A Pennsylvania conspiracy theorist accused of decapitating his father and displaying the head in a disturbing online video is competent to stand trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
Defendant Justin Mohn, 32, displayed a range of animated expressions as he sat handcuffed and clad in a yellow jumpsuit during the five-hour court hearing.
Defense expert Dr. John Markey testified that Mohn suffered from a delusional disorder.
The suspected killer claimed to be a savior and King David-like figure who is being persecuted by the federal government for his public rants against immigrants, the Biden administration, the LGBTQ community, Black Lives Matter and the “far-left woke mob.”
Markey said Mohn even fired his own public defender after he became convinced he was cooperating with the federal government, which he said he wanted to overthrow.
The doctor added that, bizarrely, the suspect had written a letter to Russia’s ambassador to the United States seeking a deal to give him refuge and apologised to President Vladimir Putin for claiming to be the Russian czar.
“It’s all a delusion,” Markey said.
But the judge sided with the prosecution psychologist and ruled Mohn could be sentenced after an evaluation on June 30.
Mohn told the court that after the interview he was under the impression he had passed the competency test.
The defendants also said they understand that if convicted, they could face the death penalty or life in prison. Under Pennsylvania law, a defendant is deemed competent to stand trial.
Mohn is accused of shooting his 68-year-old father in his Levittown home, using a knife and a machete to chop off his father’s head, wrapping it in plastic and displaying it in a crazed video he posted to YouTube.
The suspect then dumped Michael Francis Mone’s head in a cooking pot for his mother to find, then drove him in his father’s car more than 100 miles to a National Guard training center.
When he was arrested at the center, Mohn was in possession of a 9mm handgun and a USB device containing photos of federal buildings and instructions on what appeared to be how to make an explosive device, where he was reportedly planning to “mobilize the National Guard against the federal government,” according to prosecutors.
In the lead up to the heinous crime, he had promoted outlandish conspiracy theories that called for the deaths of FBI agents, IRS agents, U.S. marshals, federal judges, border patrol agents and others who had “traited the country,” officials said.
He reportedly believed his father, who served as an engineer for 20 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia District Geologic Environmental Division, was “in hell for being a traitor to his country.”
Mohn faces a slew of charges ranging from first-degree murder and mutilation of a corpse to terroristic threats and robbery.
With post wire
