Alabama sets mid-October execution date for man who killed 5 in axe and gun attack

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has set a mid-October execution date for a man who confessed to killing five people with an axe and a gun and later told a judge he was withdrawing an appeal so he could be executed.

Derrick Dearman, 35, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Oct. 17 at a south Alabama prison, a date set Tuesday by Gov. Kay Ivey after the Alabama Supreme Court approved the death penalty, according to Supreme Court documents.

Dearman was sentenced to death after pleading guilty to murdering five members of his then-girlfriend’s family during a violent Aug. 20, 2016, attack at their rural Mobile County home near Citronelle in southwest Alabama.

In April, the prisoner asked the judge to allow him to withdraw his appeal so that the execution could be carried out.

“It is not fair to the victims or their families to prolong the justice they so rightly deserve. It is a waste of time, resources and taxpayer money to continue my appeals when I am guilty and accept my conviction and sentence,” Dearman wrote in a handwritten letter sent to the judge.

According to a 2018 judge, Dearman was a drug addict, and after he became physically abusive to his girlfriend, her brother took her to his home near Citronelle.

According to the records, Dearman repeatedly showed up at the home the evening of the murder, demanding to see his girlfriend. He then attacked the sleeping family members, first with an axe taken from the yard and then with a gun found in the house, prosecutors said. He forced his surviving girlfriend to get into his car and drive to Mississippi.

Killed were Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Chelsea Marie Reed, 22; and Robert Lee Brown, 26. One of the victims, Chelsea Reed, was pregnant when she was killed, along with her unborn child.

Dearman turned himself in to authorities at the request of his father, according to a judge’s order in 2018. As he was escorted to an Alabama jail in front of reporters, Dearman told them he was high on methamphetamine and that “drugs make me think about things that aren’t really happening.”

Dearman initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea to guilty after firing his lawyers. Because this was an aggravated murder case, Alabama law required the jury to hear the evidence and determine whether the state had proven its case. The jury found Dearman guilty and unanimously recommended the death penalty.

Dearman has been on death row since 2018.

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