A Minnesota man turned himself in and told police that he had murdered a sex offender whom he believed had stalked his daughter when she was only a toddler. He said he had beaten the man with a shovel before finishing him off with moose antlers.
Twenty-seven-year-old Levi Axtell entered a police station in Cook County, Minnesota on March 8 with his clothes still covered in blood and confessed that he had beaten 77-year-old Lawrence Scully to death.
Axtell then put his hands on his head and demanded that the officers handcuff him, threatening to beat up other people if he wasn’t restrained.
Officers from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, responding to a 911 call, found the elderly man surrounded by blood, apparently having being beaten to death in his Grand Marais home. At around the same time, Axtell was turning himself in.
A witness had called 911 a little before 5 p.m. after they saw someone crash their car into Scully’s driveway and run into the man’s house, according to police. Witnesses told police that they heard the sound of screaming coming from the home.
Axtell told authorities that in 2018, Scully had been stalking his daughter, who was only 22 months old at the time. He said the older man had often parked his van at her daycare and that he had tried to groom his daughter.
Axtell asked for, and obtained, an order of protection against Scully in 2018, but the request was dismissed a few weeks later due to lack of evidence.
Scully had spent three years in prison for sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl in Kanabec County, Minnesota, before being released in 1982.
The alleged killer told police Scully would often park near where small children were present and that he believed the once-convicted sex offender would strike again.
There were also some other recent allegations against Scully, but Sheriff Eliasen said they did not have proof of any wrongdoing.
Axtell was charged with second-degree murder and bail was set at $1 million. Axtell’s attorney, Dennis Shaw, noted that his client had no serious criminal history and that his ties to Grand Marais meant there was little risk of him fleeing.
He will appear in court on April 10.
