Newly detailed video is shedding light on the final moments before Chad Doerman opened fire on his three young sons inside their Monroe Township home in June 2023, with the man reportedly invoking his faith as he moved toward the gun safe that held the weapon he would use to kill them. Doerman is now serving three consecutive life sentences without parole after pleading guilty a year later to end a case that had been headed toward a death-penalty trial.
According to WKRC, the newly detailed video centers on the moments before Doerman shot and chased down his youngest son inside the family's Clermont County home, ultimately killing two of his boys on the spot. Court documents released during proceedings showed that on the afternoon of June 15, 2023, Doerman walked through the house holding a Bible and repeating the phrase “Chad knows what's right” before opening his gun safe and pulling out a .22-caliber rifle, according to True Crime News.
Three Young Sons Killed, Mother Wounded Protecting Them
The children killed in the attack were Doerman's sons: 7-year-old Clayton, 4-year-old Hunter, and 3-year-old Chase Doerman, per AP News. Doerman's former wife was shot in the hand while trying to protect her children, and her daughter escaped the home on foot, prompting a passing motorist to call 911 after seeing the girl running down the road shouting that her father was killing everyone, the outlet reports. That call brought first responders to the scene that afternoon, and the mother's injuries later resulted in additional felonious assault charges against Doerman.
Doerman was arrested outside his Monroe Township home the same day. A Clermont County judge set his bail at $20 million, which prosecutors cited as the highest bond amount in county history, according to the same reporting. He remained held at the Clermont County Jail continuously from his arrest through his eventual sentencing.
Grand Jury Indictment and a Confession Thrown Out
On June 22, 2023, a Clermont County Grand Jury handed up a 21-count indictment against Doerman, including nine counts of aggravated murder, eight counts of kidnapping, and four counts of felonious assault, according to the Clermont County Prosecutor's Office. The multiple aggravated murder counts were filed per victim under different statutory specifications, reflecting the severity with which the office pursued the case from the outset.
The case took a significant legal turn in March 2024, when Clermont County Common Pleas Judge Richard P. Ferenc ruled that Doerman's initial interrogation confession was legally inadmissible, finding that deputies failed to properly read him his Miranda rights and continued questioning him after he requested an attorney, as reported by Court TV. The ruling forced prosecutors to build their case on physical, forensic, and surveillance evidence rather than his own statements to investigators.
Surveillance Footage and a Mental Illness Defense
Prosecutors released surveillance footage in August 2024 showing Doerman pacing up and down the aisles of a local Kroger grocery store without purchasing anything shortly before he returned home and opened fire, according to Law & Crime. The footage was presented as evidence of deliberate planning ahead of the shooting.
Defense attorneys argued in court filings throughout 2024 that Doerman suffered from severe mental illness and was “profoundly sick” at the time of the shooting, having briefly pursued an insanity defense earlier that year, per the same reporting. The confession suppression is believed to have pushed the defense toward those mental health claims in the months before the eventual plea agreement.
A Plea Deal to Spare the Family a Capital Trial
On August 2, 2024, Doerman pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault, receiving three consecutive life sentences without parole plus an additional 16 years, as part of a deal that took the death penalty off the table, according to Wikipedia's account of the case. Doerman had originally faced capital charges before accepting the arrangement.
Clermont County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Tekulve said in August 2024 that he agreed to the life-without-parole plea deal specifically to spare the surviving mother and family members the prolonged trauma of a capital trial and decades of appeals, according to AP News. Prosecutors said the decision was made in full agreement with the boys' mother, who had already endured being shot while trying to protect her children.
