'This will be my last good meal': Prosecutors detail Chad Doerman's behavior leading up to murdering his sons (2024)

BATAVIA, Ohio — Clermont County prosecutors on Monday explained how they were planning to go after Chad Doerman's insanity defense if the Clermont County father had not pleaded guilty to murdering his three young sons.

Mark Tekulve and Lara Baron Allen detailed Doerman's history of "controlling behavior" that they said was likely related to his "underlying personality structure."

"Could've been depression, could've been anxiety, could've been anything or nothing," Allen said.

Allen explained a defendant would only be eligible to use "not guilty by reason of insanity" only after the defense proves their client has been diagnosed with one of four mental health illnesses which include: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or delusional disorder.

She said that based on multiple evaluations, Doerman did not meet the criteria.

Prosecutors pointed out that in the days leading up to the murders, and while he was in the Clermont County Jail, Doerman never once sought treatment for mental health illness.

Tekulve also showed surveillance video at Kroger on the morning of the murders. Doerman was seen inside the store and at the Little Clinic.

"The reason he went to the Little Clinic is because his mother suggested he go there, he expressed to her — not to Laura — that he was having some confusing feelings," Tekulve said. "We're going to tell you and emphasize the Little Clinic as good as it is, cannot, as we understand it, it is not the right place to go for serious problems that you may feel you're having psychologically."

Tekulve talked about the days leading up to the murders, where Doerman said some unusual things, searched YouTube for a song called "Happy in Hell" and woke up his stepdaughter early Wednesday morning before he left for work.

"He wakes her up and tells her and apologizes for 'whatever I have done to you if anything I've ever done to hurt you.' Again, unusual, but will become meaningful in context as we know how the events unfolded later," Tekulve said.

Prosecutors said after Doerman came home that Thursday morning from Kroger, stopped to get beer, went to the shed behind his home as his family arrived from running errands. His ex-wife made them all lunch.

"The defendant says to Laura, 'This will be my last good meal,'" Tekulve said, describing what Doerman said hours before the murders. "Laura begins to worry that this is a statement he may be contemplating suicide."

Tekulve also said Doerman called his father around 12:50 p.m.

"Makes a statement that Clayton is going to be the hardest one," Tekulve said.

Between 1-3 p.m., Tekulve said Doerman was doing yard work and playing with his sons. Everything at this point seemed normal. Then between 3:30-3:45 p.m., Doerman is reading the Bible to his son Hunter.

"He's walking around the house with the Bible, mumbling 'Chad knows what's right, Chad knows what's right,'" Tekulve said. "Laura says, 'You're scaring me.' Again, highly unusual behavior and Chad says, 'I'm just playing around.' Our position is he did this to, again, alleviate any fears or concerns that may been in her about her safety, his safety or the safety of the boys, or (his stepdaughter) so he actively deceived her."

By 4 p.m. Tekulve described a frantic scene once the family was done taking a nap in the master bedroom. He said Doerman grabbed a .22 rifle from the safe, and there was concern, at that point, that Doerman was going to take his own life.

"Terror fills the room as Laura is screaming, the boys are screaming, Laura is frightened that he's about to kill himself," Tekulve said. "They're all trying to encourage him telling him that they love him and beg him not to kill himself. Laura takes the phone down to call 911 to get some help there to Chad, who she believes is about to kill himself. He grabs her phone throws it across the room and tells her it's too late. He's not going to kill himself, it is too late to save those boys."

Prosecutors also played two 911 phone calls from Doerman's ex-wife where you hear yelling, screaming and crying in the background. His ex-wife is screaming for help, telling the operator Doerman killed her son, Hunter, who was killed first. You can hear Hunter take his last breaths during that call.

Laura told all of her kids to run while carrying Hunter out of the house and attempting to render life-saving measures. Clayton runs into a field behind the house while Doerman runs after him. Prosecutors say the stepdaughter witnessed Doerman stop and take aim at Clayton, where he shot him from a distance.

They also showed body camera video from one of the deputies during Doerman's arrest, where he's sitting on the porch and they order him to the ground. At this point, Doerman is telling deputies, "I ain't gonna hurt you."

He asked the deputies if he could stand up because he said he was uncomfortable on the ground. Prosecutors said Doerman had his son's Clayton's blood on his shirt, which they said they could prove with DNA evidence.

Despite Doerman saying things to detectives like he should've killed his wife first because she was trying to save their sons, throughout the days after the murders, Doerman told law enforcement inconsistent versions of what happened. Prosecutors said sometimes he would ask who killed his family, other times he said he was at work when it happened, and he also claimed he didn't remember.

"During the 911 calls, during the body-worn cameras, he is not making the same claim that he only begins to make during his interview when questioned by detectives," Allen said. "This was something that we believe he concocted during the course of his interview."

We asked Tekulve if prosecutors knew what Doerman's motivation was for these murders.

"No idea, don't know, why that will probably never be answered, you look at this nice little family, sweet little family, I can't speculate as to why it happened, can't do it," said Tekulve.

On Monday, WCPO found out Doerman is in the process of being booked from the Clermont County Jail, into the Department of Corrections, where he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

READ MORE
Chad Doerman pleads guilty to murdering his 3 boys in Clermont County in 2023; sentenced to life w/out parole
Tears, grief, emptiness: Ex-wife, stepdaughter of Chad Doerman provide victim statement at plea hearing

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