Nicholas Robert Campbell-Scott
Introduction
Nicholas Robert Campbell-Scott, 29, of Waterloo, Iowa, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for escape from custody. The sentence followed a March 4, 2026, guilty plea, and the escape itself was brief and deliberate: in January 2026, while serving a federal prison sentence at a Cedar Rapids residential re-entry facility, Campbell-Scott cut off his ankle monitor and fled, staying at large for six days until officers arrested him in Coralville, Iowa. Chief U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams imposed the term.
Background Information
Campbell-Scott’s escape did not happen against a clean record — it happened while he was already serving a federal prison sentence for possession of a firearm by a felon, in the community-custody phase of that term at the Gerald R. Hinzman Center, a residential re-entry facility in Cedar Rapids where federal prisoners serve the final stretch under monitoring. His history also includes past convictions for escape and absence from custody, making the January 2026 incident a repeat offense of precisely the same kind: walking away from the custody he was lawfully serving. The United States Marshals Service and the Iowa Department of Corrections investigated the flight and the arrest that ended it.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted and sentenced. Campbell-Scott pleaded guilty on March 4, 2026, to escape from custody and was sentenced to 18 months. The facts below are from the Justice Department’s sentencing announcement.
The incident began in January 2026 at the Hinzman Center, where Campbell-Scott was serving his federal firearm sentence under residential re-entry conditions. He cut off his ankle monitor and fled the facility, converting a supervised return-to-society placement into an escape count — a federal offense in its own right, separate from and additive to the sentence he was already serving. Law enforcement located him six days later in Coralville, Iowa, and took him into custody. The plea admitting the escape came on March 4, 2026, two months after the flight, and the court sentenced him to 18 months’ imprisonment plus a three-year supervised-release term, noting there is no parole in the federal system. Campbell-Scott is being held in U.S. Marshals’ custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The prosecution was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Devra T. Hake, with the United States Marshals Service and the Iowa Department of Corrections conducting the investigation. The court file number is 26-CR-2 in the Northern District of Iowa.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The stated consequence is the 18-month federal sentence for the escape itself — imposed on top of the firearm sentence he was serving when he fled — along with the three-year supervised-release term that will follow custody. The announcement records no quotation from prosecutors or the investigating agencies and no statement from Campbell-Scott or his counsel. The public record now pairs the escape with his history of prior escape and absence-from-custody convictions, a pattern the sentencing court had before it, and the marshal’s custody hold pending prison transport is noted. The case number 26-CR-2 sits in the public court file.
Current Status
Campbell-Scott is serving an 18-month federal sentence for escape from custody, to be followed by three years of supervised release. He remains in U.S. Marshals’ custody pending transport to a federal facility, and the Justice Department announcement notes no appeal. The escape conviction attaches to the firearm sentence he was already serving, extending his total time in federal custody beyond what the original term contemplated. At 29, his release from prison falls in his early thirties, after which the supervised-release term runs through roughly age 34. His March 2026 plea stands as the conviction of record.
Impact on Their Career/Life
An escape conviction is among the most damaging entries a federal defendant can add to his own record: it tells every future sentencing court, parole authority, and re-entry facility that he cut off a monitor and walked away from a placement designed to return him to society. At 29, with a firearm felony, an escape conviction, and prior escape and absence-from-custody convictions already on the record, Campbell-Scott’s path through the federal system now runs almost entirely in custody and supervised custody rather than the re-entry placement he forfeited. The announcement records no employment or family details.
Sources
- Justice Department sentencing announcement, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Iowa: source