Defense attorneys for an Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his three sons execution-style last summer and allegedly admitting to the killings shortly after his arrest believe authorities violated his constitutional rights by questioning him without a lawyer.
A motion to suppress evidence was filed by Chad Doerman’s attorneys in Clermont County court this month.
They claim their client’s request for a lawyer following his arrest on June 15, 2023, was rejected, and investigators from the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office continued to question him for several hours.
During that unauthorized questioning, Doerman confessed to the killings of his three sons.
Doerman’s attorneys stated in the motion they want everything he said during his entire interrogation thrown out because the Detectives violated Mr. Doerman’s constitutional rights from the outset.
The motion claims that a detective read Doerman his Miranda rights and asked if he understood, to which Doerman responded “yep” and nodded yes.
“Mr. Doerman is never presented with a written copy of his rights,” his attorneys state in the motion. “The Detective never asks Mr. Doerman if he wants to waive those rights; he never asks Mr. Doerman to sign a waiver of those rights; he never obtains a constitutionally valid waiver of those rights.”
The went on to further state, Doerman had requested a lawyer minutes later and during the three hours of interrogation that followed. However, his request was not mentioned again by investigators.
Defense attorneys also accused authorities of inserting themselves into what should have been private, confidential discussions between Mr. Doerman and his health care providers and coerced Mr. Doerman into submitting to their presence.
Doerman was indicted last summer on nine counts of aggravated murder, eight counts of kidnapping and four counts of assault in connection with the June 15, 2023, deaths of his three sons.
He has pleaded not guilty and is expected to go on trial in July.
Doerman allegedly lined up the boys, later identified as Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and Chase, 3, and shot them execution-style, the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office previously claimed in a release.
“Three minutes later, a driver in the area called police to report a young girl running down a road screaming that “her father was killing everyone,” the sheriff’s office said.
Officers soon arrived at the Monroe Township home and found Doerman sitting on the steps with a rifle sitting next to him. Body-camera footage showed Doerman being forced to the ground and handcuffed.
When a deputy reportedly asked him what was going on, Doerman calmly replied, “Nothing.”
Officers eventually located the three boys in what was a horrific scene in the backyard. The boys were pronounced dead at the scene of the crime.
The children’s mother, who suffered a gunshot to her hand while trying to protect her sons, was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
“He was their world, he was their guardian and he executed them in cold blood,” Clermont County prosecutor David Gast alleged to the AP at the time.
Clayton’s baseball coach, Dwayne Kuhn said, “The three boys were always like their own little pack. They were always together and at the ball fields, if we were playing a game, then everybody was there watching. The other two boys, his sister, mom, everybody was there watching him.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” Kuhn added. “These little guys were such a joy to be around and so much fun, all three of them. They were just amazing children.”
A hearing for the motion to suppress evidence is reportedly scheduled for Feb. 2.
