Levi Axtell murdered Lawrence Scully: Deputy

Levi Axtell (pictured here) beat Lawrence Scully to death with a shovel and elk antlers, authorities said. (Mug Photo: Cook County Sheriff’s Office)

A man admitted to beating an elderly sex offender to death, according to deputies in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Levi Axtell, 27, is in the local jail on second-degree murder charges, according to records. Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliasen confirmed, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune, that victim Lawrence V. Scully, 77, was convicted of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl in 1979. Axtell reportedly accused Scully of stalking his young daughter in 2018.

Authorities allege in a complaint that a caller described a minivan pulling into Scully’s driveway and the driver running into the house. The caller claimed to have heard screams. The van is gone.

Axtell, drunk and covered in blood, arrived at the sheriff’s office in that van soon after, got on his knees, put his hands on his head and admitted to murdering Scully with a shovel, authorities claimed. He allegedly demanded that they handcuff him because otherwise he would hurt someone else.

Axtell allegedly admitted that he took a shovel off the deck, hit Scully 15 to 20 times, and “don’t him” with several more punches with a large elk antler.

A deputy found Scully “apparently dead from the nature of his head wounds” at the home, authorities said.

Axtell claimed in 2018 that Scully was stalking Axtell’s 22-month-old daughter, according to the outlet. Scully reportedly sat in a van nearby while the child walked from her daycare.

“He’s been there many times chasing kids in his van,” Axtell wrote when asking a court for a protective order. “He is a convicted pedophile and his stalking and attempting to groom my daughter is totally inappropriate and must stop.”

The protective order was issued for several weeks, but was then discarded.

Sheriff Eliasen told the outlet that while Scully has faced allegations over the years, “an investigation has turned up nothing.” Most of these allegations involved harassment and trespassing at the gas station where Axtell worked.

Axtell reportedly pleaded guilty to vandalizing a pastor’s car in 2018. His felony charge was dismissed after he served three years of probation.

At a Friday hearing, defense attorney Dennis Shaw, who did not propose a specific bail amount, reportedly said his client had no serious criminal history up to that point and was at minimal risk of absconding due to long-standing ties to the local community.

District Attorney Molly Hicken asked for $1 million bail, calling it “a brutal unprovocational assault on an elderly man.”

“Given the nature of the charges, that alone constitutes a risk of absconding,” Judge Michael Cuzzo said.

Axtell is scheduled to be detained ahead of an April 10 court date.

Scully ran for mayor of Grand Marais in 2014. He lost.

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