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Father Who Killed Three Sons Execution Style In Front of Mom Sentenced After Plea Deal
22 hours ago
Clermont County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook
Chad Doerman accepted a plea deal in a surprise court appearance Friday, a year after he "lined up" and shot his 3, 4 and 7-year-old sons to death ... while the boys' mother and sister witnessed the horrific massacre.
Chad Doerman, who was accused of killing his three young sons, aged 3, 4, and 7, execution style in front of their own mother, has been sentenced to life in prison after changing his plea.
He appeared in court during a surprise session Friday. After previously pleading not guilty to nine counts of aggravated murder, eight counts of kidnapping and four counts of felonious assault, he accepted a plea deal.
His lawyers also withdrew they "serious mental illness" motion and insanity defense.
Doerman instead pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder -- one for each of his sons -- and two counts of felonious assault, for attacks on his wife and stepdaughter. With the plea deal, the death penalty was taken off the table.
The judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibly of parole for each of the three murder counts, to be served consecutively. He was also given 8-year minimum sentence for the two assault charges.
According to Law&Crime reporter Angenette Levy , both Doerman's wife and stepdaughter -- who witnessed the massacre -- spoke before his sentencing.
"On June 15, 2023 - my life was changed forever. It was ripped away and destroyed forever. I grieve the loss of Clayton, Hunter and Chase every day. I grieve the life they never got to live," said Laura, his wife. "I would do anything to push them on the swing. All of it gone when I should have had so much more life with them....I struggle every day with the decision to get up or give up ... I replay the events of that day over and over... I have anger, frustration and so much sadness."
"Nothing will ever be the same again because of you," added the stepdaughter. "Waking up on Christmas isn't the same anymore. I don't get to do any of the fun stuff anymore because they're not here and you took their lives. I want to you know when you took those three boys away you took my life away and my mom's."
"It is so painful to see you in jail for the rest of your life because I never thought in a million years you would do this to your own family," she reportedly continued. "But if I'm being honest, I don't think I will ever be able to hate you... You gave me an amazing life and gave me the best life I could have hoped for."
Per Levy, Doerman's lawyer said he was suffering from psychosis the day of the murders and loved the boys and "would never have done that had he not been suffering from mental health issue."
The Details of the Murders
According to an amended bill of particulars filed earlier this year -- an account repeated in court on Friday -- the 32-year-old father had returned home from work early on June 16, 2023, the day of the slayings.
"The defendant obtained a Bible and was walking around the house with it. While walking with the Bible, the defendant was mumbling, 'Chad knows what’s right,'" read the docs, via FOX19 . He then allegedly went to the primary bedroom in the home and into his gun safe, before his wife told him he was "scaring her, that she did not like what he was doing, and that she would call his parents."
Prosecutors say he told her he was just "playing around" and "kidding" with her, before laying down in the bedroom. "Due to his behavior [the mother] did not want him to be alone, so she and their [son] went into the bedroom with him," the docs added.
Shortly after, Doerman's alleged murder spree began, after retrieving a rifle from the safe and shooting his son Hunter twice.
According to the report, the boys' sister saw Doerman chase after one of the children who made a run for it toward a nearby field -- Clayton, 7 -- shooting him and causing him to fall to the ground. Doerman then allegedly shot the child in the head, "at close range."
As this happened, the young girl is said to have ran back inside the home and picked up the youngest boy, Chase, before she "attempted to flee the residence with him." Doerman, however, "must have heard [the boy] crying and began to go after them," before allegedly holding the stepdaughter at gunpoint and demanding she put down the boy. She did, while she reportedly "begged" Doerman not to shoot her.
Doerman allegedly shot at Chase, but his gun didn't fire, so the child ran to his mother. The sister, meanwhile, ran to the fire department and told witnesses her father was "killing everyone." The boys' mother was shot in the thumb during a struggle with Doerman ... before he executed Chase.
Doerman then laid all three boys in the same area on the side of the home. The docs also claim he told authorities, "I did it. Take me to jail" and said, "I shouldn't have done that," once he was apprehended. They also claim he "admitted to having been thinking about shooting his sons since October" and indicated "that the thoughts of having to kill his sons was so heavy on him that he hadn't slept for three or four days prior" to the murders.
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