DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — On Thursday, a judge decided that the man accused of killing his father by cutting off his head in their suburban Philadelphia home early this year and posting a video of the headless body online is mentally fit to stand trial.
Judge Stephen Corr decided on the bench after the proceedings lasted for almost five hours. During that time, Justin Mohn sat in court, wearing a yellow jumpsuit that said “inmate” on the back of it, with his hands cuffed in front of him. He smiled, nodded, or shook his head during the evidence.
Corr also agreed to Mohn’s request to fire his public defense and hire a new lawyer to handle the case. When asked if he would be open to working with a new lawyer, Mohn said, “Absolutely.”
The decision means that the case will go forward. Mohn was arrested at a National Guard station two hours from his parents’ home in Levittown, and the horrific video had already been watched many times online.
During the hearing, there were some strange moments. For example, Mohn nodded and smiled broadly at forensic psychologist Dr. Kelly Chamberlain, who was a prosecution witness. Chamberlain said that in her two meetings with Mohn, she found him to be smart, calm, and socially acceptable.
Chamberlain said that Mohn seemed to be against his lawyer’s plan to use a mental health defense and that he was acting in a way that was “self-interested.”
She disagreed with what defense expert witness Dr. John Markey said. Markey said he had met with Mohn four times and first thought he had schizophrenia, but on Thursday he changed his mind and said he had delusional disorder instead. His main point was Mohn’s letters, in which he said he was the savior, a figure like King David that the federal government was after.
Markey said that Mohn thought that his public defender was a federal spy working against him. He wrote a letter to Russia’s ambassador to the US, asking for help to give Mohn refuge and saying sorry to President Vladimir Putin for saying he was the czar of Russia.
Markey said, “It’s all crazy.”
She told Chamberlain that she didn’t think he meant to say that he was the Messiah and that his writings showed that “Satanic” groups in the U.S. believed he was.
“It could be seen as crazy,” she said, but she also said that his writing was part of his speech. “He thinks that people like him have been messed over.”
During her statement, Mohn nodded in agreement.
Corrections officer Ralph Taylor, who was also a witness for the prosecution, said that Mohn was “extremely polite” and respectful in jail.
At the beginning of the case, Corr asked him if he knew why he was there. Mohn told him that he was facing several charges, the “most serious” of which were first-degree murder charges.
Prosecutors said that all of that meant that the person could be involved in his defense.
Authorities say Mohn killed his father with a gun and then cut off Michael Mohn’s head with a kitchen knife and a hatchet at the Levittown home where they both lived.
Then Justin Mohn made a video in which he raised his father’s head and said that his father had worked for the government for 20 years while calling for violence against the government. Police say they found blood on the desk in the room where the video was taken, along with a computer that had several tabs open, one of which was for YouTube.
During the video, Justin Mohn also talks about different conspiracy theories and goes on rants about the Biden administration, immigration and the border, economic policy, crime in cities, and the war in Ukraine.
Before it was taken down, the movie was on YouTube for a few hours.
Justin Mohn is being charged with first-degree murder, mutilating a body, and having crime tools. He is being held without bail.