BALLSTON SPA – A Hamilton County man admitted this week to an ax attack on a man last year in Corinth, Saratoga County District Attorney’s officials said.
Justice D. Locke, 20, of Indian Lake, pleaded guilty in Saratoga County Court Thursday to one count of first-degree assault.
Locke admitted that he entered an apartment of a man in Corinth late on Oct. 26 and attacked the resident with a tomahawk-style ax, seriously injuring the man, prosecutors said.
Paramedics were called to the address hours later by a cab driver who discovered the victim and called 911. The victim was airlifted to Albany Medical Center for treatment.
The investigation soon pointed to Locke as Saratoga County Sheriff’s investigators learned a man identified as Locke had entered the Cumberland Farms store in Corinth in a highly agitated state and had signs of blood on his hands, prosecutors said.
Investigators soon found Locke at his residence in Indian Lake and Locke later admitted to assaulting the victim with the ax. He also admitted to fleeing and then hiding the ax in a building in Indian Lake, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors in a release did not indicate a motive for the attack, but District Attorney Karen Heggen called it unprovoked.
“Defendant Locke’s plea today to a violent, unprovoked assault is the result of solid investigatory work of the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office,” Heggen said in a statement.
Locke is to be sentenced in July. Prosecutors did not identify an expected sentence in a release.
