BATAVIA, Ohio — Chad Doerman appeared to tear up as victim impact statements from his ex-wife and stepdaughter were read in court Friday. The Clermont County man pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault after he killed his three young sons on June 15, 2023.
"Chad, I trusted you with my life. And honestly, I looked up to you more than anyone," Lara Baron-Allen, Clermont County's chief felony prosecutor, read on behalf of Doerman's stepdaughter. "Most of all, I saw you as my dad — not just a stepdad."
In her statement, Doerman's stepdaughter spoke about missing the time she had with her three brothers — 3-year-old Chase, 4-year-old Hunter and 7-year-old Clayton — and the man she considered a father.
"Waking up on Christmas isn't the same anymore," Baron-Allen read. "I don't get excited. I don't even look forward to having presents, because it's not the same. I don't get to wake up early and wake the boys up. I don't get to hide the elf. I don't get to do any of the fun stuff anymore because they're gone and you took their lives."
In her statement, Doerman's ex-wife Laura said she still thinks about the life she once had, imagining what it would be like to see her sons grow up like she had hoped.
"Where there used to be so much laughter, happiness, noise of rowdy little boys, there is now silence and emptiness," Laura said in her statement. "I would do anything to push them on the swing, cover them up one more time and hear their little ways of saying 'I love you.' All of it gone, when I should have had so much more life left to live with them."
While Doerman will spend his life in prison with no opportunity for parole, Laura said she "will never agree to think any form of punishment could amount to the form of torture and suffering I have to endure each day."
"My husband I trusted with everything made a decision that has left my life forever changed," she said. "I lost my husband and my children to this horrible crime. The law will never replace my life and give me back what I have lost. I will hold the life I had and lived so close to my heart forever. Grief will never go away, as it is all the love that is left with no place to go."
Cries could be heard as Baron-Allen read the statement, which noted Laura's daily struggle with the events she and her daughter both tried to stop.
"I quote, 'When I get to where I'm going, I'll only have happy tears.' Until then, I will live my days with nothing but sadness," her statement read.
The family also released a written statement to the media, calling for everyone to "remember and talk about Clayton, Hunter and Chase for who they were" before Doerman took their lives.
"Remember them as the three little boys who loved fishing, go-carting and swimming. Remember them as the little boys who were always at the baseball fields or running around outside. Remember them as the boys who love to have fun and were inseparable from each other. Their lives are not only about what happened to them — they are so much more than that."
Statement from the Doerman family by webeditors on Scribd
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