Inset left: Nathan Davin (St. Louis County Jail). Inset right: MaeDean Davin (GoFundMe). Background: The 1500 block of North 9th Avenue East in Duluth, Minnesota (Google Maps).
A middle-aged Minnesota man is accused of shooting his mother in the face while she rested in a living room recliner, authorities say.
Nathan Davin, 46, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of his mom, 74-year-old MaeDean Davin. According to investigators, it was a grisly crime scene that officers walked into.
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Authorities were called to the home on the 1500 block of North 9th Avenue East in Duluth on Saturday because Nathan Davin knocked on his neighbor”s door, telling them that someone had died, police would later say. He was wearing only boxers and was reportedly covered in blood.
Nathan Davin also called another neighbor and told them, “My mom’s dead. She blew her head off,” Duluth News Tribune reported.
When police arrived at the home, they made contact with Nathan Davin, who was on the front porch.
“Why is there blood on your hands?” Duluth Police Department officers reportedly asked him. He allegedly told cops that he woke up and “found my mom f—ing dead.”
When officers went inside the home, they found MaeDean Davin lying in a recliner in her living room with a “devastating gunshot wound to her face,” and a “significant amount of blood was on [the] victim’s shirt and the recliner,” a probable cause statement obtained by McClatchy News states.
Her head was reportedly caved in, indicating she likely suffered from blunt force trauma. The gunshot wound was the size of a baseball and exposed part of her brain, the police officer signing the statement said. Investigators also reportedly saw “satanic” symbols and phrases spray-painted inside the house, including the words, “go to hell.”
In Nathan Davin’s upstairs bedroom, a Glock 9 mm was found on a nightstand with apparent blood on it, as well as ammunition that matched the pistol and shell casings found downstairs, Duluth News Tribune reported, adding that Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Kirstyn Oye said in court that when MaeDean Davin was shot, she was “positioned in her recliner in a way that indicated she was sleeping.”
Nathan Davin was arrested and placed in a police car, where he reportedly made incriminating statements. He allegedly was heard saying, “wake up to bulls–” and “there went my life.”
While the suspect – who was allegedly drunk when officers spoke with him – initially claimed he woke up to find his mother dead, he later admitted out loud what he’d done, according to authorities.
“God damn it. I killed my mother,” Nathan Davin was allegedly captured saying as he sat alone in an interview room, which was being recorded. Authorities have not shared a suspected motive.
Nathan Davin is being held in the St. Louis County Jail on a $750,000 bail. His criminal history is largely limited to traffic offenses – though in 2005, he was charged with fifth-degree assault. That charge was later dismissed as he pleaded guilty to interfering with an emergency 911 call, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
On the current charge of second-degree murder, he is set to appear next in court on Sept. 15.
MaeDean Davin was described as a “kind hearted soul” in a GoFundMe set up for her granddaughter. She worked as an educator at Summit School in Duluth for three years, an administrator for the school wrote on social media following her death.
Duluth is a city on Lake Superior located about 150 miles north of Minneapolis.
