Judge enters not guilty plea for escaped prisoner charged with killing a man while on the run

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho judge has entered a not guilty plea on behalf of an escaped prisoner charged with killing a man while he was on the lam for 36 hours.

Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty if Skylar Meade, 32, is convicted of the murder charge in connection with the shooting death of James Mauney. Meade was arraigned on the charge in Nez Perce County on Thursday. When 2nd District Judge Michelle Evans asked if he was ready to enter a plea, Meade’s defense attorney Anne Taylor said, “your honor, he intends to stand silent.”

Declining to enter a plea is a right that is protected by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and Idaho court rules state that when defendants exercise that right, a judge will enter a not guilty plea on their behalf.

Meade has already been sentenced to life in prison in a separate court case after pleading guilty to the March escape from a Boise hospital, where prison officials had taken him for treatment of self-inflicted injuries March 20.

Prosecutors say that as correctional officers prepared to take Meade back to the prison around 2 a.m. that day, an accomplice outside the hospital began shooting.

Two of the officers were shot by the accomplice, and a third was shot when a police officer mistook him for the shooter and opened fire, according to police. All three survived.

Meade and the other man then fled, investigators said, first driving several hours to north-central Idaho.

Mauney, an 83-year-old Juliaetta resident, didn’t return home from walking his dogs on a local trail later that morning, and his body was found miles away.

Police say that soon after, the two men headed back to southern Idaho. They were arrested in Twin Falls.