SANDPOINT - A transient accused of attacking a family with bear attack deterrent spray during a home-invasion robbery pleaded not guilty Monday to a suite of felony charges.

Randy Carl Eiland is charged with battery with intent to commit a serious felony, aggravated battery and burglary. His pleas clear the way for a four-day jury trial in 1st District Court in April.

Eiland remains held at the Bonner County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Eiland, 51, is accused of breaking in a glass door of a southwest Sandpoint home and discharging the caustic spray into the face of the family's patriarch. The man's wife and daughter were also hit with the spray as they sought refuge in an upstairs room. They managed to get the door closed following a brief struggle, according to probable cause hearing testimony.

The daylight break-in was unusual because burglars tend to beat a hasty retreat when they discover a home is occupied, Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon said. Instead of fleeing, Eiland confronted and pursued the occupants of the home.

Eiland was found a quarter-mile from the site of the break-in. He denied being involved, although court records indicate he had broken glass on his clothes, smelled of pepper spray and appeared to be suffering from its effects.

Before and after Eiland was jailed, he was accused of repeatedly violating a court's no-contact order in an unrelated domestic violence case in Spokane. He pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges and a trial for those offenses is set for January 2015.

Eiland was convicted of first-degree murder in Snohomish County, Wash., in 1985, which factored into the setting of his bail in the Bonner County case. Eiland was given a 28-year prison term in the Washington state case, but it's unclear how much of that sentence he actually served.