Pennsylvania man charged with beheading father says he was trying to perform a citizen's arrest
Mohn, dressed in a blue sport coat, shirt, and tie with his arms shackled to his waist, spoke clearly without any apparent emotion for more than two hours of direct testimony and cross examination. Responding to questions from his attorney, Steven Jones, Mohn said he shot his father in the bathroom of the family's Levittown home after telling him he was going to arrest him. Mohn said his father, who he said was an experienced martial artist, told him he would kill him before he let that happen and reached for the gun. 'Unfortunately, he resisted,' Justin Mohn said, adding: 'I was hoping to perform a citizen's arrest on my father for ultimately treason.' He described a list from his notebook shone during the trial that had the lines 'Boom' and 'Slice' as his Plan B and said he expected his father to go along with the citizen's arrest. He said he differed politically from his parents, describing them as on the left. He told the court he believed his father wanted to stop him from becoming a politician similar to President Donald Trump and that his father gave false statements in an unrelated civil case Justin Mohn brought in federal court.
Asked why he beheaded his father, he said he wanted to send a message to federal government workers to meet his demands, which included their resignation as well as the cancellation of public debt, among other things. He said he didn't do it out of hatred for his father or to cause trauma to his family. His mother, Denice Mohn, cried in court at the end of the direct questioning from his attorney. 'I knew something such as a severed head would not only go viral but could lessen the violence,' Justin Mohn said. Prosecutors said Mohn shot his father with a newly purchased pistol, then decapitated him with a kitchen knife and machete. The 14-minute YouTube video he posted was live for several hours before it was removed. Mohn was arrested later that day after scaling a fence at Fort Indiantown Gap, the state's National Guard headquarters. He said in court he knew it was wrong to jump the fence at the site. Prosecutors said he called for others to join him in attempting to overthrow the US government.
Mohn had a USB device containing photos of federal buildings and apparent instructions for making explosives when he was arrested, authorities said. He also expressed violent anti-government rhetoric in writings he published online going back several years. Earlier in the trial, the judge heard from Justin Mohn's mother, who said police came to the house he shared with his parents and warned him about his online postings before the killing. Denice Mohn testified that she and her husband had been offering financial support and guidance as Justin Mohn looked for a job. Prosecutors described the homicide as something straight out of a horror film. They said Justin Mohn killed his father—who had been an engineer with the geoenvironmental section of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District—to intimidate federal workers, calling it a cold, calculated, organized plan. The YouTube video included rants about the government, immigration and the border, fiscal policy, urban crime, and the war in Ukraine. In court, Michael Mohn was remembered as a good neighbor and supportive father. In the video posted on YouTube, Justin Mohn described his father as a 20-year federal employee and called him a traitor. During a competency hearing last year, a defense expert said Mohn wrote a letter to Russia's ambassador to the United States seeking to strike a deal to give Mohn refuge and apologizing to President Vladimir Putin for claiming to be the czar of Russia. The judge ruled Mohn was competent to stand trial. Evidence presented at the trial included graphic photos and the video posted to YouTube. The judge warned members of the public at the trial about the images and said they could leave before the photos were shown. The proceedings are known as a bench trial with only a judge, not a jury.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
NATO's Rutte to meet with Trump in Washington next week
NATO Chief Mark Rutte will visit Washington D.C. on Monday July 14 and Tuesday July 15 where he will meet with US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, NATO said in a press release. The press release did not give an immediate reason for Rutte's visit but Trump said in a recent interview with NBC News that the US would be willing to supply weapons to Ukraine via NATO and that he would make a 'major statement' on Monday. The Trump administration has so far only sent weapons authorized by former President Joe Biden, who was a staunch supporter of Kyiv.
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
'Beautiful' or 'ugly,' Trump's big bill shapes the battle for house control in 2026 midterms
Debate over President Donald Trump's sweeping budget-and-policy package is over on Capitol Hill. Now the argument goes national. From the Central Valley of California to Midwestern battlegrounds and suburban districts of the northeast, the new law already is shaping the 2026 midterm battle for control of the House of Representatives. The outcome will set the tone for Trump's final two years in the Oval Office. Democrats need a net gain of three House seats to break the GOP's chokehold on Washington and reestablish a power center to counter Trump. There's added pressure to flip the House given that midterm Senate contests are concentrated in Republican-leaning states, making it harder for Democrats to reclaim that chamber. As Republicans see it, they've now delivered broad tax cuts, an unprecedented investment in immigration enforcement, and new restraints on social safety net programs. Democrats see a law that rolls back health insurance access and raises costs for middle-class Americans while cutting taxes mostly for the rich, curtailing green energy initiatives, and restricting some workers' organizing rights. It represents the broken promise they made to the American people, said Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Washington Democrat who chairs the party's House campaign arm. 'We're going to continue to hold Republicans accountable for this vote.' Whether voters see it that way will be determined on a district-by-district level, but the battle will be more intense in some places than others. Among the 435 House districts, only 69 contests were decided by less than 10 percentage points in the 2024 general election. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has so far identified 26 Democratic-held seats it must defend vigorously, along with 34 GOP-held seats it believes could be ripe to flip. Republicans' campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, has so far listed 18 GOP incumbents as priorities, plus two districts opened by retirements. There are a historically low number of so-called crossover districts: Only 13 Democrats represent districts Trump carried in 2024, while just three Republicans serve districts Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris carried. Both committees are busy recruiting challengers and open-seat candidates, and more retirements could come, so the competitive map will evolve. Still, there are clusters of districts guaranteed to influence the national result. California, despite its clear lean toward Democrats statewide, has at least nine House districts expected to be up for grabs: three in the Central Valley and six in southern California. Six are held by Democrats, three by the GOP. Pennsylvania features four districts that have been among the closest national House races for several consecutive cycles. They include a suburban Philadelphia seat represented by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, one of just two House Republicans to vote against Trump's bill and one of the three GOP lawmakers from a district Harris won. Fitzpatrick cited the Medicaid cuts. Vice President JD Vance plans on Wednesday to be in Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan's northwest Pennsylvania district to tout the GOP package. Bresnahan's seat is a top Democratic target. Iowa and Wisconsin, meanwhile, feature four contiguous GOP-held districts in farm-heavy regions where voters could be swayed by fallout from Trump's tariffs. Beyond bumper-sticker labels – Trump's preferred 'Big Beautiful Bill' versus Democrats' 'Big Ugly Bill' retort – the 900-page law is, in fact, an array of policies with varying impact. Democrats hammer Medicaid and food assistance cuts, some timed to take full effect only after the 2026 midterms, along with Republicans' refusal to extend tax credits to some people who obtained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law; 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits. 'Folks will die here in Louisiana and in other parts of the country,' House Minority Leader Jeffries warned last week during a town hall in Republican Speaker Mike Johnson's home state of Louisiana. Jeffries singled out vulnerable Republicans like California Rep. David Valadao, who represents a heavily agricultural Central Valley district where more than half the population is eligible for the joint state-federal insurance program. California allows immigrants with legal status and those who are undocumented to qualify for Medicaid, so not all Medicaid recipients are voters. But the program helps finance the overall health care system, including nursing homes and hospitals. Republicans highlight the law's tightened work requirements for Medicaid enrollees. They argue it's a popular provision that will strengthen the program. 'I voted for this bill because it does preserve the Medicaid program for its intended recipients – children, pregnant women, the disabled and elderly,' Valadao said. 'I know how important the program is for my constituents.' Republicans hope voter's see lower taxes. The law includes 4.5 trillion in tax cuts. It makes permanent existing rates and brackets approved during Trump's first term. Republicans and their allies have hammered vulnerable Democrats for raising costs on American households by opposing the bill. GOP campaign aides point to the popularity of individual provisions: boosting the 2000 child tax credit to 2200 (some families at lower income levels would not get the full credit), new deductions on tip and overtime income and auto loans, and a new deduction for older adults earning less than 75000 a year. 'Everyone will have more take home pay. They'll have more jobs and opportunity,' Johnson said in a Fox News Sunday interview. 'The economy will be doing better and we'll be able to point to that as the obvious result of what we did.' Democrats note that the biggest beneficiaries of Trump's tax code are wealthy Americans and corporations. Pairing that with safety net cuts, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz concluded, 'The cruelty is the point.' Immigration, meanwhile, was Trump's strongest issue in 2024. NRCC aides say that will continue with the new law's investments in immigration enforcement. Democrats believe the Trump administration has overplayed its hand with its push for mass deportation. The president is a titanic variable. Democrats point to 2018 when they notched a 40-seat net gain in House seats to take control away from the GOP. This year, Democrats have enjoyed a double-digit swing in special elections around the country when compared to 2024 presidential results. Similar trends emerged in 2017 after Trump's 2016 victory. Democrats say that reflects voter discontent with Trump once he's actually in charge. Republicans answer that Trump's job approval remains higher at this point than in 2017. But the GOP's effort is further complicated by ongoing realignments: Since Trump's emergence, Democrats have gained affluent white voters – like those in suburban swing districts – while Trump has drawn more working-class voters across racial and ethnic groups. But Republicans face a stiffer challenge of replicating Trump's coalition in a midterm election without him on the ballot. Democrats, meanwhile, must corral voters who are not a threat to vote for Republicans but could stay home. Jeffries said he's determined not to let that happen. 'We're going to do everything we can until we end this national nightmare.'
Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump is attending the FIFA Club World Cup final
President Donald Trump on Sunday attended the FIFA Club World Cup final, a match that offered Trump a preview of the globe's premier soccer tournament that North America will host next year. Trump and first lady Melania Trump traveled from their golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to East Rutherford, 40 miles (64 kilometers) away, to watch the final match of the US-hosted tournament between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea at MetLife Stadium. Trump's trip Sunday fell on the first anniversary of the assassination attempt he survived in Butler, Pennsylvania, while campaigning for president. The president did not have any public plans to mark the date beyond participating in a taped Fox News Channel interview with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump that aired Saturday night. Sporting events have made up the bulk of Trump's trips in the US since taking office this year. In addition to his visit this weekend to the soccer tournament, he's attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the Daytona 500 in Florida, UFC fights in Miami and Newark, New Jersey, and the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia. The president, who has a warm relationship with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, has said he plans to attend multiple matches of the World Cup tournament next year.
