GILLETTE, Wyo. — A man convicted of kidnapping a woman while making automatic weapon threats will spend the next decade in prison following his recent sentencing in Campbell County District Court.
Alex E. Sigvaldsen was sentenced to a minimum of nine years in prison with a 389-day credit for time served after pleading guilty to felony kidnapping and misdemeanor interference with a peace officer, Campbell County court records say.
The guilty plea is part of an agreement reached with the Campbell County Attorney’s Office which, in exchange for him pleading guilty to kidnapping and interference, agreed to dismiss unlawful contact, theft and drug use charges, per court records.
According to the affidavit of probable cause filed in the case, the charges against Sigvaldsen stem from a May 2023 incident where he kidnapped a woman at a local department store by threatening to have friends commit gun violence with automatic weapons if she didn’t come home with him.
While speaking with the woman, Sigvaldsen held his phone out to signify his friends would come inside at the push of a button. At one point, while they left an aisle, the woman mouthed “help me” to a passing shopper but her plea wasn’t noticed, the affidavit states.
Sigvaldsen told the woman that she would live, but she would spend the day with him, and he accompanied her outside, where he kissed her for approximately one second. At her vehicle, the woman managed to escape by unlocking just her driver’s door and drove directly to the Gillette Police Department to report the incident, per court records.
The woman told officers she was in shock, didn’t believe it was real and felt her only option was to go with Sigvaldsen. She said while Sigvaldsen didn’t have any visible weapons, she didn’t know what was waiting outside.
Shortly after the woman’s interview concluded, officers were dispatched to a report of a man matching Sigvaldsen’s description accosting two women at an elementary school on Dogwood Avenue. He made nonsensical statements and tried to get close to them but fled when one of the women yelled for him to go, court documents say.
Officers received a third report that the same man stole a black sweatshirt from a fueling station on Lakeway Road and fled north on 4-J Road on foot. Sigvaldsen was located running behind the Campbell County Public Library and officers arrested him near Boxelder Road following a brief foot pursuit, according to the affidavit.
Through statements and surveillance footage from the department store incident, officers determined there was sufficient probable cause to establish Sigvaldsen, through threat of force and deception, removed a woman from a place she was legally allowed to be, the affidavit says.
