Suspect Who Used Tomahawk Axe During Assault inside Apartment Pleads Guilty in Court

Adam Devine

CORINTH, NY – A suspect who entered a Corinth apartment in October and assaulted the occupant with a tomahawk axe has pleaded guilty to first-degree assault.

Justice D. Locke, of Indian Lake, pleaded guilty and admitted to entering the apartment of a Corinth man in the late hours of October 26, 2021, and assaulting the man with a tomahawk-style axe, causing serious physical injury to the victim.

“On the morning of October 27, 2021, the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office was called to an apartment located on Mallery Street in the Village of Corinth in response to a 911 call from a cab driver,” police said in a report at that time. “The driver discovered a male victim with serious physical injuries and in need of immediate medical intervention.  The man was treated by EMTs from Jessup’s Landing EMS and airlifted to Albany Medical Center for critical emergency care.”

According to the Saratoga Prosecutor’s Office, a person had entered the Cumberland Farms store in the Village of Corinth in a highly agitated state and had signs of blood on his hands, later identified as Justice D. Locke.


Sheriff’s Investigators were able to locate Locke in Indian Lake and he voluntarily went with the investigators to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office for an interview. 

“Locke admitted to assaulting the victim with a tomahawk-style axe,” detectives reported. “Additionally, he admitted to fleeing the scene after the assault and later hiding the weapon in a building in Indian Lake.”

District Attorney Heggen said, “Locke’s plea today to a violent, unprovoked assault is the result of solid investigatory work of the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.  The mountain of evidence in this case brought about the defendant’s admission that he caused serious physical injury to the victim with a tomahawk-style axe.  We anticipate a significant state prison sentence when the defendant is sentenced on July 14, 2022”.

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