Mississippi Man Killed Girlfriend’s 5 Family Members using Axe in Alabama, Heading for Death Row after he fired his own Lawyer
Montgomery, AL: A Mississippi man is on death row for brutally killing five members of his ex-girlfriend’s family—including a pregnant woman—with an axe and a revolver while under the influence of drugs has announced that he will not be appealing his conviction or death sentence.
Before the brutal murder in August 2016, Dearman had already confessed to abusing Lester and ignoring her pleas for him to stop.
Dearman stormed into Turner’s home brandishing an ax and a gun as the victims—22-year-old Chelsea Marie Reed, a pregnant 22-year-old Justin Kaleb Reed, a 23-year-old Robert Lee Brown, and a 35-year-old Shannon Melissa Randall—were fast sleeping.
Dearman has publicly acknowledged that his anger was caused by drugs, and court records show that he was under the influence of methamphetamines.
The assault did not hurt Randall’s three-month-old son, who was also present in the house at the time. But after the brutal assault, Dearman abducted him and Lester. He drove them to Leakesville, Mississippi, his father’s house, which is around thirty minutes away from Citronelle.
The Mississippi native Dearman has come clean about his sobriety and how it prevented him from acting the way he did. He informed NBC that he has “laid many nights thinking what I would say to any of them if I ever had the chance, the opportunity to say something?” However, he has not yet had the chance to talk with the victims’ families.
“I turned myself in and pled guilty, so it’s clear that I am guilty,” he added.
When Dearman began to descend from his August high and go to sleep, he recalled things “a little bit more, little bit more, little bit more,” as he put it.
Dearman said that his actions were affected by the fact that the narcotics had rendered his thoughts extremely hazy.
Dearman claimed he did not carelessly decide to withdraw his appeal, which he had initially submitted in August 2022. He went on to say that he was solely appealing the verdict and death sentence because he wanted to do what was right by his family, who had begged him to wait a few years before taking legal action.
Records show that in 2022, a ruling upholding the conviction stated that Dearman pleaded guilty to “five counts of murder made capital because the murders were committed during a burglary and five counts of murder made capital because the victims were murdered by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct.” In return for the dismissal of two capital murder charges pertaining to the murder of the unborn child and two first-degree kidnapping charges, the state prosecutors dropped those charges.
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Each of the ten charges of capital murder was found guilty by the jury, and they all agreed that the defendant should die. The circuit court upheld the death penalty on October 12, 2018, as recommended by the jury. This year, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed his appeal.
Reportedly, Dearman has also fired the lawyers who handled an appeal concerning allegations of inadequate representation. They further contended that he was mentally sick when the crimes occurred.
