Man accused of beheading his father in Philadelphia is fit to stand trial – NBC New York

The man accused of decapitating his father at their suburban Philadelphia home earlier this year and posting a video of the severed head on the Internet is competent to stand trial, a judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Stephen Corr handed down the sentence from the bench after a nearly five-hour proceeding that featured Justin Mohn, dressed in a yellow jumpsuit with the word “inmate” printed on the back and his hands cuffed in front of him, sitting in court and smiling, nodding or shaking his head throughout the testimony.

Corr also agreed to Mohn’s wish to fire his public defender and appoint another attorney to handle the case. Asked if he would be willing to work with a new attorney, Mohn said, “Absolutely.”

The ruling means the case, which made headlines with Mohn’s arrest at a National Guard base two hours from his and his parents’ home in Levittown and after the gruesome video had already been viewed numerous times online, will move forward.

The hearing had several surreal moments, with Mohn nodding and smiling broadly at the prosecution’s witness, Dr. Kelly Chamberlain, a forensic psychologist who testified that she found Mohn in her two meetings with him to be an intelligent, calm and socially appropriate person.

Chamberlain testified that Mohn apparently objected to his attorney’s strategy of using a mental health-based defense and seemed appropriately “interested.”

She questioned the conclusions of defense expert witness Dr. John Markey, who said he met with Mohn four times and initially determined he had schizophrenia but said Thursday it was instead a delusional disorder. She specifically pointed to letters from Mohn in which he said he claimed to be the messiah, a King David-like figure whom the federal government was persecuting.

Mohn came to believe his own public defender was a federal agent working against him, Markey said, and wrote a letter to Russia’s ambassador to the United States seeking to broker a deal to give Mohn refuge and apologize to President Vladimir Putin for claiming to be Russia’s czar.

“It’s all delusional,” Markey said.

Chamberlain said he did not believe he meant to say he was the messiah, and that his writings in fact said that “satanic” cults within the US believe he is the messiah.

“I think it could be interpreted as crazy,” he said, but added that his writings were part of his rhetoric. “He feels that people like him have been ripped off.”

Mohn nodded agreeably throughout his testimony.

Another prosecution witness, corrections officer Ralph Taylor, said Mohn was “extremely polite” and respectful in jail.

Corr questioned him at the start of the proceedings, asking if he knew why he was there, and Mohn said he faced a number of charges, the “most serious” of which was first-degree murder.

All of this, prosecutors said, allowed someone to participate in his own legal defense.

According to prosecutors, Mohn fatally shot his father with a handgun and then used a kitchen knife and machete to decapitate Michael Mohn at the Levittown home where they both lived.

Justin Mohn then recorded a video in which he held his father’s head and identified him as a 20-year federal employee while urging violence against the government. Prosecutors have said they found blood stains on the desk in the room where the video was recorded, along with a computer that had several tabs open, including one for YouTube.

In the video, Justin Mohn also espouses a variety of conspiracy theories and criticisms about the Biden administration, immigration and the border, tax policy, urban crime and the war in Ukraine.

The video was posted on YouTube for several hours before being removed.

Justin Mohn faces charges of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and possession of criminal instruments. He is being held without bail.