A criminal complaint says a Minnesota father allegedly used a moose antler and a shovel to severely beat an elderly man.
Levi William Eccles, 27, turned himself in to police on Wednesday, minutes after killing a 77-year-old man. According to the complaint, Eccles allegedly admitted to the crime, telling detectives he had known the victim for a long time and “believed he had committed sexual offenses against children in the past”.
The document states that a witness told the Cook County Sheriff’s Office that at approximately 5 p.m. Wednesday, a man in a white Dodge Caravan pulled into the driveway of the victim’s Grand Marais home, torched a vehicle and then entered the residence. Ran inside.
The witness heard screams from inside the house and saw the driver of the van flee the scene.
Officials said the alleged driver, identified as Excel, drove to the police station. According to the complaint, covered in blood, he went inside with his hand on his head and said that he had killed the victim.
The victim was found dead in her house with a shovel covered in blood. A preliminary medical examiner’s report stated that he had defensive wounds on his arms and died of blunt force head injuries.
The complaint states that Eccles told detectives that he found a shovel on the victim’s deck and struck the man approximately 20 times over the head. She said that he “finished off” her by hitting her several times in the head with a large moose antler.
Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliason said that Extell and the victim had “experienced some conflict in the past” and that Extell had alleged that he stalked his 22-month-old daughter “but nothing was sustained.”
When asked about the allegations of child sexual abuse from the victims, the sheriff said there was apparently a 1970s case from Kanabec County, Minnesota. Eliasson did not have details about the case, and nothing related to those allegations could be found in court records online for the victim.
NBC News reached out to the Kanabec County Court for comment.
Eccles was charged with second degree murder. Attorney information was not immediately available.
