DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — The Pennsylvania man charged with fatally taking pictures then beheading his father and posting it on YouTube mentioned on the stand Wednesday that the killing was “Plan B” after making an attempt to arrest his father for what he known as false statements and treason.
Justin D. Mohn, 33, took the stand in a suburban Philadelphia courtroom on the third day of his trial on homicide and different fees stemming from the Jan. 30, 2024, murder of his father, Michael F. Mohn.
Mohn, wearing a blue sport coat, shirt and tie, together with his arms shackled to his waist, spoke clearly with none obvious emotion for greater than two hours of direct testimony and cross examination.
Responding to questions from his legal professional, Steven Jones, Mohn mentioned he shot his father within the lavatory of the household’s Levittown dwelling after telling him he was going to arrest him. Mohn mentioned his father, who he mentioned was an skilled martial artist, informed him he would kill him earlier than he let that occur and reached for the gun.
“Sadly, he resisted,” Justin Mohn mentioned, including: “I hoped to carry out a citizen’s arrest on my father for, finally, treason.”
He described an inventory from his pocket book, proven through the trial, that had the traces “Increase” and “Slice” as his “Plan B,” and mentioned he anticipated his father to go together with the citizen’s arrest.
He mentioned he differed politically from his mother and father, describing them as on the left. He informed the courtroom he believed his father needed to cease him from turning into a politician just like President Donald Trump and that his father gave false statements in an unrelated civil case Justin Mohn introduced in federal courtroom.
Requested why he beheaded his father, he mentioned he needed to ship a message to federal authorities staff to fulfill his calls for, which included their resignation in addition to the cancellation of public debt, amongst different issues. He mentioned he didn’t do it out of hatred for his father or to trigger trauma to his household. His mom, Denice Mohn, cried in courtroom on the finish of the direct questioning from his legal professional.
“I knew one thing comparable to a severed head wouldn’t solely go viral however may reduce the violence,” Justin Mohn mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned Mohn shot his father 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 was arrested later that day after scaling a fence at Fort Indiantown Hole, the state’s Nationwide Guard headquarters. He mentioned in courtroom he knew it was improper to leap the fence on the web site. Prosecutors mentioned he known as for others to affix him in trying to overthrow the U.S. authorities.
Mohn had a USB gadget containing photographs of federal buildings and obvious directions for making explosives when he was arrested, authorities mentioned.
He additionally expressed violent anti-government rhetoric in writings he printed on-line, going again a number of years. Earlier within the trial, the choose heard from Justin Mohn’s mom, who mentioned police got here to the home he shared together with his mother and father 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 seemed for a job.
Prosecutors described the murder as “one thing straight out of a horror movie.” 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 “chilly, calculated, organized plan.”
The YouTube video included rants concerning the authorities, immigration and the border, fiscal coverage, city crime and the warfare in Ukraine.
In courtroom, Michael Mohn was remembered as neighbor and supportive father. Within the video posted on YouTube, Justin Mohn described his father as a 20-year federal worker and known as him a traitor.
Throughout a competency listening to final yr, a protection knowledgeable mentioned Mohn wrote a letter to Russia’s ambassador to america looking 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 offered on the trial included graphic photographs and the video posted to YouTube. The choose warned members of the general public on the trial concerning the photos and mentioned they might go away earlier than the photographs had been proven. The proceedings are often known as a bench trial, with solely a choose, not a jury.
