Security Upgrades Planned For Prison

Authorities continued searching on Monday for a convicted murderer and an armed robber who escaped from Idaho maximum security prison last week as state Correction Department officials announced plans to upgrade security at the prison.

Joey Schneider, 32, imprisoned for life without parole for the 1992 murder of Lourie Weber in Lewiston, and Michael Allen Wachholtz, 34, serving a minimum 33 years for robbery and assault and wanted for a California murder, cut their way through a prison window and then somehow evaded a motion detector before cutting through the razor wire surrounding the prison.

Correction Director James Spalding said an examination of windows in the cell block Schneider and Wachholtz were in found some windows missing rivets and others with rusted rivets.

A solid steel plate will now be welded to the outside frame, Spalding said, and metal crossbars will be placed in the windows 4 inches apart.

Officials said the three-member Serious Incident Review Panel will take the week to assess the escape and the circumstances surrounding it. A motion detection system on the inside perimeter fence did not trigger the alarm during the escape but was tested shortly afterward and found to be working.

Police were still trying to determine whether a bloody fingerprint lifted from a pickup stolen after the escape from nearby the prison and abandoned in Baker, Ore., belonged to either inmate.

Schneider pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the Weber slaying in a deal with prosecutors that avoided the death penalty. His cousin, Raymond, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to a minimum 25 years for his role in Weber’s sexual assault and beating death.

Schneider was at large for several days before being recaptured when he escaped from the state prison in Orofino while his appeal of his life sentence was pending three years ago.

Wachholtz was sentenced to 25 to 30 years for robbing a Moscow Safeway store of $109 13 months ago, and he was ordered to serve eight to 10 years more for assaulting a police officer during an escape attempt from the county jail while awaiting trial.

Sonoma County, Calif., has a warrant outstanding on Wachholtz for murdering an electrician, and Spokane County and the city of San Francisco want him on armed robbery charges. He is suspected of robbing a Spokane Valley shoe store in 1995.

Wachholtz filed a damage claim against Latah County last July stemming from the county’s use of a stun belt during his trial.

County officials used Wachholtz’s prior escape attempt and assault on the officer to justify use of the waist belt that is activated with a button held by an officer.

He claimed the belt pumped 50,000 volts into him during jury selection for his trial even though he had not acted unruly.