Inmate Who Fled Gets Escape Charges

Prosecutors filed escape charges Wednesday against a man who ran from deputies while he was waiting to be driven back to jail.

Christopher C. Gober, 19, faces five years in prison if he is convicted of the felony. His sentence would run consecutively with prison time he has received on two other charges, a deputy prosecutor said.

Gober was one of seven inmates being transferred Tuesday afternoon from holding cells adjacent to the courthouse to a jail van. Deputies transporting the inmates said Gober ran through a parking area and across Northwest Boulevard before he was tackled several hundred yards away.

One deputy suffered a minor leg injury when he fell on the ice while chasing Gober.

A judge had sentenced the Post Falls man to consecutive five-year prison sentences on charges of aggravated assault and intimidating a witness. The judge ordered Gober to serve a total of at least three years on the two charges before he can become eligible for parole.

Gober also has been charged with first-degree murder in Spokane in connection with a shotgun-killing.

, DataTimes