DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man who posted a video of his father’s severed head on YouTube was convicted of homicide Friday and sentenced to life with out parole.
Bucks County Choose Stephen A. Corr discovered Justin D. Mohn, 33, responsible within the January 2024 capturing dying of his father at their residence within the Philadelphia suburb of Levittown.
After the sentencing, Bucks County District Lawyer Jennifer Schorn advised reporters Mohn had exhibited a “complete and utter lack of remorse,” calling it an “unimaginable, unfathomable crime.”
“We are satisfied that this was the right outcome to guarantee that the community at large is safe from Justin Mohn,” Schorn mentioned.
A message searching for remark was left for Mohn’s protection legal professional, Steven M. Jones.
Prosecutors mentioned Mohn shot his father, Michael F. Mohn, 68, with a newly bought pistol, then decapitated him with a kitchen knife and machete. The 14-minute YouTube video he posted was stay for a number of hours earlier than it was eliminated. Mohn testified through the trial that he shot his father whereas attempting to arrest him on what he mentioned have been false statements and treason however his father resisted, so he fired at him. He mentioned he severed his head to ship a message to federal staff to satisfy his calls for, which included their resignation amongst different issues.
Mohn was arrested later that day after scaling a fence at Fort Indiantown Hole, the state’s Nationwide Guard headquarters. Prosecutors mentioned he referred to as for others to affix him in making an attempt to overthrow the U.S. authorities.
Mohn had a USB machine containing photographs of federal buildings and obvious directions for making explosives when he was arrested, authorities mentioned.
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He additionally expressed violent anti-government rhetoric in writings he revealed on-line, going again a number of years. In the course of the trial, the choose heard from Justin Mohn’s mom, who mentioned police got here to the home he shared along with his dad and mom and warned him about his on-line postings earlier than the killing.
Denice Mohn testified that she and her husband had been providing monetary help and steerage as Justin Mohn regarded for a job.
Prosecutors described the murder as “something straight out of a horror film.” They mentioned Justin Mohn killed his father — who had been an engineer with the geoenvironmental part of the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia District — to intimidate federal staff, calling it a “cold, calculated, organized plan.”
The YouTube video included rants in regards to the authorities, immigration and the border, fiscal coverage, city crime and the conflict in Ukraine.
In courtroom, Michael Mohn was remembered as neighbor and current, supportive father. Within the video posted on YouTube, Justin Mohn described his father as a 20-year federal worker and referred to as him a traitor.
Throughout a competency listening to final yr, a protection professional mentioned Mohn wrote a letter to Russia’s ambassador to the USA searching for to strike a deal to present Mohn refuge and apologizing to President Vladimir Putin for claiming to be the czar of Russia. The choose dominated Mohn was competent to face trial.
Proof introduced on the trial included graphic photographs and the video posted to YouTube. The choose warned members of the general public on the trial in regards to the pictures and mentioned they might depart earlier than the photographs have been proven. The proceedings are often called a bench trial, with solely a choose, not a jury.
