Ohio dad gets life for fatally shooting his 3 young sons at home in 'monstrous' killing

BATAVIA, Ohio (TCN) -- A 33-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison and avoid the death penalty after he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his three young sons at their home last year.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports Chad Doerman entered the plea Friday, Aug. 2, for three counts of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault for killing 7-year-old Clayton Doerman, 4-year-old Hunter Doerman, and 3-year-old Chase Doerman. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors said they would not pursue the death penalty against him. A judge sentenced him to three life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.

Doerman initially pleaded not guilty.

At his hearing on Friday, Doerman’s attorneys reportedly argued that Doerman was “profoundly sick” from mental illness.

On June 15, 2023, at 4:15 p.m., Doerman’s wife, Laura Doerman, called the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office and said her "babies had been shot." Minutes later, the dispatch center received a call from a driver who said she saw a girl running down the street yelling that her "father was killing everyone."

Deputies arrived at the home on Laurel Lindale Road and located Doerman sitting on a step outside the home near three unresponsive juveniles in the yard. Despite lifesaving measures, all three boys were declared deceased at the scene. Laura Doerman also sustained a gunshot wound to her hand. She was transported to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

According to court documents cited by the Cincinnati Enquirer, on the day of the shooting, Doerman started walking around his house holding a Bible and talking to himself, allegedly repeating, "Chad knows what’s right." He went into his room, opened his gun safe, and took out a .22 caliber rifle.

Laura Doerman reportedly became concerned, so she and her young kids went into the bedroom to be with him. Doerman shot one of the sons in the room, then Laura Doerman told her other children to escape.

Doerman reportedly followed the boys into the yard, shooting once from far away and a second time after the boy fell to the ground. The boys' sister ran with the third son, but Doerman reportedly held her at gunpoint and told her to let the boy go. The sister "begged the defendant not to shoot her."

Doerman aimed at the boy, but his gun misfired. The boy ran to his mother, but Doerman caught up with him and killed the boy. Laura Doerman sustained the gunshot wound to her hand by protecting the little boy.

After all three were dead, Doerman reportedly moved their bodies to the front yard.

When deputies got to the house, Doerman reportedly told them, "I ain’t gonna hurt nobody. I’m completely sober." He also said, "I did it. Take me to jail."

At his court hearing in June 2023, WLWT-TV reports Clermont County prosecutor David Gast said, "The trauma that this man has inflicted on his family, community, law enforcement, first responders, and all the rest of us is unspeakable. There has been a full admission in this case; the case is still new [and] 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."

Gast called the crimes one of "the most monstrous, craven, cowardly acts that will ever be our misfortune of seeing."

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Doerman’s stepdaughter, the one who fled with one of the sons, spoke at Doerman’s sentencing hearing and said, "I don’t get to do any of the fun stuff anymore because they’re gone and you took their lives. When you took those three boys lives away, you took mine and took my mom’s."

Laura Doerman also provided a statement, saying, "My life was ripped away from me and destroyed. Where there used to be so much laughter, happiness, noise of rowdy little boys, there is now sadness and emptiness. I would do anything to push them on the swing, cover them up one more time, and hear their little ways of saying, 'I love you.'"

Following the sentencing, she said she wants the community to remember her sons as "the three little boys who lived for fishing, go-carting, and swimming. Remember them as the little boys who were always at the baseball fields or running around outside. Remember them as the boys who love to have fun and were inseparable from one another."

Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said, "Chad Doerman will die in prison."

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