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

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has set a mid-October execution date for a man who admitted to killing five people with an axe and gun and later told a judge he was dropping his appeals so he could be put to death.

Derrick Dearman, 35, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Oct. 17 at a south Alabama prison. That date was set Tuesday by Gov. Kay Ivey after the Alabama Supreme Court authorized the death sentence, according to Supreme Court records.

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

The inmate wrote to a judge in April asking that he be allowed to drop his appeals so his execution could go forward.

“It’s not fair to the victims or their families to keep prolonging the justice that they so rightly deserve. It’s a waste of time, resources and taxpayer dollars to continue my appeals when I am guilty and agree with my conviction and sentencing,” Dearman wrote in a handwritten letter mailed to the judge.

According to a judge’s 2018 sentencing order, Dearman was a drug user and after he became physically abusive to his girlfriend, her brother brought her to his home near Citronelle.

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On the evening of the murders, Dearman had shown up at the home multiple times demanding to see his girlfriend, according to the records. He then attacked the members of the sleeping family, first with an ax taken from the yard and then with guns he found in the home, prosecutors said. He forced his girlfriend, who survived, to get in the car with him and drive to Mississippi.

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

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

Dearman initially pleaded not guilty but changed his plea to guilty after firing his attorneys. Because it was a capital murder case, Alabama law required a jury to hear the evidence and determine if the state had proven the case. The jury found Dearman guilty and unanimously recommended a death sentence.

Dearman has been on death row since 2018.