A convicted ax murderer who killed five people will be executed by lethal injection in Alabama — the fifth prisoner to be put to death in the state this year, the governor announced on Tuesday.
Derrick Dearman, 35, was convicted in the savage slaying of five friends and family members of his then-girlfriend — including a pregnant woman and her unborn child — in a meth-fueled massacre in Citronelle, Alabama in 2016.
Dearman fired his attorneys earlier this year and ended all appeals of his conviction and death sentence.
“I’ve decided to drop my appeals and have my sentence carried out… I was fairly tried and convicted. I agreed with the court’s decision,” he told AL.com in a phone interview from death row this spring.
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Derrick Dearman will be put to death in October, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced on Monday. APDearman was convicted of murdering five people in 2016. AP
“Whether I was in my right mind or not, innocent lives were lost and the crime was committed,” he said.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Dearman will be executed between 12 a.m. October 17 and 6 a.m. October 18.
He chose to die by lethal injection rather than nitrogen hypoxia — a controversial execution method that was introduced to Alabama just this year.
Derrick Dearman has ended all his appeals and has accepted his death sentence. AP
While Dearman had said earlier this year he wasn’t prepared to die any time soon, he penned a letter to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office last month, outraged that other death row inmates were jumping line ahead of him, according to AL.com.
“I have done everything that is required to drop my appeals and have my sentence carried out and I am compotent [sic] and of a sound mind…can you please respond to this letter to let me know what the hold up is??????” the convict wrote.
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“All this is hard on not only me but my family and the longer it takes the more me and my family have to go through,” Dearman added.
Dearman was abusive towards his girlfriend at the time, Laneta Lester, and the day before the killings, Lester’s brother picked her up and took her to safety at his home in a remote area of Mobile County near Citronelle, according to court documents.
Dearman killed five friends and family members of his girlfriend Laneta Lester. Facebook / Laneta Lester
Dearman showed up at the home multiple times that night, but no one there would allow him inside.
In the early morning hours of Aug. 20, 2016, Dearman picked up an ax from the yard, broke into the home and started hacking at the victims while they slept.
After attacking five victims with an ax and fatally shooting them, Dearman forced Lester, who was unharmed, and a 3-month-old child into a car and drove them to his father’s house in Mississippi.
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The victims were Lester’s brother Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Robert Lee Brown, 26; Chelsea Marie Reed, 22; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; and Shannon Melissa Randall, 35.
Chelsea Reed was pregnant with her and Justin Reed’s first child.
The 3-month-old boy, who was in bed with them at the time, was the first son of Turner and Randall.
He turned himself in the next day and admitted to authorities that he was “strung out” on drugs during the killings.
“If I was sober, that would have never happened,” he told AL.com.
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Dearman was put on death row in 2018. He is scheduled to be the fifth person put to death in Alabama this year.
Alabama football hosted a hometown kid for an official visit last weekend when it got Jeremiah Beverley on campus for an official visit.
Beverley attends Hillcrest High School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and ESPN currently has him rated as a four-star recruit. He is considering Alabama, Cincinnati, Wake Forest and others.
The Crimson Tide offered Beverley earlier this month and got him on campus for an official visit last weekend. The Alabama target told Touchdown Alabama he used the visit to learn what the Tide has planned for him if he commits.
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“I’m truly happy that I went on that official visit,” Beverley said. “Blessed for that. All I was talking about was the next step, what I got to do? So, just knowing what they have planned for me, knowing what they have set for me.”
At 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds, Beverley makes plays for Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa as a defensive end. Alabama has plans to use him similarly at the next level.
“They’re going to have me at wolf mostly,” Beverley said. “I know coach (Kane) Wommack and coach (Christian) Robinson, I think they see me at other positions, but I know it is guaranteed they’re going to see me at Wolf and me working my way up on special teams, and they expect that out of me.”
Beverley is expected to announce a commitment decision on Friday.
Watch Jeremiah Beverley’s Highlights Below:
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Justin Smith is the Managing Editor and Lead Writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine with over 10 years of writing experience & expertise. Smith has consistently delivered high quality, extensively researched information on the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide football team that fans can trust. Smith is official credentialed media with the University of Alabama under Touchdown Alabama Magazine. He is also the Director of Recruiting for Touchdown Enterprises, specializing in scouting and analyzing high school recruits around the nation, specifically focusing on recruits within the state of Alabama.
Alabama football is hiring Noah Fisher to be its assistant tight ends coach, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz.
Fisher spent two seasons as a graduate assistant working with the offensive line and tight ends at Louisville before joining the Tide’s staff. He played three years on the offensive line at South Alabama and spent one season with Tulane. The Jaguars started Fisher along its offensive line when he was a player for multiple games.
The Crimson Tide appear to want to use their tight ends in multiple ways in the future including as extra blockers along the line of scrimmage. Fisher looks as if he can assist the Tide with this mission.
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Justin Smith is the Managing Editor and Lead Writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine with over 10 years of writing experience & expertise. Smith has consistently delivered high quality, extensively researched information on the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide football team that fans can trust. Smith is official credentialed media with the University of Alabama under Touchdown Alabama Magazine. He is also the Director of Recruiting for Touchdown Enterprises, specializing in scouting and analyzing high school recruits around the nation, specifically focusing on recruits within the state of Alabama.
PRICHARD, Ala. (NBC 15) — Sewage overflows during storms in Prichard are sending wastewater into local waterways that feed Mobile Bay, prompting an environmental group to push for state funding to upgrade aging infrastructure.
Mobile Baykeeper says sewage overflows during storms flow into Three Mile Creek, then into the Mobile River, and ultimately end up in Mobile Bay. The group said that last week, during heavy rain, more than 256,000 gallons of sewage spilled into Gum Tree Branch and Three Mile Creek.
Mobile Baykeeper has launched a petition seeking funding from the state of Alabama to fix Prichard’s old water infrastructure.