Minnesota Man Levi Axtell, 27, of Grand Marais, is in jail after he walked into the Cook County Sheriff’s office covered in blood, put his hands on his head, and told deputies that he beat a man with a shovel 15 to 20 times, and “finished him off” with a moose antler.
Deputies went to the Scully home in Grand Marais and found him “obviously dead from the serious nature of his head wounds.” The affidavit said the cause of death was “blunt force head injuries,” and Scully had “wounds on his arms that are consistent with defensive wounds.”
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Axtell believed Scully, who was convicted in Kanabec County, Minnesota, of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl in 1979, according to Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliason, was stalking his toddler daughter at her daycare.
“Axtell said he had observed Scully parked in the vehicle at locations where children were present and believed he would re-offend.”
Axtell said he had known Scully for a long time “and believed him to have sexually offended against children in the past,” the criminal complaint read.
There had been recent allegations against Scully, but an investigation “didn’t reveal anything,” Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliasen told The Associated Press. “Most of the reports were regarding harassment.”
Axtell filed an order of protection in 2018 against Scully, which was initially granted but dropped several weeks later. It’s unclear why the order of protection was dropped.
On March 8, shortly before 5 p.m., the Cook County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from a citizen who watched someone pull into Scully’s Grand Marais driveway, “smash a vehicle,” and “then run into the house,” according to the affidavit.
“The citizen then heard screaming coming from the house,” the affidavit says. “While on the call, approximately a minute later,” the citizen told a dispatcher, the man was driving to the police station about three blocks away.
Axtell was taken into custody and arraigned Friday on a second-degree murder charge in the death of 77-year-old Lawrence V. Scully. Axtell is being held in the Cook County jail on a $1 million bond despite objections from his lawyer, Dennis Shaw.
A criminal complaint filed Friday says 27-year-old Levi Axtell killed 77-year-old Lawrence V. Scully Wednesday in Scully's home in Grand Marais. https://t.co/Xw2jDExGZ0
— NBC 6 South Florida (@nbc6) March 11, 2023
If you think what #LeviAxtell did is upsetting, don’t even glance at 1 of our granddaughters. R daughters can take care of themselves.
TBS…between my SIL’s, MIL’s & wife, I wouldn’t even have the opportunity to….— PAH PAW (@JamesMechley) March 11, 2023
Shaw noted Axtell had no serious criminal history until now, and his longtime ties to Grand Marais made him a minimal flight risk.
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He remains in jail awaiting his next court appearance, scheduled for April 10.
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