A murder suspect was held in Santa Cruz after he allegedly attacked a prison guard in Humboldt County as he tried to pull a stolen boat out of port.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office said 27-year-old Austin Michael Medeiros used an improvised weapon to attack a corrections deputy who was a prisoner count Wednesday evening.
The alleged assault resulted in charges of attempt to murder, assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, possession of a deadly weapon by a prisoner, manufacture of a weapon in prison, battery on a detention officer, and resisting a peace officer.
Madeiros was returned to Humboldt County on 10 April after being arrested by three deputy harbourmasters, who had gone out to help a sailor they believed to be in distress at Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor.
Instead they found an “immediate confrontation” man who tried to escape back to the cabin of the stolen boat, where a loaded gun was later discovered. When they handcuffed him and took him to shore, they learned that he was suspected of the death of a woman – one of his companions – in Neeland, near Eureka, on April 3.
The charges for that crime were murder, assault, battery, the escape of a peace officer and possession of a controlled substance. The Santa Cruz County incident added charges of grand theft (boat) for carrying a stolen loaded firearm and transporting psychedelic mushrooms.
Madeiros is from Warwick, Rhode Island. In the days before the Neeland woman’s death — Emily Rose May Lobba, 28 — she was spending time with him at his home, according to a caregiver who had regular appointments with Lobba.
When the caregiver showed up on April 3, Medeiros allegedly denied access to the property, then assaulted the caregiver and fled in Lobba’s vehicle.
The woman’s body was found on the property. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office said the cause of death was being withheld “to protect the integrity of the investigation.”
