Crime Weekly - S3 Ep179: Crime Weekly News: Man Beheads Father

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

32-year-old Justin Mohn was arrested for murdering and beheading his father, Michael Mohn, after displaying his father's head in a paranoid, political Youtube video. Though the video was taken down quickly, at least 5,000 people had already seen it. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: 1. GoHenry.com/News - Set your kids up for success and get started today!

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Build, scale, and enjoy the incredible results. You can do it all yourself on Wix. Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And we're here. We're here for another week. We're here. We're going to get right into it because this is an interesting one because for many of you, you're watching us on YouTube. So if you're circulating YouTube and keeping up on the latest news, you may have already heard about this one. But for anyone who hasn't, 32-year-old Justin Moen is accused of shooting his father and beheading him and then holding his severed head up on camera during a 14 minute deranged rant

on YouTube, right on this platform. If you're watching us, scary stuff, but a lot of people saw it. I don't advise you going to do so. Some people took screenshots of it. Not a good situation. I think it's been screen recorded because I didn't watch it. But when I was researching this case, I saw it said full original video. You know, there's videos out there. People love it. Unfortunately. I can't watch it.

No, you get the point. Just take our word for it. It's there. It happened. I thought about it. And then I was like, I just feel like there's some things you can't unsee. And I don't know if I'm ready for that. You're not missing anything. I've seen it.

Well, I wanted to know what he was saying, you know, so I tried to get the general gist of what he was saying. But anyways, let's go into this. Police in Bucks County, PA, have said that the headless body of 68-year-old Michael Moan was found by his wife, Denise, in the bathroom of the family home. Moan had suffered a gunshot wound to the head before his head was removed from his body. His head was found in another room wrapped in plastic wrap and also placed inside a large cooking pot. Michael's son, Justin, had fled the family home after killing his father and after using his father's head in a YouTube video which was viewed 5,000 times before being removed from the platform.

Reportedly, Justin had purchased the firearm used to kill his father just the day before, and he'd even surrendered his medical marijuana card so that he was allowed to leave the store with it. Because I believe some states have laws on whether or not you can own a firearm while also actively using marijuana. Am I correct with that? I'm not exactly sure. I will say this. I think most people would agree you shouldn't be under something that alters your way of thinking when using a firearm. As far as owning a firearm, I'm not too certain about that. Are you saying for people who have marijuana cards, is that what you're referring to?

So it looks like there's a law, federal law, that prevents medical marijuana users from buying or owning firearms, even if the state itself that you live in has recreational or medical marijuana legality. So, I mean, I know this isn't the point of the whole thing, but isn't it like if you're going to do that, shouldn't you just prevent anybody who drinks alcohol from owning a firearm at that point? Because, you know, it's kind of like picky and choosy here. And I know it's because federally marijuana is still considered to be, you know, it's not decriminalized yet. Yeah. So but but but alcohol can do worse to your brain and your behavior than marijuana can. I mean, I don't disagree with you. Very few people. And I know people say like, oh, marijuana users do get violent.

Like there's a there's a cannabis like psychosis thing that's so, so rare. Drunks get violent. Drunks get violent. Yeah. I mean, listen, I know some of you might be surprised by it, but I mean, Stephanie and I have talked about it. I'm someone cover us where, you know, if it was a small amount and it was personal use, we would have them, we would just let them go. One thing we never did that some people would do is they, the police officer would seize the marijuana and say, oh, you can just go on your way. That opens you up to a whole different can of worms. I would either have them, yeah, you quote unquote seize it.

I would either have them step on it in front of seize it. I would either have them step on it in front of me, or I would just say, get out of here before I changed my mind. That was basically the two routes that I went. But as far as marijuana as a whole, and this is probably off topic from what we're covering here right now, but yeah, I mean, it's something where if you have a marijuana card that allows you to legally own and use marijuana, I think it's implied that you're going to use that marijuana under the right circumstances, not while in possession of a firearm, which I think goes to your point about alcohol. It is legal to use alcohol, but it's not legal to drive a car

while drinking alcohol. So you know what you can and cannot do. Yeah, it's common sense. And so I think if someone were to go the extra step and they're using a firearm while under the influence of marijuana, well, then they could be charged with something there. But I don't think it should be like, hey, this is your ultimatum. You may need marijuana for medicinal use, which helps a condition you may have, an underlying condition you may have, or you can have your constitutional right, your Second Amendment right to own a firearm. You shouldn't have to choose one or the other. Yeah, we got people on like anti-depression medication, anti-anxiety medication, kind of like Lindsey Clancy, where it's like you could be getting all of these different prescriptions and they could cause a really bad reaction in you.

More than marijuana, but also everybody's allowed to just, you know, go out and do whatever they want there. I'll go on a limb and get myself in trouble here and say, instead of scrutinizing the people who are using some type of something to treat their underlying conditions, let's start to identify individuals who have conditions that are not being treated because they are also, to your point, in possession of firearms and doing much worse. Right. There's always, I think most people would agree that a lot of the issues we have with firearms, there is a connection to mental illness. And so let's start addressing that first before we start scrutinizing and criticizing people who are actually doing something to alleviate whatever they may be experiencing, which may

in fact make them more responsible gun owners. But we're not ready for that conversation yet. I would say so. As a parent, I've had a hard time teaching my kids the value of a dollar. Getting my kids excited about chores has never been easy in our house. And that's why I'm so excited to tell you about the sponsor of today's episode, GoHenry by Acorns, the smart debit card and learning app for kids ages 6 to 18. GoHenry helps kids learn all about earning, spending, saving, budgeting, and so much more.

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And also, you know, like, let's just ignore the fact that this person did everything legally, which is getting the medical marijuana card so that they could consume this substance in a legal fashion and going out and legally purchasing a gun so that there's a record of it instead of the person who's smoking weed and legally purchasing a gun or has a legal marijuana card but is illegally purchasing a gun. So the people who are doing everything right and following everything by the book, they get punished. But either way, let's talk about Justin because Justin did not care. He was like, I'll give up. Justin's got bigger problems than marijuana. Yeah. He's like, I will give up the cannabis because I need this gun.

So obviously this was planned. When they go for this, it will be a premeditated sort of charge. And the YouTube video itself allegedly contains an unhinged rant from Justin, which the district attorney, Denise Shum, tells us was titled Moan's Militia, a call to arms for American patriots. Apparently, Justin's father, Michael, worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Philadelphia, and Justin claimed his father was a traitor to his country because apparently Justin wants all federal employees to be attacked and murdered. DA Shorn said that during the video, Justin orders his fellow militia members to attack and kill federal employees, and quote, he also ordered that individuals from the FBI, IRS and other federal law enforcement officers and for those who work at the courthouse to be arrested. That all federal agents, U.S. marshals, federal judges and border patrol be captured and tortured for information, then publicly executed.

End quote. I mean, I don't disagree that everyone from the IRS should be arrested and locked in prison, but. I'm glad I'm not attached to your taxes because they are watching and listening and you are getting audited. No, no one likes the IRS. Dude, go on. Nobody. No one.

I think we can all agree. We're going on so many like and they could be even though they're not intended to be they were going on so many political rants right now. And that's not our intention at all. But yeah, I know. I don't disagree with you. It seems like the IRS is... Is it like a political thing to not want the IRS to... You'll have someone who will argue it is, right? Because depending on what policies, whether you're conservative or liberal... I mean, it's just objectively. No one wants someone to come and be like, give me your money that you worked for. I just think that that shouldn't be a hot take. It feels like the IRS, in my opinion, as a former law enforcement officer,

tends to focus on people who make less money and have less resources to defend themselves. Of course. And they don't have the attorneys to get all their tax loopholes and stuff. Yeah. So it feels like the more IRS agents we have, the more people in middle class and lower are being targeted by those agents. Because, again, it's an easy it's an easier target to hit. Actually, the history of the IRS is very interesting. If anybody wants to look into that. But I'm saying this in a way of of trying to show you I'm not a super big like pro government person. I'm suspicious of the government.

I think that they do things and we know that they do things. They cover things up and they're not always trustworthy. But you can have an open mind and be critical of your government in the United States. That's our right. That's part of the freedoms that we enjoy. We can say, hey, I'm not a huge fan of our government. I wish he was completely clear-headed and of a sane mind when he did this. And my question to her would be how? How? How is anything this guy did signaling to you that he has a clear mind and a level head? So that made me go a little bit into his background. What were people saying about Justin before this happened? Well, those who've known Justin for a while say this is not new behavior. With a childhood friend, Michael Prickett, saying, quote, we were pretty close growing up as kids, but once he went to college, he went off the rails. He's been ranting and railing about the government for 10 years now and how they're out to get him and how he should be president. All the crazy stuff that was said on the video. He's been essentially doing that for 10 years now, end quote. Davis Rebin, who lived with Justin Moen after college,

said Justin was into a lot of conspiracy stuff. He didn't have a ton of friends. And one time Moen gave Davis a book to read, a book that Justin had written himself. And Davis Rebin said, quote, it's about him, but it's not his name. He is a high schooler who turns into a rap star who leads a revolution against the United States government.

End quote. According to NBC News, this was just one of these seven books written by Justin Moen, which were available on his Amazon storefront until news of the murder broke. And these other books are things like The Second American Revolution and stuff like that. It's basically the whole like patriots take arms kind of thing,

which once again is not horrible on its own, right? Because the reason we have the Second Amendment was to protect us against a tyrannical government. That's the point. That's what the Second Amendment was placed into the Constitution for to begin with. So that on itself and on its face is not a bad thing. But it's when you take it to these extreme places that it's hard for me to look at somebody like Justin and say, he's completely sane. And according to, I believe it was Davis Rebin, who lived with Justin after college, two years after Justin graduated from college when Davis was still a senior in college. He said he came home one night

and Justin had like messed the house up, like broken a mirror. And then Davis was like, what happened? And Justin said, I don't remember. I blacked out. So clearly this is not a person who is completely okay. You know, there's something here that's going on that allows this lack of impulse control that allows this guy to think it's OK to shoot my father in the head, who apparently he had a great relationship with, by the way. Like his neighbors were like, as far as I know, Michael and Justin had a great father son relationship. Michael was a supportive father.

Who knows what happened behind the scenes? But it doesn't seem this is one is a stranger to him. Michael was a supportive father. Who knows what happened behind the scenes? But it doesn't seem, this is when it was a stranger to him. This was his own father. And maybe he looked at this in his fever brain mind as like the biggest ultimate sacrifice for his country. But you're not thinking logically in these situations, going on YouTube and doing this, you're not thinking logically, you're going to get arrested. You know, there's nothing about this that says I'm a completely sane, mentally healthy person. What do you think? I agree with everything you said. I truly do. And the only thing, and I don't even think you're saying this, but could there be a medical condition? Could there be mental illness there? Absolutely. And I think most would agree that there's probably something going on there for him to rationalize what he did. But I'd also like to point out that there are extremists out there who, because of their religious or political beliefs, are sane, but just believe what they're doing is for the greater good. Now, you could always tie that back to, yeah, but then this is this vicious circle where the reason they're able to rationalize that is because they're mentally

ill. Right. Like so it's just this revolving argument that can be made. But for me, a quick question before you move on. Yeah. Don't extremists, though, typically stay under the radar because they want to, like, do their job and they want to, like, complete their mission and they're not trying to, like, be like, oh, I'm on YouTube beheading my father, arrest me and take me out of this Patriot game. Don't extremists typically kind of keep everything concealed and they're doing it underground because they're hoping to start this revolution and they only reveal themselves when they're strong enough and they think they can actually do something? The fact that there's no self-awareness, no fear of getting caught, of being prevented from carrying out his mission, seems like the thing that makes him not mentally

super stable. So let me give one example. And wow, we are just setting up landmines, or I'm setting up landmines left and right in this episode for myself. This can be a great one for me. But there are cultures, without calling out anyone specifically, that believe if a woman disrespects a man or doesn't cover her head, she should be stoned to death. And they're doing that in a public square because, and there's not just one guy doing it. There's a group of men, hundreds in some cases, brutally murdering a woman in broad daylight. And they believe because of religious beliefs. Huh? In the United States?

No, no. In other countries. Again, I'm trying to be- Yeah, I got you. Right. But if you were to ask them, they believe what they did is appropriate because of their religious beliefs behind it. And so do I think everyone in that crowd has a mental illness? No, they're that strong in their convictions. So again, I'm not defending anything that's being said here. I think with this case, without being a medical doctor, probably a combination of just, again, we have a history of over 10 years of just, again, someone who's smart and able to at least write clearly really believed in what they were, what they were, their mission, I guess. But yeah, to go to this extreme, to behead your father and then put it on a YouTube video, I don't think most people who would do something like that are of sound mind. Because I hate the idea of every single heinous crime that we see being tied to mental illness, right? And I don't think you're saying that, but every crime where someone commits something unconscionable that they had to be ill in order to do it,

there are some people who are just bad people. They're just bad dudes and gals. There's things you do. So if somebody were to commit a crime and then go to great lengths to like cover it up and hide themselves and then they try to say like oh i was mentally i was mentally ill i always call bullshit on that because it's like you were of sound mind enough to really like cover your tracks and really try to get away with this this dude's not trying to get away with this you know what i mean So like when somebody does something so blatantly, to me, the worst, like most insidious people are the ones that hide from plain sight.

They're functioning behind the scenes. You can't see them. You can't stop them. Somebody like this, what did you hope to gain from this, right? He's making a statement. He's a martyr. He's looking at himself as like, you know.

So now that comes back to your religion argument, right? And i like your religion argument but and i don't want to offend anybody well that's why you know listen it's i think this whole video is full of landmines but we're honest and this is how i feel isn't it though isn't it though it is and i don't care i'm done now i'm done i'm going forward with it it's the trains on the tracks yeah we're already we're already in the middle of land fine we got to run out of it somehow. Just get on my back, Stephanie. I'm coming with you. My legs are getting blown off. Hopefully you make it.

I completely hear your kind of comparison to religious extremists. In a way, I look at religion sometimes as a form of collective insanity, right? And we see that not like every religious person, right? I know, I know. But like it is, to some point you have to be certain, like somewhat pliable in your mind to just to blindly follow something or anything and then to go to that degree.

And you look at somebody like Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, all the people that followed them, you know, do you think that that Alex Cox or any of these people who followed Chad and Lori thought that they were going to be embroiled in like the murder of children? No, but they just went along with it. Right. There has to be some sort of collective insanity, some way of completely forgetting who you are as a as a single person and following the morals and the values of the group. Now, was Justin a part of extreme religion? No, probably not.

But was he a part of some underground or online group like fervent about these things and whipping everybody into a frenzy, that could be something that's behind this and we'll have to wait and see. We will. Yeah. But this is horrible. I mean. Yeah, it's terrible. I mean, I feel obviously my thoughts are with the father and the family and everyone who's going through this. Can you imagine Denise, the mom,, finds her husband in this state and then knows that her son did it? This is the worst day of any lifetime in any parallel universe she will ever have.

And I think that everybody involved in this, they're all shocked. Everyone's shocked. And obviously, right? We would be shocked if Justin picked some random person off the street to do this to. The fact that it's his father is hard to believe. So now these are the last words we will say to you because we'll officially be canceled once this video comes out. No, listen, I mean, I think there's a learning opportunity in all of these, especially from an investigatory perspective. I would love to know, be a fly on the wall to know if this guy was on some lists within the government.

He had to have been. Ten years he's been saying this stuff,. And I'm sure they were following what he was saying or doing to make sure that he wasn't a threat to any political figures or anything like that. And again, it's just it's one of those situations where you have family members and friends who have known about this for years. I don't know if they've gone and told anybody in. in probably not probably not and so you know a question comes in there like what can we do as members of society should we we should we be reporting these things or should we just cough it up to oh he's just a crazy conspiracy theorist you know because until this happens that's what they're looked as and then they do something like this and it's like oh my god he's been saying he's going to do this for 10 years he finally did it it. So I would just say to everyone out there, be vigilant, be cognizant of your surroundings, whether it's a family member or friend or an associate or someone you just, an acquaintance. If you see something, say something. It doesn't guarantee that it's going to prevent anything from happening.

A situation like this, to be honest, it probably wouldn't have, but at least we can do our part to try to be aware of what's going on around us and maybe, maybe prevent something like this from occurring, but there's no guarantee. So just gotta stay safe out there. So I actually just uncovered a couple of things, more kind of information, and I just wanna get that out quickly. Ooh, an update, already breaking news in the episode.

I want to get this out quickly. So some more information has come out about what's been in the video, and it looks like it's just obviously, and I think we kind of put this together, To get this out quickly. So some more information has come out about what's been in the video. And it looks like it's just obviously. And I think we kind of put this together. Although I can't tell anymore between far right and far left people. Because they all are kind of just extreme.

But this Justin allegedly is spouting far right talking points. Including saying there was an invasion of immigrants across the border. Progressive cities like San Francisco have become lawless, which I mean, that's not untrue, the San Francisco thing. But the LGBTQ plus community, Antifa and Black Lives Matter movements are extremist organizations. He also rallied against affirmative action. And that's pretty much where he was at. Also, I will say one of the books on Amazon under his name, it was a 2020 pamphlet entitled America's Coming Bloody Revolution. So, I mean, clearly this person wasn't trying to make a change in a nonviolent way. And I'm glad you put that in there because this goes back to what I was saying,

where there could be some mental illness there. I don't know, not a doctor, but it also could just be someone who takes their beliefs way too far. You can agree with some of the things that he's upset about, but not do what he did. You know what I mean? Like, again, we've already canceled ourselves enough in this episode, as far as what we think about the country and the state of it. But it's one of those things where there are people who are not happy with what's going on in the world right now and in our own country, but we're not going to go out and kill someone to make a political statement. And I think that's where the argument comes back to, is this person just an extremist, or is there a mental illness and this could have been prevented? We're not equipped to handle that

question. It's weird though, do you think he's against federal employees? Because usually you'd see somebody on the far right who's more pro-law enforcement, right? Well, this person's really far right. And there are groups, militias more specifically. So super, super, super far right people are like anti- Anti-government, anti-any type of authority. And they're basically pro-america to an unhealthy extreme where like they're there's a we can start getting into the far right of white

supremacy wherever you know every other race far right oh okay i thought you meant there was like a further right right than white supremacy no no that's that you get further and then you get further no no you can get further right where they believe just in just the purity of just white people is further okay yeah you know what i mean but that where they believe just the purity of just white people. Oh, there is further. Okay. Yeah, you know what I mean? But that's the extreme of it. And so it's something where this person, again, because maybe a potential underlying mental illness is just not making a lot of sense and is contradicting their own beliefs. But to me, it's really like law enforcement screwed far right, far left. No one likes them.

Yeah, this person just seemed like they. Yeah, exactly. This person just seemed like they, yeah, exactly. This person just seemed like they. Oh, I see. So he's saying lawless in San Francisco, immigrants over the border. We don't want law enforcement to take care of this. We are going to take up arms ourselves. That's it.

With the militia. Do you get what I'm saying? So chaos. So like apocalyptic thing. Right. Like they want another civil war, basically. Like Mad Max happening over here. Yeah, like they, you know, they're...

And, you know, so... Because that sounds fun. That sounds like that'll be a productive activity. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So overall, who even knows that this episode's going to come out? I don't know what... I just, I'm learning all sorts of new things.

Yeah. But as far as I'm concerned, anybody who has extreme beliefs that causes them to do something illegal, violent, et cetera, you're not mentally healthy. Okay. The extreme beliefs have caused a level of delusion and a lack of self-awareness and maybe a self-grandeur in you that has made you do things that a mentally healthy person wouldn't do. Now, is this an insanity defense? I don't think so. I'm just saying he ain't all right in the head. That's all I'm saying. Okay. I think, I think the DA here is going to have a good argument based on the 10 years of books that were written to show premeditation. This person was of sound mind and did the,

made this decision consciously in order to prove a point. And this wasn't a temporary moment where they lost sight of reality. I don't think the point was proven, dude. I just don't. I don't think so either. But I do think that they're going to have a very strong argument to dispute the notion that he was temporarily or, I guess, just insane to begin with. Either way, not somebody you want out and about.

No. No. All right. Anything else? That's it. On a positive note, on a positive note, because I'm going to be a good host,

I'm going to get in front of this because this is going to come out on Wednesday, which is going to be February 7th. Happy birthday, Stephanie Harlow. February 8th is my birthday. I know, but this is going to come out on the 7th. We don't have an episode on the 8th. So I get canceled the day before my birthday?

No, it's a happy birthday. You've been canceled. Congratulations, death threats. Thank you. I'm so sorry I was a day late on your birthday. I know. I didn't say it, but you know. You didn't say it.

I texted him yesterday, which was the 4th. And I'm like, happy birthday. He's like, hello, thanks. It was yesterday, bitch. I did not say yesterday bitch i did not and i was like oh i have it in my phone is the fourth is one of your daughter's birthdays the fourth no it's the fifth happy birthday p as well it's your birthday today as we're recording this it's your birthday today everyone's birthday right now um okay so what do i have the fourth i

gotta fix that because i think i wished you a happy birthday on the fourth last year as well. And guys, that is my world in one sentence. But you get a happy birthday when 99.9% of the people in my life do not. You know what? I feel, I'll take it. Take it. It might be the wrong day, but I'll take it. All right, guys, that's going to do it for us.

Please don't cancel us and subscribe to the channel. Check out what we're doing here. And we will see you this Fridayiday for dan markel part seven this episode that's coming up is going to be a little different from us a lot of b-roll over an hour of b-roll we're really going to it's not it's not so much b-roll as in like i wouldn't down testimony yeah i would have quoted the testimony anyways but when you have somebody like charlie adelson you gotta hear it you gotta hear it you gotta hear it from his own smug stupid mouth you really do so and then we'll react to that we're gonna react to it so it's gonna be a little bit of different of an episode but we think it's gonna be a good one so come back here on friday if

you're listening on audio to be out like it always is and if you're a youtube watcher as always again it'll be out on sunday and just to throw a little plug in there, if you're someone who doesn't like to wait but wants to watch the video and doesn't like watching the videos with the ads in them, you can always head over to our Patreon. We're going to try to do better in 2024 to post more on there. But every week we upload the video ad free. It usually comes out around 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday. So if you want it earlier and you want to add free, that's where you can go to get it. We appreciate you guys being with us. Everyone stay safe out there, and we will see you Friday or Sunday, whatever your choice.

See you then. Have a good night. Bye.