Death penalty on the table for man who beheaded his dad while ‘trying to perform citizen’s arrest’: DA

Justin Mohn, a 32-year-old Pennsylvania man accused of beheading his father and posting a video of the crime on YouTube, may face the death penalty, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors are considering seeking capital punishment if Mohn is convicted of murdering his 68-year-old father, Michael F. Mohn, a longtime civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in January.

The brutal crime took place at the victim’s home in Levittown on January 30. Police discovered Michael Mohn’s headless body in a bathroom, with a machete in the bathtub and his head found in a cooking pot in a bedroom.

Justin Mohn fled the scene in his father’s car but was arrested hours later at the National Guard Training Center in Fort Indiantown Gap.

Prosecutors allege that Justin Mohn used a machete to decapitate his father before posting a 14-minute YouTube video in which he held up the severed head and called for the killing of federal employees, identifying his father by name.

Mohn reportedly labeled his father a “traitor” and urged militia members to capture and execute federal officials, even providing the name and address of a U.S. District Court judge as a target.

In a shocking defense, Mohn later claimed that he was attempting a “citizen’s arrest” when his federal employee father resisted, justifying the use of “deadly force.” He expressed anti-government sentiments, stating that he believed the federal government had betrayed the country and that extreme action was necessary.

Mohn is charged with first-degree murder, terrorism, robbery, abuse of a corpse, and other crimes. Prosecutors have cited the “aggravating circumstance” of the murder occurring during the commission of a felony as a potential reason to pursue the death penalty.

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Michael Mohn, who had been honored with the “Outstanding Achievement Award” in 2019 for his work, was remembered by colleagues as a “gifted innovator” and a “dear friend,” as they mourned his tragic and violent death.