Bucks man on trial for allegedly beheading his father admitted to the crime in letters, said he had no regrets

In the months after his father’s murder, as Justin Mohn sat in a cell at the Bucks County jail, he wrote nearly two dozen letters in which he not only admitted to the crime, but also said he had planned it for some time, according to evidence presented in court Tuesday.

“I don’t regret what I did, and I was aware of the consequences,” Mohn wrote in a letter to the Russian embassy in New York City, in which he asked for political asylum.

That letter and others were exhibited on the second day of Mohn’s trial for murder and related crimes in the death of his father, Michael, a semiretired civil engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Mohn, 33, wrote that his father was one of two million federal employees committing treason against the United States, and that he used deadly force against him during a “citizen’s arrest” in January 2024.

After shooting his father in the head and beheading him inside their Levittown home, Mohn said he displayed the severed head “Taliban-style” in a YouTube video in which he invoked his “revolutionary rights to overthrow the federal government” and called upon militias across the country to join him.

In another missive addressed to the U.S. Department of State’s headquarters in Washington, Mohn said that even if he is convicted of murder, “so many people see [him] as a patriot for beheading a parasite fed and trying to start a revolution.”

Mohn’s mother, Denice, wept quietly in the courtroom as First Assistant District Attorney Edward Louka highlighted portions of those letters, as well as others addressed to political pundits and celebrities including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Joe Rogan.

His attorney, Stephen Jones, stressed that portions of the letters seemed to contain outlandish, clearly false claims from his client.

Jones pointed to Mohn’s assertions that he was a federal whistleblower who had discovered tax fraud at Microsoft and that he had played a role in persuading Democrats John Hickenlooper and John Kasich to suspend their presidential campaigns in the 2020 election.

» READ MORE: What we know about the Bucks County man accused of decapitating his father

In cross-examining one of the lead detectives in the case, Jones said it was ridiculous to think that Mohn’s supposed revolution could be achieved with the meager camping supplies he had brought with him after fleeing the scene of the murder.

It was even more ridiculous, Jones said, considering that Mohn did not have any followers to participate in a revolution and was armed with just one weapon: The Sig Sauer handgun he had used to kill his father.

A forensic pathologist testified Tuesday that Mohn fired a single shot, striking his father near his left ear as he was inside a first-floor bathroom.

Judging by the condition of the body, Mohn likely used a serrated kitchen knife found at the scene to saw through his father’s skin and soft tissue, and then a machete to push through his father’s vertebrae in a “seesaw” motion," the pathologist said.

Afterward, Mohn drove to Fort Indiantown Gap, a National Guard base outside of Harrisburg, where he was taken into custody.

In a video recording of his statement to investigators, Mohn seemed friendly with the detectives, calling them “good guys” and saying he understood they were just doing their jobs.

Mohn apologized for climbing a fence into the military base, saying he was there to try to speak with Gov. Josh Shapiro for guidance about collecting the money he believed he was owed for blowing the whistle on Microsoft’s alleged tax fraud.

The trial is expected to continue Wednesday.