Unhinged son Justin Mohn who beheaded his dad then livestreamed it reveals appalling reason why he did it
Justin Mohn, 33, took the stand on Wednesday in his ongoing murder trial to testify over why he killed his father, former federal government worker Michael Mohn, 68, on January 30, 2024.
According to court reports from his testimony, which was not televised, Mohn coldly detailed killing his father without emotion, as his mother Denice openly wept in the courtroom.
Mohn said he first tried to perform a citizen's arrest on his father in their home, holding him at gunpoint outside a bathroom and telling him he was taking him into custody.
He said his father was an experienced martial artist, and after warning he would kill him before allowing himself to be arrested, Mohn said his father then reached for the gun.
Mohn said he shot his father because, 'Unfortunately, he resisted,' and added in his testimony: 'I was hoping to perform a citizen's arrest on my father for, ultimately, treason.' No further details on this alleged 'treason' were shared.
He then decapitated his father with a kitchen knife and machete, before filming himself holding the severed head on camera in a 14-minute YouTube video that remained online for several hours.
Titled 'Mohn's Militia - Call to Arms for American Patriots', the video saw the 33-year-old rant about 'woke mobs' that were 'destroying the country' and offered $1 million bounty for the assassinations of several Biden administration cabinet members.
Prosecutors produced Mohn's notebook during his testimony, in which he had written that his 'plan B' was to 'boom' and 'slice.'
Mohn said he expected his father to comply with his citizen's arrest, but when he resisted, he decided to decapitate him to send a stronger message to the government as he began his on-camera rant.
He said in his testimony that he differed politically from his parents, who he said were liberals while he was staunchly conservative, and previously said he believed his father was part of a 'deep state' in the federal government.
Mohn's father had worked as an engineer with the geoenvironmental section of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Much of his gruesome rant echoed the far-right fringe QAnon movement, which hinges on fabricated claims about the 'deep state' from an anonymous online figure called 'Q.'
He had shared several 'albums' of music on his YouTube, and Mohn also wrote poetry and conspiracy-laden manifestos, including one that appeared to preview his warped plan, entitled: 'America's Coming Bloody Revolution.'
Its blurb reads: 'Similar to Thomas Paine's 'Common Sense' published in 1776 which helped inspire the American Revolution, the short, easy to understand pamphlet explains why another revolution is likely in America… and how it could be successful.'
Mohn also described himself as the 'messiah' in the video with his father's head, and he said in court that he believed his father was trying to stop him from becoming the president of the United States, comparing himself to Donald Trump.
Asked why he severed his father's head, he said he believed it would pressure the federal government to meet his demands, including the resignation of top Cabinet officials in the Biden administration and the cancellation of public debt.
He said he did not do it out of hatred for his father, but added: 'I knew something such as a severed head would not only go viral but could lessen the violence.'
Mohn's sickening YouTube video with his father's head was viewed over 5,000 times before it was removed online, and he was arrested later that day after he scaled a fence at Fort Indiantown Gap, the state's National Guard headquarters.
He had called on viewers to murder any relatives that worked for the federal government and believed he was starting a revolution.
A USB drive at his home was found to contain photos of federal buildings and instructions for making explosives, prosecutors said.
Mohn's mother Denice also testified at the trial, saying that police had previously visited their home to warn Justin about his fanatical and often violent postings about the government on social media.
She said Justin and her husband had lunch together hours before the killing before she returned home to find her husband's decapitated body, which prosecutors described as 'something straight out of a horror film.'
He has pleaded not guilty to murdering his father, and a previous hearing found he was competent to stand trial.
Although he has admitted to killing his father, he denies murder. At a previous court appearance in September, he told reporters his father 'was a federal employee and betrayed me. I was trying to perform a citizen's arrest. He resisted that citizen's arrest. It's lawful to use deadly force in that event.'
Mohn's trial is a bench trial, meaning only a judge will decide his fate instead of a jury.
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