Justin D. Mohn took the stand on the third day of his trial.
The Pennsylvania man charged with fatally shooting then beheading his father and posting it on YouTube said on the stand Wednesday that the killing was “Plan B” after trying to arrest his father for what he called false statements and treason.
Justin D. Mohn, 33, took the stand in a suburban Philadelphia courtroom on the third day of his trial on murder and other charges stemming from the Jan. 30, 2024, homicide of his father Michael F. Mohn.
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.
