An Ohio father was spared the possibility of being placed dwith the after he admitted on Friday fatally shooting his three young children last year in a series of killings that prosecutors described as executions.
Clermont County Common Pleas Judge Richard Ferenc sentenced Chad Doerman, 33, to three life terms without the possibility of parole for the murders of Clayton, 7; Hunter, 4; and Chase, 3.
During a hearing Friday, prosecutors said they agreed to remove the aggravating factors that made Doerman eligible for the death penalty if he pleaded guilty to three counts of murder. Ferenc said the victims approved the plea agreement.
Doerman also pleaded guilty to two counts of felonious assault that included the murder of his wife – the boys’ mother – Laura Doerman, who pressed her thumb over the barrel of her husband’s rifle in an effort to protect one of her children.
“There was truly nothing — despite fighting desperately to save the lives of her children — that Laura Doerman could have done,” Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said in court.
In a statement read in court, Laura Doerman said she “will never in a million years forgive you for what you did and I hope you pay for your actions as you deserve, but I will never hate you.” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
According to a chilling account of the murders that Tukelve read in court, Chad Doerman returned from work early on June 15, 2023, and took a nap with the three boys at their home in Monroe Township, southeast of Cincinnati.
When he got up, Doerman took his rifle from a safe, loaded the magazine and shot Hunter twice. Laura Doerman began rendering aid and Clayton fled out the back door, Tukelve said.
Chad Doerman followed and fired repeatedly, striking the boy, Tukelve said.
Laura Doerman’s daughter, then 14, saw Hunter’s murder and followed Clayton and Chad Doerman out of the house. As Clayton lay injured on the ground, she saw her stepfather approach him and fire a bullet into his head, Tukelve said.
The sister ran back into the house, grabbed Chase and tried to flee the area with the 3-year-old boy, Tukelve said.
As she did so, Doerman pointed the rifle at her head and threatened to shoot her if she didn’t let go of the boy, Tukelve said.
In tears, the teen obeyed instructions, Tukelve said, but Doerman ran out of ammunition and had to reload. After the boy ran to his mother, there was a fight over the gun and Laura Doerman pressed her finger on the barrel.
“She was shot in the thumb,” Tukelve said. “Ultimately, she had to abandon Chase.”
When she did, Tukelve said, Chad Doerman shot the boy once in the head, killing him.
Doerman later told authorities that he had been thinking about killing the boys for months. It weighed on him so much that he hadn’t slept in days, Tukelve said.
Wearing a light blue button-down shirt in court, Doerman responded “yes” when Ferenc asked if the prosecutor’s statement of facts was accurate.
One of Chad Doerman’s lawyers later added that his client, who before Friday had been pursuing a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, was delusional at the time of the murders.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
