Chad Doerman has pleaded guilty to aggravated murder charges in the shooting deaths of his three young sons and has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Doerman shot and killed his three sons, Clayton Doerman, 7, Hunter Doerman, 4, and Chase Doerman, 3, at the family’s home in Monroe Township on June 15, 2023.
Doerman’s guilty plea is a change from his original plea; on June 23, 2023, Doerman appeared in Clermont County Common Pleas Court and pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him.
On Aug. 2, Doerman, 33, was sentenced to three consecutive life terms.
He was also sentenced to an additional 16 years on two felonious assault charges for injuring his former wife, Laura Doerman, and his stepdaughter, Alexis Doerman.
Laura Doerman issued a statement through prosecutors after the sentencing.
In her written statement, Doerman said, “We grieve every day for my boys, and we miss them so much. I understand that the plea and sentencing today may have come as a surprise to some people, and that many people still have questions about what happened to Clayton, Hunter, and Chase. I am in full agreement with how the criminal case was resolved, and the decision to end this criminal case with a plea and multiple life sentences brings some finality to the court case for my daughter and me.”
Laura Doerman closed her statement by requesting privacy for her family.
“My daughter and I are real people who have to wake up every day and try to go on with our lives after losing the boys. We may just be a news story to you, but this is our reality.”
She also asked for people to remember her sons fondly.
“My second request is for everyone to remember and to talk about Clayton, Hunter, and Chase
for who they were before the events of June 15, 2023. Remember them as the three little boys who
loved fishing, go-carting, and swimming. Remember them as the little boys who were always at the
baseball fields or running around outside. Remember them as the boys who love to have fun and were
inseparable from one another. Their lives are not only about what happened to them- they are so much
more than that. I love you Clayton, Hunter, and Chase.”
During a press conference on Aug. 4, Prosecutor Mark Tekulve, who had originally vowed to seek the death penalty in the case, explained why the prosecution changed its stance. He cited the trauma that the surviving family members “experienced that day and continue to experience on a daily basis.”
“My job, as I saw it this week, was to relieve them of that additional agony,” Tekulve said, according to news reports.