Indian Lake man pleads guilty to 2021 attack with tomahawk-style ax

A Hamilton County man pleaded guilty Thursday to felony first-degree assault, admitting to attacking and injuring a Corinth man with a tomahawk-style ax last fall, the Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen’s office said.

Deputies were called to a Mallery Street apartment after getting an emergency call from a cab driver who discovered a man with “serious physical injuries” who needed immediate medical attention the morning of Oct. 27, authorities said.

The district attorney’s office said the man was treated by emergency personnel on the scene and airlifted to Albany Medical Center Hospital for critical care. An investigation discovered a “person of interest” had entered a nearby Cumberland Farms store in a “highly agitated state” with “signs of blood on his hands.” That person was later identified as Justice D. Locke, 20, of Indian Lake.

Locke was tracked down by sheriff ’s investigators and during an interview admitted to the attack, fleeing the scene and hiding the ax in an Indian Lake building. Officials said they corroborated Locke’s story by finding the weapon and with forensic evidence connecting him to the crime scene.

Locke will be sentenced July 14.