Complaint: Teen told police he felt ‘pure rage’ stabbing former prom date’s dad

A 17-year-old has been charged with attempted murder in connection with a stabbing in Stoughton over a canceled prom date, a court document filed this week alleged.

Tyler J. Bexson, of Madison, was charged Wednesday with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless injury, both felonies, in a violent attack against a Stoughton father on April 30.

Police responded to a report of a disturbance at a home on the 600 block of North Page Street in Stoughton at 1:06 a.m. on April 30.

A criminal complaint filed Wednesday said the resident of the home, Matthew Mclimans heard someone outside and headed to the back yard armed with a bat. Mclimans told police he found Bexson outside the home and asked him why he was at the house so late and Bexson said, “I came to see you die.”

Mclimans’ 15-year-old daughter had dated Bexson and the two had broken up months before but Bexson had asked the girl to go to prom together as friends, the complaint said. After Bexson said he couldn’t go with her to prom, the family had emailed Bexson to pay for part of the girl’s $500 dress bought for the event. The girl’s mother spoke to Bexson’s mother on April 29, a few hours before police responded to the disturbance call at the Mclimans’ home.

Bexson was armed with a knife and a shovel and charged Mclimans, striking Mclimans with the shovel on the head, according to the criminal complaint. The two wrestled in the yard until Mclimans restrained Bexson. Mclimans wife had also fired a gunshot into the air when she saw her husband struggling with another person in the backyard.

Mclimans suffered seven stab wounds in the struggle.

Bexson, who was a student at McFarland High School, reportedly told police he emailed the McFarland dean of students to ask what would happen to a student’s family if the student got expelled. The complaint said he was angry about being asked to pay for part of the prom dress, and then being turned down to go to the prom after his parents talked him into asking the girl to prom again.

The complaint said he told police he planned “during that day to murder Matt Mclimans as I was exceedingly pissed off all day.” He told police he planned to break into Mclimans’ house and kill him with the knife. Bexson also told police he was in a “murderous rage” when he was in the Mclimans’ yard.

Court documents list Bexson’s home address in Madison.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported Friday that Bexson was free on $10,000 bail and was ordered to stay out of Stoughton and out of McFarland High School.