north and then heading back south through Montana before they were arrested in Twin Falls. While the pair were being apprehended, law enforcement in North Idaho were investigating the deaths of two men, 83-year-old James Mauney and 72-year-old Gerald “Don” Henderson.
Mauney was last seen 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. His wife, Liliia Mauney, described her husband on Tuesday as a wonderful person who loved life, his family and friends, and animals and the outdoors.
Before sitting down to have the prosecution read a statement on her behalf, Liliia Mauney walked in between the two court tables and looked directly at Meade, telling him that he didn’t deserve to live.
“You took away my life, my peace and my health,” Liliia Mauney said in court. “There is no forgiveness for you. You are evil. You do not deserve to wake or even breathe — not even in a prison cell.”
On the same day Mauney went missing, deputies from neighboring Clearwater County found Henderson’s body in his cabin outside of Orofino. Police said shackles that belonged to Meade, along with Mauney’s dogs, were found in the cabin.
Henderson’s partner, Ron Thompson, described him as a “quintessential mountain man” whose heaven was his secluded cabin, where he’d hike and hunt with his six dogs. One of Henderson’s three daughters, in a prepared statement read in court by his ex-wife, described how her father taught her about the outdoors, and how to raise and care for animals — something her three sons won’t get to experience.
“He was abruptly taken from me in his prime,” Donna Henderson said. “His retirement years were stolen, and his mountain home — the place he hoped to live and die peacefully — was turned into a crime scene.”
Umphenour and Meade were eventually charged with first-degree murder in the men’s deaths. After being convicted of several felonies in Ada County related to the hospital escape, Umphenour and Meade had to face the North Idaho charges.
In December, Meade accepted a deal with Nez Perce and Clearwater prosecutors and entered an Alford plea in the killing of Mauney and Henderson, and in exchange the death penalty was taken off the table. An Alford plea carries the same weight as a guilty plea, but the defendant does not admit guilt, only that there’s enough evidence that they’d likely be convicted in court.
Meade apologized for his actions Tuesday, saying that he wished he could erase the past two years. “There’s no explaining what happened or why. It should have never happened, but it did, and it’s something that I live with for the rest of my life,” he said.
Judge Evans countered that while Meade might have to live with his choices, he at least gets to live. But she added that he’ll “die in prison.”
“You get to live the rest of your life,” Evans said. “You’ve taken that away from all of these individuals — their loved ones are gone because of your actions.”
