Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty For Ohio Man Who Is Accused Of Executing 3 Young Sons
(Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
Ohio prosecutors expressed their clear intent in seeking the death penalty for a father who stands accused of executing his three young sons.
On Friday morning, Chad Christopher Doerman appeared in court for his arraignment and pleaded not guilty to nine counts of aggravated murder, eight counts of kidnapping, and four counts of felonious assault.
He was then ordered to be held without bond in a case that the prosecutors said is “one of the most monstrous craven, cowardly acts that will ever be our misfortune of seeing.”
Numerous other “specifications” were also included in the filings that would make him eligible for the death penalty if found guilty. The specifications include the victims’ preteen ages, and use of a firearm during the alleged crimes.
Prosecutors alleged that Doerman had lined up his sons who were three, four, and seven years old and proceeded to execute them with a rifle. The mother of the children had tried to wrestle the gun away from Doerman but was shot in the hand. Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said that one of the victims had managed to run away to another property but Doerman had chased down his son and “drug him back to the property, and executed him in front of witnesses.”
Tekulve also alleged that Doerman had “ripped the 3-year-old from his mother’s arms and put a bullet in his head.”
The mother of the victims had called 911 crying out that “her babies had been shot,” and was heard on bodycam footage yelling that he “took my life from me! My life!”
The only child to escape alive was the victims’ older sister, Alexis. According to a motorist, she had run away down a road yelling that her father “killing everyone.”
Prosecutors said that Doerman had initially confessed to the crimes.
“There has been a full admission in this case,” prosecutor David Gast said. “The case is still new. We’re still discovering facts. But the evil horror of what we know is impossible to process. In an act of incomprehensible cruelty, the father that stands before you lined up his three young boys and executed them in his own home with a rifle. In an act of desperation, the mother at some point grabbed the gun the father was wielding to attempt to protect them.”
Bodycam footage showed Clermont County Sheriff’s deputies arriving on scene on June 15th, with the defendant sitting calmly on the front steps of his residence, with a rifle next to him, while the victims lay dead nearby.
Tekulve clearly stated the ultimate goal of the prosecutors in this case on Friday outside of the courtroom.
“This is a death penalty case,” he said. “And my goal is to have this man executed for slaughtering these three little boys. It is an incomprehensible act of horror.”
A pretrial hearing has been set for July 5th.
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