Lakeville Man Charged with Assault, Terroristic Threats

A Lakeville man has been charged with assault after say he pulled a knife on his stepfather and two other people last week and told them he’d dug graves for them.

Julian Michael Denny, 22, faces two felony charges: second-degree assault, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $14,000 fine, and making terroristic threats, which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Denny remained in the Dakota County Jail Monday on a $100,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled for Nov. 7 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, Lakeville police were called to Denny’s home on Kenwood Trail just before 8 p.m. Oct. 12.

Police met with Denny’s stepfather and two other people, who said they were in the kitchen that evening when Denny pulled a knife out of his waistband and threatened them with it.

They said paramedics had taken Denny away earlier in the day for “psychological issues,” but he had come home just before 7 p.m. The victims said Denny had been acting strange for the last week and was “talking crazy” that evening, telling them that he had “dug three graves for them in the woods,” according to the complaint.

Police found Denny in a wooded lot behind his home, and he gave himself up. He admitted to officers that he had pulled a knife on one of the victims in the kitchen because the victim threatened him with a handgun.

Denny pointed to an area where he had tossed the knife before police arrived. Officers found a knife with a 10- to 12-inch fixed blade that had been painted orange and had black writing on it.

Denny was convicted in March in Stearns County for making terroristic threats, and in August 2010 in Louisiana for terrorizing.