HELENA - A Missoula man serving a life sentence in state prison for a 2017 double murder — in which he tried to dissolve victims in acid after fatally stabbing them — admitted to an attack on correctional officials that left one with a traumatic brain injury and broken ribs, Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced on Tuesday.
Augustus Storm Standing Rock, 31, pleaded guilty in Powell County District Court to one count of aggravated assault on a peace officer while in detention and three separate counts of assault on a peace officer, according to a news release.
A plea deal recommends that Standing Rock receive a life sentence with a 40-year parole restriction. Knudsen says the agreement means Standing Rock will not be eligible for parole until 2063.
“Montana correctional officers risk their safety every day in order to enforce rules and keep order within our jails and prisons, and I am grateful for the work they do,” Knudsen said. “This case, involving multiple correctional officers injured and a sergeant with a traumatic brain injury, should never have happened, but I am glad justice is being served. My office will continue to seek justice and protect the safety of the men and women working in correctional facilities.”
Knudsen says prior to the attack, Standing Rock tried to corrupt a Montana State Prison sergeant who then wrote him up. In retribution, on January 18, 2022, Standing Rock attacked the sergeant and other officers trying to subdue him.
The sergeant suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken ribs in the attack. A news release states the sergeant has been "seeing a neurologist due to ongoing memory loss issues and migraines and to recover regular thought processes."
Standing Rock is also accused of attacking other correctional officers that came to the sergeant’s aid by biting, headbutting, and punching them.
Standing Rock was serving his life sentence with the possibility of parole in the Montana State Prison after he admitted to fatally stabbing two people to death, dismembering both victims’ bodies, and trying to dissolve the body parts in tubs filled with acid in the basement of a Missoula home in August of 2017.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 8, 2023.
Assistant Attorney General Patrick Moody prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Montana Department of Corrections Investigations Bureau.
