A convict being held in a Tennessee Department of Corrections prison represented himself when filing an appeal to his case that stemmed from a conviction in a Rutherford County courtroom.

In July of 2009, a Rutherford County Circuit Court jury convicted Elgene K. Porter on charges that included conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, attempted aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated rape. Porter was sentenced to spend forty-two years behind bars, but claims that the sentence was illegal.

Porter, who previously lived on Center Pointe Drive in Murfreesboro, was convicted for the rape of a woman whose two-year-old daughter was nearby as the attack took place. Evidently, the mother who was in her mid-twenties at the time, was attacked at gunpoint and bound in duct-tape in her own home by Porter.

Porter and two accomplices ransacked the Smyrna home after breaking into it, an ordeal that lasted over three hours.

In his appeal, Porter reiterated his claim that he was illegally sentenced as a violent offender with a release eligibility of one-hundred percent for his aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape convictions. He told the appeal courts that he was entitled to be sentenced as a Range I, Standard Offender with a thirty percent release eligibility.

The State came back with dismissing Porter’s motion because he failed to state a colorable claim for relief under Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure 36.1.

43-Year-old Elgene Porter will be eligible for release on October 13, 2065. At the point, he will be 88-years-old. His sentence will officially end on Christmas Day, year 2069 when he is 92-years of age.

The appeal was denied on Monday, April 19, 2021.