By Brad Nygaard
The Bismarck Tribune, N.D.
BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota penitentiary inmate serving a life sentence for a 2017 murder was convicted Thursday in a case in which he was accused of spraying corrections officers with feces and urine.
Alex Eggleston, 34, was charged with two counts of contact by bodily fluids after an incident inside the North Dakota State Penitentiary on Oct. 10, 2021. That charge carries up to five years in prison.
He reportedly used a spray bottle containing a mixture of feces and urine when one officer attempted to serve him food. When another officer tried to intervene, Eggleston also reportedly sprayed that officer before being subdued. That mixture reportedly made contact with the officers’ faces, clothing and legs, according to a charging document.
Eggleston represented himself during a two-day trial that ended Thursday with the jury finding him guilty. Sentencing was not immediately held because prosecutors are seeking to have Eggleston classified as a habitual offender, according to Assistant Burleigh County State’s Attorney Robert Togni.
“The habitual offender statute requires there to be a hearing for the court to find him a habitual offender and then a presentence investigation must be done before he is sentenced,” Togni told the Tribune.
Habitual offender status is possible for adults who have been convicted of two or more crimes where the maximum punishment is five years in prison, according to state law. Courts can enhance sentences, by doubling the maximum term of imprisonment in some cases. For example, a person convicted of a crime with a maximum sentence of 10 years could be sentenced to 20 years, and a person convicted of a crime with a 20-year prison sentence could be sentenced to life.
Togni said because Thursday’s convictions related to crimes with five-year maximum sentences, habitual offender status could see Eggleston receive 10-year sentences on each count.
In December 2018, Eggleston, then 29, was convicted of murder and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon after the fatal shooting of 43-year-old Vance Neset in a Williston motel parking lot in July 2017. The murder charge carried a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, while the firearms charge carried up to five years in prison.
During a July 2019 sentencing hearing, Eggleston was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole and sentenced to five years on the firearms charge. Both of those sentences are running at the same time, or concurrently.
Because state law requires people convicted of violent crimes involving firearms to serve 85% of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole, the court system must determine that person’s life expectancy, and Eggleston’s life expectancy was calculated to be 47.6 years. By those numbers, Eggleston would be eligible to petition for parole after serving nearly 40 ½ years.
Togni said prosecutors in Eggleston’s most recent case will ask the court to order any sentences imposed to begin after, or consecutively, to Eggleston’s current sentence.
Eggleston is also facing charges related to an alleged assault on another corrections officer inside the penitentiary in August 2024. He allegedly threw coffee at an officer, then struck him in the head, face and upper body with closed-fist punches.
Eggleston previously pleaded not guilty in that case and a jury trial is scheduled to begin on May 21.
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