Justin Mohn could face the death penalty for the murder and beheading of his father

The Bucks County District Attorney's Office filed a notice of aggravating circumstances Friday against accused murderer Justin Mohn, who is accused of shooting and beheading his father before releasing a video showing the severed head.

Mohn, 32, of the Levittown section of Middletown Township, is accused of shooting and beheading his father, Michael Mohn, 68, and then posting a video of the severed head online. The elder Mohn was a federal government employee.

During his formal arraignment in Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, Judge Stephen Corr noted the memo filed by the district attorney's office upholding the state's right to seek the death penalty if Justin Mohn is convicted of first-degree murder.

Last month, Mohn had a preliminary hearing and was charged with first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, possession of a criminal weapon, terrorism, robbery, firearms not to be carried without a license, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, criminal use a communications facility, terrorist threats and defiant trespassing were advanced.

Following the hearing, Mohn said the federal government had “betrayed America” ​​and that his father's death occurred during a citizen's arrest. He added that “it was lawful to use deadly force in this case,” according to a video posted by Vinny Vella, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Justin Mohn told reporters after his preliminary hearing that his father “betrayed” him and killed him during a “citizen's arrest.” Mohn went viral in January after he showed off his father Michael's severed head in a YouTube video. pic.twitter.com/LtIpMYcVp2

— Vinny Vella (@Vellastrations) September 10, 2024

Similar to a YouTube video purportedly made minutes after he cut off his father's head, Mohn told reporters that his father “resisted arrest” and “betrayed me.”

Authorities said Mohn fatally shot his father on Jan. 30 at the family home on Upper Orchard Drive in the Levittown section of Middletown Township with a gun he had legally purchased in Bristol Township the day before.

After the murder, Justin Mohn fled in his father's car and was arrested by base and state police at the Fort Indiantown Gap Pennsylvania National Guard training complex near Harrisburg.

A later search of the Mohn family home found a 9mm shell casing, the weapons used in the crime and evidence that Justin Mohn planned to spread his extremist messages online, police said.

When he was arrested, Mohn was found in possession of a USB device containing photos of federal buildings and bomb-making instructions, authorities said.

The case has since attracted national and international attention.

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