DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — The Levittown man who fatally shot and beheaded his father in January of last year, then posted a video of it online, was found guilty of first-degree murder, terrorism and abuse of corpse charges. The conviction carries a mandatory life-in-prison sentence.
Justin Mohn, 33, claimed he was trying to make a citizen’s arrest of his father for treason when his father reached for the gun, and Mohn was forced to shoot him. Mohn then cut off his father’s head and held it up in a self-described “Taliban-style” YouTube video, calling on his militia to rise up and kill federal employees.
Mohn’s lawyer, Steven Jones, argued that the militia Mohn was trying to mobilize consisted only of him. Mohn set out in his revolution equipped only with “a sidearm, a Toyota Corolla, animal crackers and beef jerky.”
Jones said Mohn did not want to pursue a mental health defense.
“He was given that option and he chose not to,” he said. “The defense that was presented was the defense that was chosen by the defendant himself.”
On the stand, Mohn said he refused a mental health defense because that’s how the Soviet Union handled anyone who stood up to the government.
Before he was sentenced, Mohn once again pointed his finger at the federal government for his inability to get or hold a job, and asked for a prisoner swap with Russia.
He didn’t offer any kind of apology until he finished, and his lawyer slid him a note. He then said he was not sorry because he believes it was justice.
Mohn’s family members told the court that their brother squandered every opportunity he was given, always blaming others for his failures.
“Not only did he take his father's life in cold blood, but he did so in his childhood home, where you heard from the family members that that home was filled with love and support for all of their children,” said Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn.
“To carry out his father's murder and then to sever the head and to use that — his father’s desecrated body — for his political statement, there are just truly no words.”
Justin’s sister told the court, “he wasted my precious father’s life, chasing his delusions of grandeur.” His mother, noting that instead of celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary last month, she’s instead stuck forever with the vision of her husband’s headless body slumped against the tub in what prosecutors described as "a scene straight out of a horror movie."
Prosecutor Ed Louka called Mohn’s attack a planned-out ambush, pointing to a step-by-step plan handwritten by Mohn that started with, “get sites up, boom, slice.”
“I don't know that I’ve ever in 18 years had a case where the murderer wrote out the to-do list — what they were going to do, the steps they took or would take, and eventually did take, to commit a homicide,” he said.
Regardless of the verdict, Jones said his defense was successful in avoiding the death penalty.