An Ohio man that Clermont County prosecutors wanted to face the death penalty for the rifle execution murders of his three young sons in June 2023 will avoid capital punishment after entering court Friday to plead guilty Friday to aggravated murder charges.
Chad Doerman, now 34, became notorious almost immediately after bodycam showed his arrest on June 15, 2023, at the New Richmond home where he murdered Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and Chase, 3, after lining the victims up and shooting them in front of their mother Laura, who called 911 and screamed that “her babies had been shot” after her hand was wounded by gunfire.
That day, the bodycam video showed, Doerman was waiting on the front step for deputies to show up at the residence and arrest him, and the rifle was right next to him.
When Clermont County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the murder scene, took Doerman to the ground, and placed him in handcuffs while he was face-down, one of the deputies asked: “What are you doing, man?”
Left inset: Clayton, Hunter, and Chase Doerman (obituary). Right: Chad Doerman after his arrest in June 2023 (Law&Crime).
Doerman turned his head and said: “Can I roll over? I ain’t gonna hurt ya. I ain’t gonna hurt nobody.”
After again being asked what was going on, Doerman replied: “Nothing. Can I stand up? It’s kind of uncomfortable.”
Doerman was hauled away from the Laurel Lindale Road property booked a short time later, and he has remained behind bars ever since.
Chad Doerman appears at arraignment on June 16, 2023 in Clermont County, Ohio (WLWT).
Video recorded after Doerman was taken into custody showed him banging his head against a wall.
When Doerman was arraigned, prosecutors said in court that he had made a “full admission” in the case to “incomprehensible cruelty,”
“[T]he father that stands before you lined up his three young boys and executed them in his own home with a rifle,” prosecutor David Gast said in court. “In an act of desperation, the mother at some point grabbed the gun the father was wielding to attempt to protect them.”
He added the murders were “[o]ne of the most monstrous, craven, cowardly acts that will ever be our misfortune of seeing.”
Prosecutors said that Doerman began shooting the victims after asking his wife and sons to join him for a nap in a bedroom at their home, just days before Father’s Day. Authorities said that Doerman planned the murders for months and admitted he hadn’t slept for days prior to the slayings because the “thoughts of having to kill his sons was so heavy on him.”
In court, Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said that Doerman shot Hunter first with a rifle and then shot Clayton “from behind” while the boy tried to escape, executing his eldest son when he fell. Next, the defendant “ripped” 3-year-old Chase from his mother’s arms and “put a bullet in his head.”
At least one neighbor has said that Doerman was abusive to his wife and kids and that he was “angry every day.”
Prosecutors had long been clear about pursuing the death penalty in the case based on the “full admission,” but the case was tripped up in March when Clermont County Court of Common Pleas Judge Richard P. Ferenc found that a detective failed to properly advise the Doerman of his Miranda rights and continued to question him after he asked for an attorney. He barred the state from using any and “all statements” the suspect made during his interrogation.
Doerman thereafter shifted his strategy to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, as Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy noted when reporting Friday of the expected guilty pleas.
BREAKING: Chad Doerman, the Clermont County, Ohio man who chased down his 3 young sons, Clayton, Chase and Hunter in June 2023 and shot them, will be in court soon. He’s expected to change his plea. He had initially pleaded not guilty, then not guilty by reason of mental disease…
— Angenette Levy (@Angenette5) August 2, 2024
On Friday, the proceedings began with the judge’s acknowledgement that a plea agreement was reached.
Judge Ferenc: I have been advised that a plea agreement has been reached in this matter. @LawCrimeNetwork #ChadDoerman
— Angenette Levy (@Angenette5) August 2, 2024
Doerman enter the courtroom to changed his plea from not guilty by reason of insanity to plead guilty to three counts of aggravated murder, taking the death penalty off the table in exchange for life without parole.
Chad Doerman has entered the courtroom @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/6sYaFdDmn9
— Angenette Levy (@Angenette5) August 2, 2024
Doerman will plead guilty to three counts of aggravated murder. There were aggravating circumstances which made him eligible for the DP. All of the aggravating circumstances have been dismissed. Entry has been filed with the clerk . No longer considered a capital case…
— Angenette Levy (@Angenette5) August 2, 2024
Doerman is also pleading guilty to felonious assaults of his ex-wife Laura and his stepdaughter, Angenette Levy reported from the courtroom.
Prosecutor Mark Tekulve says Chad Doerman will enter guilty pleas two three aggravated murder charges for the deaths of Clayton, Hunter and Chase. Felonious assault for injuries to his ex-wife, Laura, and his stepdaughter. Both tried to save the children. LWOP on the agg. murders…
— Angenette Levy (@Angenette5) August 2, 2024
The defense confirmed that it was no longer claiming Doerman is mentally ill.
Doerman’s lawyer, Greg Meyers, says he will withdraw the plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and will withdraw the motion claiming Doerman suffers from a serious mental illness and shouldn’t be eligible for the DP. @LawCrimeNetwork
— Angenette Levy (@Angenette5) August 2, 2024
A sister of the boys’ mother, a family friend, and the New Richmond Youth Sports Association (NRYSA) — a baseball and softball organization — started fundraising campaigns to support the family; the victims’ older sister Alexis was the only child to escape alive.
One day after the murders, the NRYSA revealed that three of the four child victims played baseball and softball locally.
The NRYSA’s president said that 3-year-old Chase would “always” go to games to watch his older brothers play baseball.
“He knew when his brothers were on first, second, or third. So he was just waiting for his turn to be able to play,” Kristin Bennett, according to WKEF.
Coaches remembered Hunter and Clayton both for their skill on the diamond and for the joy they had with their friends and teammates.
“We just try to continue to remember how they lived. We talk about the things that they did as kids, the stories that they have with how they’ve lived their lives. The things they did on the baseball field, the things they did in the dugout. The fun things they did as being playful, joyful, loving kids,” Clayton’s coach Dwayne Kuhn reportedly said. “Those are the things we really focus on and the things we think about. And we continue to do that, it’ll help us get through this.”
An obituary for the children said that the three brothers “bonded together in life and now for eternity as God has reeled them in to heaven for unending days of fishing, playing outside way past bedtime, laughing loudly, and non-stop giggling.”
“They loved unconditionally, sharing their big hearts with anyone who they could make laugh and give them love,” the heartbroken family said, adding that Chase “couldn’t wait to be a baseball player like his brothers.”
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