A 36-year-old Pierre man found guilty of assaulting a law enforcement officer has been sentenced to 31 years in the state prison.
Stanley County State’s Attorney Tom Maher says Beau Dean Foote, Sr. was sentenced on two counts of Aggravated Assault Upon a Law Enforcement Officer and one court of Resisting Arrest yesterday (Mon.) in Stanley County Court.
Judge Patricia DeVaney sentenced Foote to 15 years imprisonment on each felony aggravated assault conviction, with five years suspended on each, and one year for the resisting arrest conviction. The aggravated assault charges will be served consecutively—one after the other. The one year resisting arrest sentence will be served at the same time as the assault sentences.
The charges arose from an incident in Fort Pierre last September (29, 2017) when Foote, assaulted a deputy sheriff and a parole officer with a taser or stun gun. Foote was on parole at the time of the offenses and parole and court warrants had been issued for his arrest.
Due to the number of his previous felony convictions, which included prior crimes of assault, Foote was sentenced as a habitual offender and could have been given a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Because of his criminal history, Foote won’t be eligible for parole until he serves 75 percent of his sentence. He was given credit for 283 days of jail served.
A jury convicted Foote last month (June) after a two-day trial at the Stanley County Courthouse in Fort Pierre. Foote was immediately transported by law enforcement to the South Dakota Department of Corrections’ penitentiary in Sioux Falls.
