The criminal case against Chad Doerman is over but prosecutors say there may never be an answer to why Doerman gunned down his three young sons on a sunny spring afternoon.
“This was lightning from a blue sky,” Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said during a roughly hour-long press conference Monday, in which officials outlined the case and what unfolded in the days before the shooting that rocked the rural community of Monroe Township.
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Doerman, 33, pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault Friday afternoon as part of the plea deal with prosecutors, who agreed to stop pursuing the death penalty in exchange for the admission.
He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. Additionally, the two felonious assault charges carry a 16-year minimum sentence, which would be served consecutively to the life sentences.
Doerman has been held at the Clermont County Jail since his arrest last June.
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“It is unmistakably clear that you will spend the rest of your life in prison,” Clermont County Common Pleas Judge Richard Ferenc told Doerman in court. “There is no early release date for you.”
It has been nearly 14 months since Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and 3-year-old Chase, were found shot in the front yard of their own home while their father sat quietly on the porch with a rifle by his side.
Were there warning signs?
Doerman took the boys to a local dirt track race, fishing and even coached third base for Clayton’s baseball team in the five days before the killings, prosecutors said. He worked full-time as an insulator and his coworkers didn’t notice anything alarming about his behavior.
Prosecutors said that no prior disturbances had been reported to authorities regarding the Doerman household.
“From the outside view, from the inside view, this was just a normal family that seemed very happy,” Tekulve said.
The first indication that something was awry came on the morning of the shooting.
On June 15, 2023, Doerman went to the Anderson Township Kroger’s Little Clinic at the behest of his mother after he reported having “some confusing feelings,” said Tekulve, who did not comment on what specifically Doerman told his mom. He left the clinic after less than two minutes without signing in or talking to staff.
Doerman returned home early from work and spent the day doing yard work and playing with the kids. It was a warm Thursday afternoon.
His wife made lunch, which he cryptically referred to at the time as “his last good meal,” according to prosecutors.
What happened the day the Doerman boys were killed
Doerman eventually started pacing the house carrying a Bible and mumbling, “Chad knows what’s right,” according to prosecutors.
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The boys had baseball practice the night before. Their bikes and toys sat in the yard of the single-story home on Laurel Lindale Road.
“He then began to get into the gun safe, which was located in the master bedroom,” court filings state.
His wife noticed the behavior and told Doerman he was scaring her. Doerman told her he was “just kidding” and “playing around,” and decided to lie down.
His wife did not want him to be alone, so she and her sons went into the bedroom with him.
At some point, Doerman got back out of bed and got his .22 caliber Marlin rifle out of the gun safe and shot one of his sons, the document states.
His wife called 911 while screaming for her other children to run.
“My husband shot my baby,” she shouted to a dispatcher before the call disconnected. The couple’s other kids could be heard screaming in the background.
Doerman chased one of the boys into a field behind the house and shot him as he fled then again at close range after the boy fell, according to the document.
The boys’ sister picked up her last surviving brother and ran with him toward a nearby firehouse, but Doerman caught up to her and at gunpoint demanded she put the boy down.
“Once she put the child down, (she) begged the defendant not to shoot her,” the document states. “She witnessed the defendant attempt to shoot (the boy) however the gun misfired, and (he) fled to his mother.”
The boys’ sister kept running toward the fire station telling a passerby that her father was “killing everyone.”
Doerman went to the last boy and shot him. His mother suffered a gunshot wound to her hand trying to protect the boys, prosecutors said.
The document said after the boys were dead, Doerman picked them up and laid their bodies next to each other in the yard.
“I called and nobody came!” the boys’ mother frantically screamed in a second 911 call. “Their father killed them!”
‘Tell them I did it’
Two Clermont County Sheriff’s deputies reached the home just before 4:30 p.m. With their guns drawn, they approached Doerman who was sitting on his front porch.
Body camera footage shows the deputies at the edge of the Doerman property with their guns trained on Doerman demanding he put his hands up and step toward them. He did not comply.
Keeping Doerman in their sight, the deputies walked up to the porch as they continued to issue commands. Then they grabbed him and pulled him away from the rifle resting at his side.
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“I ain’t gonna hurt nobody,” Doerman said calmly. “I’m completely sober.” The back of his shirt was stained with blood from carrying one of his sons to the front yard, prosecutors said.
First responders attempted life-saving measures on the boys but all three were declared dead at the scene.
“Tell them I did it. Take me to jail,” Doerman shouted while being detained in the back of a police cruiser.
During a roughly 2½-hour interview, Doerman claimed to have connections within the CIA and said that his wife had poisoned him, Detective Michael Ross testified at a hearing earlier this year.
Doerman also said he had been planning the executions for months, according to investigators. Prosecutors said Doerman acknowledged to detectives that he had trouble sleeping because of his plan to kill his sons.
His statements in that interview were ruled inadmissible after a judge found the detective did not properly advise Doerman of his rights and failed to stop the interview when Doerman asked for a lawyer.
While Doerman claimed at times to remember nothing about the shooting, he told his family the opposite.
“No, I remember everything,” he told his mom in a recorded jail phone call. “All the way to all the reasons why and everything.”
On Monday, Tekulve indicated that the true motive behind the killings may never come to light.
Doerman was given a $20 million bond. At his arraignment, he appeared in a padded green vest meant to stop prisoners from harming themselves. He would eventually plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
‘They thought Hitler was big’
Doerman’s attorneys acknowledged the horrific acts their client committed, but said Doerman was struggling with mental illness at the time and was “profoundly sick.” They said two experts who analyzed Doerman believe he was seriously mentally ill at the time of the offense.
A defense expert opined that Doerman was suffering from bipolar disorder when he shot his sons.
However, a third expert appointed by the court determined that Doerman did not have a serious mental illness impairing his judgment.
“Mr. Doerman’s careful execution of the murders, coupled with statements he made to law enforcement after they arrived on scene, indicated that he appreciated the nature of what he did, as well as the wrongfulness and consequences of such,” Dr. Carla Dreyer wrote.
Doerman was never diagnosed with, treated for, or prescribed medication for any mental health condition before the shooting, prosecutors said, adding that his statements to police and others were inconsistent with those of someone suffering from delusions.
“Hey, they thought Hitler was big, dude,” Doerman told his brother in a recorded jail phone call, referring to news coverage. “I’m matching him.”
Enquirer staff writer Cameron Knight contributed to this report.
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Category: WHY
