Minnesota man charged with wife's murder assaults officers in attempted jail escape
A Minnesota man who is charged with the brutal murder of his wife attempted to escape from jail, according to new charges filed in northwestern Minnesota.
Eric Reinbold, 45, attempted to escape from the Penning County Jail in Thief River Falls on Saturday, June 4, with charges alleging that he assaulted multiple corrections officers, including slamming one officer to the ground, causing her head to strike a concrete floor.
Reinbold has been jailed since last August, having been arrested following a lengthy manhunt after his wife, Lissette Reinbold, was found dead from multiple puncture wounds on July 9, 2021. Her blood-covered body was found by her son, murder charges say.
His attempted escape Saturday happened just before 9:30 p.m. Saturday during a medicine distribution period. According to the criminal complaint, Reinbold was holding a white colored pencil when he moved around a medication cart and attacked a female corrections officer, knocking her to the ground "with enough force that she saw stars in her eyes."
He then grabbed the officer and dragged her across the floor before another officer approached. After shoving the other officer into a concrete wall, Reinbold demanded he open a door, but the officer, who had been struggling with back pain, said he couldn't feel his legs after falling to the ground.
Reinbold then held the colored pencil to the officer's throat. In the meantime, the female officer Reinbold was able to get to a control desk and open another door to let another guard in. That guard used a Taser on Reinbold, though it was only partially successful because the Taser probes couldn't penetrate through the amount of clothing Reinbold was wearing, according to the complaint.
A struggle between Reinbold and the officers continued on the ground until one officer "drive stunned" Reinbold with a Taser, at which point they were able to get his arms behind his back and cuff him.
The female officer was taken to a hospital for a head injury and another officer wound up getting checked out at a local emergency room and was released.
In addition to being charged for the murder of his wife, Reinbold's criminal history includes a 2015 domestic assault and a 2018 bomb-making incident in which he was convicted for stashing pipe bombs on family property.
Reinbold was released from prison in March 2021, having served part of a five-year sentence for possession of pipe bombs at a hunting property, where police also found a 32-page notebook on Reinbold's desk entitled: "How one person can make a difference: Instruction booklet at the HCU (homemade commando university)."
This book, the Grand Forks Herald reports, was a manual on how to "start the second American Revolution and win."
