Convict With Hostage Killed in Nev. Prison

A convicted killer was slain Friday by sheriff’s deputies who stormed into an infirmary office where he held a woman doctor hostage for 10 hours at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, officials said.

Kenneth James Meller, 48, was shot by deputies who tossed a “flash-and-bang” concussion grenade into the 12-by-12-foot office and then rushed through a door and broke through thin wooden wall panels.

Dr. Karen Gedney was stunned by the explosive device but otherwise unhurt. Meller was shot several times, at least once in the head, after he lunged at SWAT team deputies with a four-inch knife, prison Director Ron Angelone said.

Prison officials said that during the hostage ordeal Meller talked about committing suicide today, exactly 14 years after he shot and killed a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper after a bank robbery.

Angelone said Meller didn’t threaten Gedney until the end. “As it was going downhill, he said that if anyone showed his face he would hurt her. At that point we decided to go in.”

The director said negotiators tried unsuccessfully for hours to get Meller to release the doctor and give up. Even after deputies rushed into the room, Angelone said the plan was to not shoot Meller unless he attacked first.

Gov. Bob Miller praised Angelone and Carson City Sheriff Paul McGrath for their handling of the hostage incident. The governor added that Gedney “is a heroine. She kept her cool. She was courageous, and if she had not been able to deal with the situation calmly, it could have gotten out of hand very quickly.”

Meller had gone into the medium-security prison’s infirmary, scuffled with staffers and then took Gedney hostage, saying he was thinking about killing himself. He made no demands.

Meller was imprisoned for killing Trooper Gary Gifford, who pulled him over after a $4,250 robbery of a Lake Tahoe bank in 1975. Gifford was the first trooper shot while on duty in the history of the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Meller was arrested later after taking four people hostage at the north shore of the lake.