Chad C. Doerman is appearing in Clermont County Common Pleas Court for an arraignment hearing Friday morning, a day after he was indicted on nine counts of aggravated murder in their deaths.
Police said Doerman, 32, confessed to shooting and killing his sons, Clayton Doerman, 7, Hunter Doerman, 4, and Chase Doerman, 3, at their Monroe Township home on June 15.
Doerman appeared in Clermont County Common Pleas Court on Friday morning in shackles and dressed in orange jail clothing.
Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve revealed more details about the accusations against Doerman on Friday in court.
Tekulve said Doerman killed his 4-year-old son Hunter first, shooting him twice in the head inside their Laurel Lindale Road home.
The prosecutor said 7-year-old Clayton fled and was “gunned down from behind” as he ran through a field near the home.
Tekulve said Doerman then went up to the fallen boy and shot him in the head. Then Doerman ripped the 3-year-old Chase from his mother's arms and “put a bullet in his head,” Tekulve said.
The 34-year-old woman, whom authorities have not named was shot in the hand.
According to court records, in addition to the aggravated murder charges, Doerman, 32, also faces eight counts of kidnapping and four counts of felonious assault.
He was being held in the Clermont County Jail on a bond of $20 million but on Friday, a judge ordered him held on no bail. Defense attorneys did not object
Officials have not released a motive for the killings.
Chad Doerman planned to kill his sons, police said
Doerman allegedly confessed to police that he had planned the killings that turned the home he shared with his family on Laurel Lindale Road into a crime scene crawling with investigators and cordoned by police tape last Thursday.
In a court hearing last week, prosecutors said that the boys’ mother was shot in the hand as she tried to shield her sons.
One of the three victims had tried to run away, fleeing toward a field near the family’s home. Doerman “hunted” the boy down then brought him back to the house and killed him, said David Gast, who heads the Clermont County Prosecutor’s Office criminal division.
“The trauma this man has inflicted … is unspeakable,” Gast said in court last Friday. “The evil horror of what we know is impossible to process.”
Funerals set for the boys
A visitation will take place from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the church, with a celebration of life directly following.
The boys are remembered for their unconditional love for others and their big hearts, according to the obituary on the Geo. H. Rohde & Son Funeral Home website. They loved to fish, play outside and laugh.
The boys all played baseball and the New Richmond Youth Sports Association is hosting a memorial for them at the ballfields at 2117 Laurel Lindale Road at 6 p.m. Sunday.
Food will be provided by local churches. The organization is asking people to bring memories of the Doerman boys along with a lawn chair. The public will also be able to write messages that will be delivered to the family. The event will also serve as a way to thank law enforcement and first responders.
'Babies had been shot,' 911 caller said
Dispatchers were alerted to the crime by 911 calls, the first of which was received at 4:15 p.m. on June 15. In it, a woman screamed that her “babies had been shot,” according to a statement released by the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office.
A second call made three minutes later was from a neighbor who reported that a young girl was running down the road screaming that “her father was killing everyone,” officials said.
The girl was identified as Doerman's stepdaughter, who officials said was safe.
Clermont County Sheriff's deputies who came to the home in response to the calls found Doerman sitting on the steps with the rifle next to him. He was taken into custody without incident.
Medics attempted to perform CPR on the boys to no avail.
“They held these children knowing there was nothing they could do,” Gast said in court last Friday.
He said the first responders and the community at large was traumatized by the deaths. “How do you unsee that sort of abomination?”
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde