Derrick Dearman executed in Alabama for murder of girlfriend's 5 family members

Alabama executed Derrick Dearman on Thursday, eight years after he massacred five family members of his girlfriend with an ax and a gun in the middle of the night.

Dearman, 36, was convicted of murdering his girlfriend's brother, Joseph Turner; Turner's wife Shannon Randall; Randall's brother Robert Brown; and Randall's niece Chelsea Reed, Reed's husband Justin and the couple's unborn baby in a drug-fueled rampage the night of Aug. 20, 2016, in the Mobile suburb of Citronelle.

Dearman's time of death was 6:14 p.m. CT. The execution began just before 6 p.m. CT and Dearman appeared to lose consciousness in a matter of minutes. It took "two sticks" to gain access to the two IV lines that carried the deadly cocktail that ended Dearman's life.

Dearman, who had been on death row since 2018, wrote a series of letters to state officials, including Attorney General Steve Marshall, informing them that he dropped his appeals, fired his appellate attorneys and requested his death sentence be carried out so the victims and their families can get the justice he agrees they deserve.

An execution date was set six months later.

“I am willingly giving all that I can possibly give to try and repay a small portion of my debt to society for the terrible things that I have done," Dearman said in a statement on Monday. "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.”

Dearman was the fifth inmate executed in Alabama this year and the 20th in the nation. He was also executed on the same day Texas planned to execute Robert Leslie Roberson despite evidence indicating he was wrongfully convicted for the death of his toddler.

Derrick Dearman's last words, meal

Dearman used his last words to ask the victims' family, who occupied two of the three observation rooms to the death chamber, for forgiveness.

"To the victims' family, forgive me, this is not for me. It is for you," Dearman said. "I have taken so much ... To my family, y'all already know ... I love y'all."

A handful of relatives, including Dearman's father Gary, visited and spoke with him in the 24 hours leading up to the execution.

Dearman's last meal was a seafood platter from a local restaurant, which came with two pieces of fried catfish, three fried shrimp, three boiled shrimp, three fried oysters, three onion rings, a deviled crab and two sides.

'This don't bring nothing back,' victim's father says

Robert F. Brown, the father of victim Robert Brown, said after the execution that "this don't bring nothing back."

"I can't get my son back, I can't get them back," he said, adding that he has forgiven Dearman because Dearman asked him to. "You can't go to the Lord with a clenched fist, you have to have an open heart, like a baby's heart."

Bryant Randall, Chelsea Reed's father and the brother of Shannon Randall and Robert Brown, told USA TODAY ahead of the execution that he wasn't sure Dearman's death would bring closure, but he's "hoping it will."

"It took me many years of struggling to find forgiveness for what he has done," Randall said. "However, knowing that he wants this now kinda feels like he is getting the easy way out now. I have to live every day with the thoughts my family are not here but I kinda wish he would have to live a miserable life in prison thinking of what all he sacrificed by making poor decisions."

Randall, who also attended the execution, says justice is being served "to the best of the ability of our country’s laws," but says that Dearman's justice "will occur with God almighty."

He wants people to remember his family "before this tragic event."

"It’s human nature to remember what happened to them in their death," he said. "But each of them loved family and friends and enjoyed the simple things in life."

Derrick Dearman showed 'no pity and no mercy,' attorney general says

Dearman's request to halt appeals and proceed with the execution was "appropriate in the interest of justice and finality for the families," according to a statement from Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall.

"As a jury of his peers unanimously agreed, the gruesome facts of this case merited the ultimate punishment. Dearman viciously struck his victims with an ax, leaving them conscious and suffering for some time before he executed each at close range," he said. "Dearman showed no pity and no mercy."

Marshall extended prayers and well wishes to the families of "Joseph, Shannon, Justin, Chelsea, Robert and especially with Joseph and Shannon’s son, who was three months old and present during the commission of this horrific crime."

"I hope their families find some peace and closure now that the state has finally carried out the imposed sentence," Marshall said.

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who set Dearman's execution date, said in a statement that "six lives, including an unborn baby, were gruesomely taken by Mr. Dearman in 2016."

"In using an ax and then a gun, he clearly made the decision to kill," she said. "And now, he himself has clearly stated his guilt and asked to move forward with his death sentence. The state has obliged, and justice has been served. I pray for the loved ones of all these victims whose lives were taken far too soon.”

What was Derrick Dearman convicted of?

An Alabama jury found Dearman guilty and unanimously recommended a death sentence in 2018 for the murder of all five family members. 

Dearman, who had a history of drug abuse, went on a drug-fueled rampage through the home, using an ax he found in a tree and two guns to murder each victim one by one hours after he was repeatedly asked to leave the home. 

Dearman also kidnapped his girlfriend Laneta Lester and Randall’s infant after the murders, making a couple of stops before he reached his father’s home in Mississippi. He later turned himself in, while Lester escaped with the infant.