Life sentence for man who killed his three young children in their Ohio home

Authorities reported that A man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the shooting deaths of his three young children in their Ohio home last year..

A Clermont County judge on Friday sentenced Chad Doerman, 33, to three consecutive life terms after he pleaded guilty to aggravated murder charges. He was also sentenced to another 16 years for two counts of felony assault for injuring his ex-wife and stepdaughter.

Prosecutor Mark Tekulve had originally vowed to seek the death penalty for the June 15, 2023, killings of Clayton Doerman, 7, Hunter Doerman, 4, and Chase Doerman, 3, in Monroe Township, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Columbus.

But on Friday, she cited the trauma that surviving family members experienced that day and continue to experience daily.

“My job, as I saw it this week, was to relieve them of that additional agony,” he told reporters Friday, according to The Associated Press.

Prosecutors previously said Doerman, who He was arrested after he was found sitting at the entrance of the houseadmitted planning the murders and chasing one of the boys into a field after the boy tried to run away.

Defense attorneys had argued that Doerman suffered from serious mental illness.

Statement from the mother of the three children

Laura Doerman, the children’s mother and the defendant’s ex-wife, cried as a prosecutor read in court a statement from her saying her life had been taken away and destroyed.

“I would do anything to push them on the swing, cover them one more time and hear their little ways of saying ‘I love you’… I am angry, frustrated and so sad. The pain will never go away because it is all the love that is left and it has nowhere to go,” she said.

In another statement issued through prosecutors after the sentencing, He said he fully agreed with the resolution of the case.

“No punishment can bring my children back to me. Having the guarantee that they will spend the rest of their lives behind bars is the best thing for my family,” she said.

Laura Doerman thanked prosecutors and emergency personnel and asked for privacy, saying she and the family grieve every day for the children. But she also asked that people remember the children as they were before the events of that day.

“Remember them as the three little boys who loved fishing, go-karting and swimming. Remember them as the little boys who were always on the baseball diamonds or running around outside. Remember them as the boys who loved to have fun and were inseparable from each other,” he said.

Keep reading:

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• Ohio woman charged with murder after leaving baby alone for eight days to go on vacation