An Ohio father was spared the possibility of being put to death after he admitted Friday to fatally shooting his three young sons 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 killings of Clayton, 7; Hunter, 4; and Chase, 3.
During a hearing Friday, prosecutors said they agreed to drop 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 of the plea agreement.
Doerman also pleaded guilty to two counts of felonious assault that included the shooting 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 their children.
“There was really nothing — despite desperately fighting to save the lives of her boys — 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 ever forgive you for what you have done, and hope you pay for your actions like you deserve, but I will never hate you,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
According to a chilling account of the killings that Tukelve read in court, Chad Doerman returned from work early on June 15, 2023, and took a nap with all three boys at their home in Monroe Township, southeast of Cincinnati.
When he got up, Doerman removed his rifle from a gun safe, loaded the magazine and shot Hunter twice. Laura Doerman began rendering aid and Clayton fled through the back door, Tukelve said.
Chad Doerman followed him and repeatedly fired, striking the boy, Tukelve said.
Laura Doerman’s daughter, then 14, had seen Hunter’s killing and followed Clayton and Chad Doerman from the house. While Clayton lay injured on the ground, she watched her stepfather approach him and fire a bullet into his head, Tukelve said.
The sister ran back to the house, grabbed Chase and tried to flee the area with the 3-year-old, Tukelve said.
As she did, Doerman pointed the rifle at her head and threatened to shoot if she didn’t drop the boy, Tukelve said.
In tears, the teen did as instructed, Tukelve said, but Doerman had run out of ammunition and had to reload. After the boy ran to his mother, there was a struggle over the gun and Laura Doerman pressed her finger into the barrel.
“She was shot in the thumb,” Tukelve said. “Ultimately she had to drop Chase.”
When she did, Tukelve said, Chad Doerman shot the boy once in the head, killing him.
Doerman later told authorities he’d been thinking about killing the boys for months. It had weighed on him so heavily he hadn’t slept in days, Tukelve said.
Wearing a pale blue button down in the courtroom, Doerman answered “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 not guilty by reason of insanity plea, was delusional at the time of the killings.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
