A Minnesota dad has allegedly confessed to killing his elderly neighbor, who was a registered sex offender. Dad Levi Axtell believed that his neighbor was surveilling his young daughter and other children at their preschool in Grand Marais. Instead of reporting the older man for his possible behavior, the dad took matters into his own hands. After the killing, he told police what he did, which ultimately led to him being committed into a mental facility. Now, it has been discovered that Axtell is unfit to stand trial.
In June 2025, a judge ruled that the now 29-year-old Axtell is still unfit to stand trial for the killing of his neighbor Lawrence V. Scully, WTIP reported.
“The Court finds that Mr. Axtell is currently not competent to proceed because he suffers from ongoing delusions that prevent him from rationally consulting with his legal counsel and participating in his legal defense,” Judge Steven Hanke wrote.
In April 2025, a two-day competency hearing took place to determine if Axtell was fit to stand trial. He did not appear in person, choosing to join remotely. Currently, he is being held at the Forensic Mental Health Program, a facility for adults who have a mental illness.
Psychologists Kimberly Turner and Mischelle Vietanen evaluated Axtell and determined he is fixated on sex offenders. They said he believes himself a “hero” for killing Scully.
“The record shows that Mr. Axtell not only has a long-standing, deeply held belief that sex offenders are bad, dangerous, and will re-offend,” the judge wrote, according to WTIP. “He also has a long-standing, deeply held belief that sex offenders will certainly re-offend unless he kills them first.”
Axtell was initially determined to be incompetent to stand trial in July 2023, Fox 21 reported. That is when he was first civilly committed.
In March 2023, Axtell, then 27, was charged with second-degree murder, NBC Los Angeles reported. According to a criminal complaint, Axtell killed 77-year-old Scully with a shovel before he went to confess.
Axtell alleged in 2018 that Scully, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl in 1979, was stalking his 22-month-old daughter and other children in his van. He allegedly had parked the van near a day care. The dad sought an order of protection, which was granted but then quickly dismissed.
On March 8, 2023, Axtell drove to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office covered in blood and “put his hands on his head and said that he had murdered (Scully) with a shovel,” according to a criminal complaint, per NBC Los Angeles. He told police he hit Scully 15 to 20 times with the shovel before he “finished him off” with a large moose antler.
Deputies found Scully in his home “obviously dead from the serious nature of his head wounds.” Axtell told police he’d known Scully for a long time “and believed him to have sexually offended against children in the past.” He also claimed he observed Scully “parked in the vehicle at locations where children were present and believed he would reoffend.”
