Spokane killer shot dead in attempted prison escape

A Spokane man serving 45 years for the murder of a 19-year-old woman in 2006 was shot and killed today in what prison officials describe as an apparent escape attempt. Kevin Wayne Newland, 25, drove a forklift through the doors of an industrial area at Clallam Bay Corrections Center after a corrections officer was taken hostage about 10 a.m. by another inmate armed with a pair of scissors, according to the Washington Department of Corrections. Newland then drove into the prison’s perimeter fences before he was shot and killed by another corrections officer, officials say. The officer taken hostage was treated for minor injuries at a hospital. The rampage appears to have been spearheaded by two men convicted of violent, high-profile crimes – Newland for the strangulation death of Spokane teenager Jamie Lynn Drake, and 25-year-old Dominick S. Maldonado for a shooting spree at the Tacoma Mall in 2005 in which four people were taken hostage and seven people injured. Maldonado is serving a 163-year prison sentence. Newland’s death occurred on the five-year anniversary of the discovery of Drake’s body in the floorboards of a Stevens County cabin. DOC spokeswoman Maria Peterson said Newland was working in the prison’s industrial area Wednesday but said further information regarding the employment and cell placements of Newland and Maldonado will be released as the investigation continues. She did not know how Maldonado accessed scissors or how Newland was able to get to a forklift. “We’re still gathering information about the whole incident,” Peterson said. The prison, which is located on the northern tip of the Olympic Peninsula and houses 858 medium- and maximum-security inmates, was locked down as law enforcement investigated the attempted escape and shooting. Newland had received seven disciplinary infractions since arriving there in January 2008 to begin his sentence. His offenses included fighting, indecent exposure, resisting, not following rules and possessing a TV he wasn’t supposed to have, according to the DOC. Newland was involved in a possible escape attempt at the Spokane County Jail that led to increased security at his trial. A Spokane County jury in September 2007 convicted Newland of first-degree murder for the June 2006 death of Drake, who was missing for a week as Newland drove her prized silver 1993 Mustang and went on a spending spree with her credit cards. He was arrested in King County June 27, 2006, and within days led detectives to his mother’s cabin in Stevens County, where he’d wrapped Drake’s body in a blue tarp and stuffed it in a crawl space. Newland had dated Drake’s roommate before he surprised Drake in her apartment and killed her. Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza, who presided over the trial and sentenced Newland, said in an email that he was surprised by Newland’s death. He described Drake as a “nice young lady” whose family “suffered greatly over her loss.” “Most crimes are stupid and senseless,” Cozza said. “This was more stupid and senseless than most.”