The Ohio father accused of executing his three young sons in front of his wife and daughter appeared in court this week and asked a judge to throw out his statements claiming detectives violated his rights.
Prosecutors have said Chad Doerman, 32, made statements last June such as “I did it. Take me to jail” and “I shouldn’t have done that” after he was taken into custody for the shooting deaths of Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and Chase, 3. Prosecutors said Doerman told detectives he had been thinking about murdering his sons eight months before the shooting. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of the aggravated murders.
Clermont County sheriff’s deputies found Doerman sitting on his front porch with a .22 caliber rifle sitting next to him. His sons were dead in his yard. While walking Doerman to a police cruiser in handcuffs, Deputy Jeffrey Rudd said, “You have the right to remain silent. F—— use it,” when Doerman asked, “can you get the wallet out of my pocket?”
Doerman’s lawyers claim the deputies mishandled their communications with him from the start. Rudd didn’t back down when questioned about what he said to Doerman during the hearing.
Detective Michael Ross questioned Doerman once he arrived at the sheriff’s office. Ross said he tried to build a rapport with Doerman by giving him a bottle of water and readjusting his handcuffs.
Ross said he believed Doerman wanted to speak with him but conceded on cross-examination that he didn’t read the entire card outlining Doerman’s Miranda rights, including a portion that discussed the right to have a lawyer present during questioning.
“I’m not a robot. I probably should have read the entire card, but I’m not a robot,” Ross said.
Doerman’s attorney, W. Stephen Haynes, questioned Ross further about whether he omitted parts of the card because he feared Doerman might not want to speak with him. Ross denied it and said he felt Doerman wanted to speak with him because he said, “that’s fine,” when he first started to read his rights to him.
Ross also explained that Doerman brought up “a lawyer” a couple of times during the interview and mentioned his father, Keith Doerman, and a woman named Ruby Franklin. Doerman, he claimed, said Franklin was with the CIA, but neither she nor Keith Doerman were lawyers.
Former Ohio Deputy Attorney General Mark Weaver told Crime Fix a defendant must clearly request a lawyer for questioning by law enforcement to stop.
“Defense counsel here doesn’t have much to work with,” Weaver said. “All of us have rights under the Constitution. But we also have obligations to make known whether or not we’re waiving those rights or whether we’re standing on those rights. Officers do not have to be mind readers.”
Weaver said some of Doerman’s statements about lawyers could be construed as vague. But, ultimately, the judge will make that decision.
Ross said he felt Doerman “muddied the waters” and was “playing games” when he mentioned having “family lawyers” and said at one point he would get “nice, good answers” to questions after talking to a lawyer.
Ross said Doerman denied killing his sons throughout the interview. But, when left alone in the room, he muttered things under his breath that indicated he had murdered his sons, Ross said.
Doerman’s lawyers dropped some hints at what the defense might include at trial through some of its questioning. Haynes asked Detective Ross whether he had dealt with mentally ill defendants in the past and whether he knew about “psychosis.”
“Now you’re getting outside of my knowledge of mentally ill people,” Detective Ross responded.
Judge Richard Ferenc said he would decide on Doerman’s motion to suppress after reading briefs from the state and the defense following the hearing. The ruling could come in the next month.
Doerman’s trial is scheduled to begin in July. He remains held without bail in the Clermont County Jail.
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