BOISE, ID (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Two more people have been charged in connection with an ambush that allowed a white supremacist Idaho prison gang member to escape as he was being discharged from a Boise hospital.
Tia Garcia owned the car that inmate Skylar Meade and his accomplice, Nicholas Umphenour, fled in after Umphenour allegedly shot and wounded two corrections officers who were preparing to bring Meade back to prison early on March 20. She allegedly falsely reported the car stolen less than an hour after the ambush, and text messages from the day before showed that Umphenour had instructed her to do so.
Police tracked Meade and Umphenour down about 36 hours after their escape, but the pair is also suspected in the killings of two men while they were on the run. The Idaho State Police say that the pair apparently killed 72-year-old Gerald Henderson and 83-year-old James Mauney, both of northern Idaho.
As agents secured that area, Meade and Umphenour fled in separate cars but were apprehended, police said. A woman identified as Tonia Huber was driving the truck Meade was in. She has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.