DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — The Pennsylvania man charged with fatally shooting then beheading his father and posting it on YouTube said on the stand Wednesday that the killing was “Plan B” after trying to arrest his father for what he called false statements and treason.

This photo provided by the Bucks County, Pa., District Attorney’s Office shows Justin Mohn, the man accused of beheading his father in their suburban Philadelphia home in January 2024. (Bucks County District Attorney’s Office via AP, File)

Justin D. Mohn, 33, took the stand in a suburban Philadelphia courtroom on the third day of his trial on murder and other charges stemming from the Jan. 30, 2024, homicide of his father Michael F. Mohn.

Mohn, dressed in a blue sport coat, shirt and tie, with his arms shackled to his waist, spoke clearly without any apparent emotion for more than two hours of direct testimony and cross examination.

Responding to questions from his attorney, Steven Jones, Mohn said he shot his father in the bathroom of the family’s Levittown home after telling him he was going to arrest him. Mohn said his father, who he said was an experienced martial artist, told him he would kill him before he let that happen and reached for the gun.

“Unfortunately, he resisted,” Justin Mohn said, adding: “I was hoping to perform a citizen’s arrest on my father for, ultimately, treason.”

He described a list from his notebook, shone during the trial, that had the lines “Boom” and “Slice” as his “Plan B,” and said he expected his father to go along with the citizen’s arrest.

He said he differed politically from his parents, describing them as on the left. He told the court he believed his father wanted to stop him from becoming a politician similar to President Donald Trump and that his father gave false statements in an unrelated civil case Justin Mohn brought in federal court.

Asked why he beheaded his father, he said he wanted to send a message to federal government workers to meet his demands, which included their resignation as well as the cancellation of public debt, among other things. He said he didn’t do it out of hatred for his father or to cause trauma to his family. His mother, Denice Mohn, cried in court at the end of the direct questioning from his attorney.

“I knew something such as a severed head would not only go viral but could lessen the violence,” Justin Mohn said.

Prosecutors said Mohn shot his father with a newly purchased pistol, then decapitated him with a kitchen knife and machete. The 14-minute YouTube video he posted was live for several hours before it was removed.

FILE – Flowers rest at the front door of the Mohn residence in Upper Orchard section of Levittown, Pa., on Feb. 2, 2024. (Tyger Williams/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, File)

Mohn was arrested later that day after scaling a fence at Fort Indiantown Gap, the state’s National Guard headquarters. He said in court he knew it was wrong to jump the fence at the site. Prosecutors said he called for others to join him in attempting to overthrow the U.S. government.

Mohn had a USB device containing photos of federal buildings and apparent instructions for making explosives when he was arrested, authorities said.

He also expressed violent anti-government rhetoric in writings he published online, going back several years. Earlier in the trial, the judge heard from Justin Mohn’s mother, who said police came to the house he shared with his parents and warned him about his online postings before the killing.

Denice Mohn testified that she and her husband had been offering financial support and guidance as Justin Mohn looked for a job.

Prosecutors described the homicide as “something straight out of a horror film.” They said Justin Mohn killed his father — who had been an engineer with the geoenvironmental section of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia District — to intimidate federal workers, calling it a “cold, calculated, organized plan.”

The YouTube video included rants about the government, immigration and the border, fiscal policy, urban crime and the war in Ukraine.

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In court, Michael Mohn was remembered as a good neighbor and supportive father. In the video posted on YouTube, Justin Mohn described his father as a 20-year federal employee and called him a traitor.

During a competency hearing last year, a defense expert said Mohn wrote a letter to Russia’s ambassador to the United States seeking to strike a deal to give Mohn refuge and apologizing to President Vladimir Putin for claiming to be the czar of Russia. The judge ruled Mohn was competent to stand trial.

Evidence presented at the trial included graphic photos and the video posted to YouTube. The judge warned members of the public at the trial about the images and said they could leave before the photos were shown. The proceedings are known as a bench trial, with only a judge, not a jury.

A second teenager has died after an Eagan crash in which the Minnesota State Patrol suspects drivers were racing each other, according to a court document filed this week.

Troopers responded to Minnesota 55 and Minnesota 149 about 11:20 p.m. June 14.

Multiple videos that captured the crash showed a Jeep Compass, Honda Accord and Dodge Durango heading south on Minnesota 149. Witnesses reported they “were together and had been racing at high speeds which led to the crash,” according to a search warrant affidavit.

The three vehicles were traveling over 100 mph in the 45 mph zone when the drivers of the Jeep and Honda lost control and went over the median into the northbound lanes of the highway just before the Minnesota 55 intersection, the affidavit said.

The Jeep struck a traffic light pole at the northeast corner of the intersection and split in half. The Honda continued through the intersection and landed in the southeast ditch.

The driver and passenger in the Jeep were both found unconscious and taken by ambulance to Regions Hospital.

The 19-year-old driver, Reed Robert Schultz of Savage, died soon after. He graduated from Burnsville High School in 2024 and was working for a landscaping company in Shakopee “as he was finding what direction he wanted to take into adulthood,” his obituary said.

The 18-year-old passenger, Finnian Thomas Cronin of Edina, died at the hospital on July 1, according to a separate search warrant affidavit, which was filed Monday for his hospital medical records.

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The Honda’s driver left the scene. Troopers identified the registered owner as a 20-year-old from White Bear Lake. They contacted him and he said he was on the way to the hospital. Troopers found him at M Health Fairview St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood, where he said he had collarbone pain.

The 20-year-old told troopers he had been driving. He “did not call 911, provide medical care to the injured parties, or stay on scene,” the affidavit said. He said he drove 90 mph, drank alcohol and had been a “dumb (expletive),” the affidavit continued.

The investigation is ongoing.

Nick Ferraro contributed to this report.

 The spending plan includes a funding boost for immigration legal services, which one advocate called “an important victory.” Another initiative to launch a new department to regulate e-bikes has sparked concerns about over-policing of the largely immigrant-run food delivery sector.

A City Council rally in late June calling for more funding for immigration legal services in this year’s budget. (Gerardo Romo / NYC Council)

Late last month, Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council unveiled details of the city’s nearly $116 billion budget for the new fiscal year, which kicked off July 1. 

Unlike past budget negotiations where the mayor and lawmakers wrangled heavily over budget cuts, this time several programs that will directly impact the city’s immigrant communities got a boost.

This includes extra funding for free legal services—which advocates say is needed now more than ever as the Trump administration pursues mass deportations—as well as for childcare programs open to New Yorkers of any immigration status. 

The budget will also fund a new initiative within the Department of Transportation to oversee deliveries, including regulating e-bikes—though advocates say they’re worried it could result in over-policing of the largely immigrant-run food delivery sector. 

Here’s a look at what the budget deal included for immigrant New Yorkers.      

A boost for legal services 

Key initiatives include $74.7 million for immigration legal services.

Of the programs in this category, legal services for low-income immigrants received the biggest funding increase, rising from $4.4 million in fiscal year 2025 to $33.2 million this year, a more than 600 percent bump.

The funding “will ensure continuity of services and help defend immigrants against ongoing aggressive, anti-immigrant policies,” reads the budget summary.

Immigrant advocates cheered the extra funding, which comes as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carry out more visible arrests of migrants in city streets and following immigration court hearings.

Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said the budget deal “is an important victory for immigrant and low-income New Yorkers.”

The budget also increased funding for legal counsel for immigrant children in removal proceedings, from $3.9 million in fiscal year 2025 to $16.5 million in fiscal year 2026, a 323 percent hike. This came after several years of advocates pushing for more funding, after the budget item had remained stagnant for over four years. 

The money will support legal screenings, representation, and community referrals for unaccompanied minors and families. Since 2022, tens of thousands of asylum seekers and migrants have arrived in the city, fueling an uptick in the number of unaccompanied immigrant youth.

The need for attorneys has increased this year due to federal funding cuts to legal services and increased enforcement by the Trump administration.

Although advocates celebrated the increased, they say it’s still insufficient.

“It doesn’t equate to, every child will get full representation in New York City,” said Sierra Kraft, executive director of the Immigrant Children Advocates Relief Effort coalition, “but it does demonstrate a key leadership and commitment to not leaving vulnerable children without support.”

Kraft added that this is a one-year sum and that legal providers will have to navigate hiring and staffing up as judges fast-track court cases, making it harder for providers to keep pace with demand.

“We’ve seen an increase in immigration judges moving cases forward, even if the unaccompanied child doesn’t have an attorney,” Kraft said. “So we’re trying to carefully monitor how many times, how many appearances that young people have before they’re going to get their removal order.”

Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams shaking hands on the this year’s budget deal on June 27, 2025. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

A third initiative that received a substantial boost was the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYFUP), which launched in 2014 to give legal help to immigrants who are in detention centers and may face deportation. Unlike criminal cases, in immigration court, legal counsel is not guaranteed. NYFUP funding increased by 50 percent in this year’s budget, moving from $16.6 million during the last fiscal year to $24.9 million.

Another program that received more funding is the Rapid Response Legal Collaborative (RRLC), which is also supported by the state through its Office for New Americans. This program helps people who are detained or at risk of being detained and deported.

“There was increased investment in Rapid Response work, reflecting what we are seeing on the ground: increased detentions and deportations of individuals and families,” said Jodi Ziesemer, co-director of the immigrant protection unit at New York Legal Assistance Group, one of three legal service providers that are part of RRLC.

“Violating due process norms, this increased immigration enforcement includes people who have U.S. citizen family, may be eligible for immigration relief and who deserve an opportunity to be heard.”

The budget also includes $3 million for grassroots organizations that support survivors of domestic violence in immigrant communities through the Culturally Specific Gender Based Violence Initiative, about which Speaker Adrienne Adams and Council Member Sandra Ung wrote this week.

Child care and body cameras

The 2026 budget includes $10 million to launch a universal childcare pilot to provide free care to hundreds of kids under 2.

A Council spokesperson said that the new program is open to all New Yorkers, regardless of their immigration status (though neither City Hall nor the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, or MOIA, responded when asked this question). 

The city is also continuing to provide $25 million in funding for early childhood education programs like Promise NYC, which provides childcare for undocumented families who can’t qualify for other programs.

Additionally, the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) police officers in the Vending Enforcement Unit will get body-worn camera equipment. DSNY did not respond to questions about this change.

But the Street Vendor Project, which advocates for local vendors (the majority of whom are immigrants), said they’ve been pushing for DSNY police to wear body cameras since the Sanitation Department took over vending enforcement in 2023.

“As a policing agency, we believe it is important for DSNY (as well as Parks Enforcement Patrol) to have just as stringent oversight as the NYPD and are glad the budget includes this line item,” said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, the organization’s deputy director. 

“In the future, we would also like to see Parks Enforcement Patrol have body cameras, and the implementation of an external agency similar to the Civilian Complaint Review Board that monitors or addresses complaints against peace officers,” she added. 

Food delivery workers, pictured here at a 2022 press conference with City Councilmembers. (John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)

Department of Sustainable Delivery 

The budget includes $6.1 million for a new “Department of Sustainable Delivery” within the Department of Transportation to regulate commercial e-bikes. 

The department is a long-time goal of Mayor Eric Adams. He proposed it in his third State of the City address in January 2024 as “a first-in-the-nation entity that will regulate new forms of delivery transit and ensure their safety.”

Currently, little is known about how the department will run. “There is actually no framework yet for the Department of Sustainable Delivery. It’s included in the budget as a line item that has been proposed by the mayor’s office, but it would require legislative action by the City Council in order to actually be established,” said Council Deputy Press Secretary Mara Davis. 

Davis disputed Mayor Adams’ claim that it is the City Council that is not moving forward with legislation to establish the department.

“That’s simply not true. There is no legislation that is currently under consideration by the Council; we’re kind of waiting on them to bring that to the table, and it’s really his concept,” Davis said.

The mayor’s office referred City Limits’ questions about the initiative to a press release it issued Monday.

The announcement said the department “will conduct enforcement against illegal moped, e-bike, and e-scooter riding; hold delivery apps accountable by ensuring that commercial cyclists are using safe and legal equipment and that delivery companies face repercussions for unsafe behavior; and address vehicle parking behaviors that endanger pedestrians, cyclists, and e-bike riders.”

It will do this through 45 “peace officers” tasked with issuing moving violations and enforcing businesses’ compliance with commercial cycling laws, though those officers are not set to be deployed until 2028.

The new department would directly affect the approximately 65,000 deliveristas in the city. Advocates are concerned it will only further criminalize workers and put many at risk of deportation, at a time when the Trump administration is cracking down on immigrants. 

Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Workers Justice Project, the non-profit organization that backs Los Deliveristas Unidos, which advocates for delivery workers, says this department is not the solution to protecting them or ensuring street safety. 

Guallpa says they worry about the lack of information about the department as well as the approach the administration’s language about it suggests. “Rather than protecting workers, holding multi-billion dollar app corporations accountable, [the approach] has been more towards regulating e-bikes, and with that, regulating deliveristas.”

Guallpa says elected officials should instead focus on regulating app delivery companies and guaranteeing protections to deliveristas. She says unrealistic delivery time requirements create pressure on workers who cannot afford to lose their jobs. 

“If they really want deliveristas to prioritize street safety,” said Guallpa, “it starts by giving the legal rights for them to fight back the pressure and the retaliation that they’re dealing with [with] the apps.”

This comes at a time when advocates are already concerned about an NYPD policy change in which officers now write criminal summonses instead of traffic tickets for cyclists. Gualpa says deliveristas are often a main target of such enforcement. 

“NYPD and the New York City mayor [have] built a partnership to start criminalizing and creating a pipeline for potential deportation and targeting immigrant workers,” said Gualpa. Instead, WJP wants to see physically protected bike lanes, community-led education about street safety for deliveristas, and charging stations, among other infrastructure changes.

“Let’s create and redesign our streets to adapt it to the new reality of our neighborhoods and our city,” said Gualpa.

To reach the reporters behind this story, contact Daniel@citylimits.org and Victoria@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post How NYC’s Latest Budget Impacts Immigrant Communities appeared first on City Limits.

OK, Broadway producers, I get it. It takes a lot of money to create a new musical, so it stands to reason that you’d want your investment to be a fairly safe one. Hence, adaptations of popular movies or stories built around familiar songs have become the go-to source material for new Broadway musicals. But how I wish you’d be more willing to take risks on completely new musical theater works of originality and imagination. Shows like “Kimberly Akimbo.”

Carolee Carmello, left, and Miguel Gil in the North American touring production of “Kimberly Akimbo,” a musical about a girl who ages into an old woman over the course of her teenage years, which runs through Sunday, July 13, 2025, at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. (Courtesy of Joan Marcus)

Clearly, Tony Award voters agree, for they gave this creation of playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and composer Jeanine Tesori the “Best Musical” award in 2023. And now its first touring production (featuring over half the Broadway cast and a three-time Tony nominee in the lead) has landed at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre for a week.

And what a rare pleasure it is to experience a new stage musical that’s so unabashedly eccentric and unpredictable. What at first looks as if it’s going to take us down the well-trod path of life in an American high school veers off into one wild detour after another. And, thanks to Lindsay-Abaire’s well-sculpted, trope-defying characters, it’s a very funny and richly satisfying show.

Its story hints that the playwright consciously chose to defy cliches at every key juncture. What if the new girl at school had a rare genetic disorder that caused her to age at four to five times the normal pace, thus giving her a life expectancy of about 16? And what if her parents, instead of treasuring their limited time with her, were instead hopelessly self-absorbed? And what if the whole family seems to be on the lam from the law and our young protagonist’s aunt, a career criminal who never met a scam she didn’t like?

Yes, you’ll come upon such common high school conflicts as crushes, science presentations and show choir competitions, but they’re all just offbeat enough to be cringingly accurate in their awkwardness. Director Jessica Stone has helped shape a staging full of impeccable comic timing and a propulsive pace, the action flying to and fro on David Zinn’s simple yet effective set. And all nine cast members seem convincingly committed to this deliciously quirky musical.

At the center of this whirlwind is Carolee Carmello’s Kimberly, a shy teenager in a middle-aged woman’s body. It’s an extraordinary performance that invites you to observe her subtle alterations in voice and physicality, suggesting that we’re watching Kimberly age before our eyes and ears.

The unreliable adults in her life include Laura Woyasz as her tender but empathy-free mother, Jim Hogan as a perpetually apologetic alcoholic father, and, in the most scene-stealing role of all, Emily Koch as the brassy, filterless aunt who gradually helps transform the show into a caper comedy.

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Yet all the kids at school also impress, with Darron Hayes allowing us to watch a budding musical theater enthusiast come to full blossom. And Miguel Gil is excellent as the skating rink attendant who falls for Kimberly, even interjecting a tuba solo into one of his songs. And that’s just the kind of show this is. Lots of musicals set in high schools advocate for letting your freak flag fly, but “Kimberly Akimbo” shows how it’s done.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

‘Kimberly Akimbo’

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis

Tickets: $166-$40, available at hennepinarts.org

Capsule: A lovably eccentric musical.