Death Row killer Derrick Dearman executed for slaughtering 5 people with axe and gun in drug frenzy

A killer who brutally five people in a drug-induced frenzy involving an axe and a gun has been executed.

Derrick Dearman, 36, was given a lethal injection just after 6pm on Thursday at the William C Holman Correctional Facility in southern Alabama. He confessed to the horrific killings during a 2016 rampage that started when he broke into the house where his estranged girlfriend had sought refuge.

Earlier this year, Dearman decided to drop his appeals so his execution could proceed. "I am guilty," he penned in an April letter to a judge, adding that "it's not fair to the victims or their families to keep prolonging the justice that they so rightly deserve," reports .

"I am willingly giving all that I can possibly give to try and repay a small portion of my debt to society for all the terrible things I've done," Dearman said in an audio recording sent this week to the media. "From this point forward, I hope that the focus will not be on me, but rather on the healing of all the people that I have hurt."

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Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Robert Lee Brown, 26; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; and Chelsea Marie Reed, 22, were the victims of the brutal murder on August 20, 2016, at a home near Citronelle, about 33 miles (53km) north of Mobile. All of the victims were related.

One of the victims, Chelsea Reed, who was expecting a child with her husband Justin Reed, tragically lost her life in the incident. The couple had chosen the name Aiden Kaleb for their unborn son, as mentioned in her obituary.

Turner, who was married to Randall, shared the residence with the Reeds, while Brown, Randall's brother, was also present at the house on the night of the murders. According to a judge's sentencing order, Joseph Turner, the brother of Dearman's girlfriend, had brought her to the house the day before the killings, seeking refuge from Dearman's abusive behaviour.

Dearman had made multiple visits to the house that night, requesting to see his girlfriend, but was denied permission to stay. At around 3am, he returned to the house, where all the victims were asleep, as stated in a judge's sentencing order.

Prosecutors revealed that Dearman used an axe from the yard and a gun found in the house to attack the victims, working his way through the residence. He then forced his surviving girlfriend to accompany him in a car to Mississippi.

Dearman's father persuaded him to surrender to the authorities, as mentioned in a judge's 2018 sentencing order. While being escorted to jail, Dearman attributed the rampage to his drug use, telling reporters that he was under the influence of methamphetamine when he entered the house, and the "drugs were making me think things that weren't really there happening."

Dearman initially entered a not guilty plea but later changed it to guilty after dismissing his legal team.

As this was a capital murder case, Alabama law necessitated a jury to review the evidence and decide if the state had proven its case. The jury found Dearman guilty and unanimously recommended a death sentence.

Dearman has been on death row since 2018. This marks Alabama's fifth scheduled execution of the year.

Two of the state's executions were carried out by nitrogen gas. The other two were executed by lethal injection, which remains the state's primary method of execution.