Men escape from Mineral County Jail

Nick Ianniello

Mineral Independent

Two men who escaped from the Mineral County Jail in Superior Sunday were apprehended in Troy Monday after being pulled over by a Montana Highway Patrol Officer in a stolen vehicle.

Fugitives William Newhoff and Donald Schwindt were taken to Missoula where they now await sentencing for the felony weapons charges they were initially imprisoned for.

Newhoff and Schwindt were being held in the Mineral County Jail by contract with the U.S. Marshal Service.

According to the application for their warrants, the two men dismantled a fixture within their jail cell and used it to make a hole in the ceiling of the cell to gain access to a crawl space from which they escaped the secured perimeter of the jail.

Detention officers at the jail noticed the two men were gone during a morning head count at around 8:45 Sunday morning.

Mineral County Attorney Shaun Donovan said that all of the Mineral County Sheriff’s Officers were called in to help in the search of the immediate area in Superior as soon as the two were found missing.

According to a press release from the U.S. Marshal Service, a Montana Highway Patrol Officer noticed the 2001 Dodge pickup truck that had been reported stolen in Superior and pulled the two over near Troy.

Newhoff, who was driving the vehicle, was arrested on site and Schwindt fled the scene on foot.

The resulting search for Schwindt included officers from Lincoln County Sheriff’s department, Montana Highway Patrol, Montana Fish & Game, Troy Police Department, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Marshals Service and air support from the Department of Homeland Security.

He was apprehended several hours later in the mountains surrounding Troy.

Donovan said that the two will be charged with escape, as well as criminal mischief for damaging the jail property.

Both men were charged with felon in possession of a weapon, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years supervision, and were up for sentencing.

Schwindt, a convicted auto thief, was due to be sentenced Friday. Schwindt was a convicted felon and fugitive in Oregon after allegedly shooting at a Flathead County Sheriff’s Deputy during a disturbance in Creston in October 2007.

Newhoff had been found guilty of felon in possession of a firearm and felon in possession of a stolen firearm after a three day trial in Missoula and was up for sentencing Feb. 6.

Newhoff was convicted of forgery and two counts of theft in 2002 and served 10 years in the Department of Corrections and two suspended 10-year sentences.

The escape has prompted the Mineral County Jail to examine its practices and even construction to make sure everything is being done to keep prisoners in jail.

“We’re looking at this very carefully and we’ll be making whatever corrections are necessary to see that this is not repeated,” Donovan said. “We’re going to be talking to the architect and the builder of the jail about that. We’re also reviewing the staff policies to see what kind of procedural things in the jail might have prevented this or might prevent this kind of thing in the future.”

He added that he was confident everything would be done to ensure prisoners are kept behind bars.

“We’re not going to be holding prisoners here unless we’re sure we can keep them, and we’re doing whatever we need to do to be sure we can do that,” Donovan said.