Flathead shooter flees jail

The Daily Inter Lake

A man who shot at Flathead deputies in late 2007 has escaped from the Mineral County jail while awaiting sentencing for that incident.

The Flathead County Sheriff's Office received a notice Sunday morning to be on the lookout for escaped Mineral County jail inmates Daniel Schwindt, 40, and William Newhoff, 26.

The Flathead office had no additional details on the escape.

The Flathead County office said Schwindt is the same man who pleaded guilty in November in U.S. District Court in Missoula to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

He faces a potential maximum of 10 years in federal prison, three years of supervised release and $250,000 in fines.

A Mineral County Sheriff's Office dispatcher said she was not authorized to talk to the press. A message to the Mineral County sheriff's shift supervisor was not returned Sunday.

Mineral County abuts Missoula County on the west side.

Schwindt and Brian Rendon, 37, were wanted in 2007 for Oregon parole violations. Schwindt was convicted in Oregon in 1992 for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Rendon had been convicted of homicide in 1990.

The two men were in Montana for three weeks before being arrested.

On Oct. 25, 2007, two women called the Flathead County Sheriff's Office from a mobile home on Riverside Road in Creston to report that two men had beaten them up and threatened to shoot at responding law officers.

When deputies arrived, Schwindt fired a .223-caliber rifle out a window in anger at deputies. The two men ran, but soon were captured.

Deputies found a .22-caliber rifle and a Ruger .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle at the home. Federal prosecutors later alleged the pair also had a second .22-caliber rifle.

Renton pleaded guilty last August in federal court to unlawful possession of a firearm by a drug user, and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Schwindt pleaded guilty in October to the firearms charge.