- A fourth person has been charged in connection with an ambush in which an Idaho inmate was able to escape while being released from the hospital.
- Tia J. Garcia, 27, of Twin Falls, was charged with aiding and abetting escape for allegedly owning the car used in Skylar Mead’s escape.
- Authorities in Idaho are investigating how the ambush was planned.
A fourth person was charged in connection with an ambush that allowed white supremacist Idaho prison gang members to escape as they were being released from a Boise hospital.
Tia J. Garcia, 27, of Twin Falls, was arrested by inmate Skyler Meade and her accomplice Nicholas Amphenol as two correctional officers prepared to take Meade back to the prison in the early morning hours of March 20. Sean said he owned the car that Amphenol shot and injured, then fled the scene. Kelly, of the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office, told the judge Thursday.
Kelly said she had falsely reported her car stolen less than an hour after the ambush, and text messages from the previous day showed that Amphenol had instructed her to do so.
Idaho inmate and accomplice captured nearly 130 miles from hospital during ambush and escape
Police tracked down Mead and Amphenol about 36 hours after they fled, and they are also suspected of killing two men while on the run. They have not been charged with the killings.
Skyler Meade (right) was arrested in Twin Falls on March 21, 2024. Police say Meade, an inmate at the Idaho State Penitentiary, escaped in March after an accomplice ambushed correctional officers who were trying to transfer him from a Boise hospital to the prison. 20. (Twin Falls Police Department, Associated Press)
Here’s what you need to know about this:
Who was the last person arrested?
Kelly said Garcia was an acquaintance of Amphenol and Mead, and that she picked Amphenol up from the airport when he arrived in Boise on March 17. It’s unclear where Mr. Amphenol was traveling from, but prosecutors said Mr. Garcia had recently spent time in Florida and said he intended to do so. To get back there. That day, Amfenour and Garcia were seen on surveillance cameras from several locations around Boise.
Garcia lives with her sister and is unemployed, according to the public defender who represented her at her first court appearance Thursday. Her criminal history includes six felonies and four misdemeanors, including assault, drug use, fleeing and eluding.
She is being held on $1 million bail on charges of aiding and abetting escape. She did not file her petition. The Ada County Public Defender’s Office, which represents Meade, Amphenol and Garcia, declined to comment Thursday.
How was the escape planned?
Authorities are investigating exactly how the ambush was planned and carried out. Officials with the Idaho Department of Corrections said Mead and Amphenol were both members of the Aryan Knights, a white supremacist prison gang that federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” within the state’s prison system. There is.
Meade, 31, was serving a 20-year prison sentence for shooting and killing a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Amphenol was released from the same prison (Idaho Maximum Security Institute) in Kuna, south of Boise, in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.
Officials said the two were sometimes incarcerated together and had mutual friends in and out of prison. Meade had recently been in solitary confinement because authorities deemed him a safety risk.
The attack on the correctional officer occurred shortly after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Officials said Meade was taken to a hospital earlier that night due to his injuries. Kelly said in court Thursday that Meade refused all medical treatment after arriving at the hospital.
Two correctional officers were injured by Unfenur, and a third was injured by responding police who mistook the officer for the gunman. All are expected to recover.
What happened after the ambush?
Amphenol and Meade are believed to have killed two men in northern Idaho while on the run, according to Idaho State Police. Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who lives in a remote cabin near Orofino, took Amphenol away about 10 years ago. Unfenur was in his late teens and was experiencing problems within his family. James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, went missing after failing to return from walking his dog.
Investigators found shackles in Henderson’s cabin. Mauney’s minivan was about seven hours south in Filer. As investigators secured the scene, Mead and Amphenol fled in separate vehicles, but were arrested, police said.
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Investigators say the truck Meade was in was driven by a woman identified as Tonia Huber. She is charged with harboring a fugitive, evading police and drug possession. Mr. Huber’s attorney, Daniel Brown, said Thursday that his client is “presumed innocent and we uphold that presumption.”
What’s next?
Mr. Meade, Mr. Amphenol and Mr. Garcia will have a preliminary hearing April 8 before Ada County Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove. Huber, who was charged in Twin Falls County, will have a preliminary hearing on April 5.
Corrections Commissioner Josh Tewald has promised to review corrections policies and practices in light of the escape. The attack comes as hospitals and medical centers struggle to keep up with the growing threat of gun violence.
“We’re putting all our resources into understanding exactly how they came up with their plan,” Tewald said last week.
