Killed on Aug. 20, 2016, at the home near Citronelle, about 30 miles north of Mobile: Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Robert Lee Brown, 26; Justin Caleb Reed, 23; and Chelsea Marie Reed, 22.

This undated photo from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Derrick Dearman, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Alabama on October 17, 2024. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)

Chelsea Reed, who was married to Justin Reed, was pregnant when she was killed. Turner, who was married to Randall, shared the house with the Reeds. Brown, Randall's brother, was also living there the night of the murder. Dearman's girlfriend survived. Turner and Randall had their three-month-old son with them when they were attacked, but the baby was unharmed.

The day before the murder, Joseph Turner, the brother of Dearman's girlfriend, took her to his home after Dearman was abusive toward her, according to a judge's ruling.

Dearman had shown up at the house several times that evening, asking to see his girlfriend, and was told he couldn't stay there. According to the judge's ruling, he returned sometime after 3 a.m. when all the victims were asleep. He made his way through the house and attacked the victims with an ax he took from the yard and then with a gun he found in the house, prosecutors said. He forced his surviving girlfriend to get in the car with him and drive to Mississippi.

According to a judge's 2018 sentencing order, Dearman turned himself in to authorities at his father's request.

Dearman initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea to guilty after firing his lawyers. Because it was a murder case, Alabama law required a jury to hear the evidence and determine whether the state proved the case. The jury found Dearman guilty and unanimously recommended the death penalty.

Before he withdrew his appeal, Dearman's lawyers argued that his trial attorney had not done enough to establish Dearman's mental illness and “lack of competency to plead guilty.” The Equal Justice Initiative, which represented Dearman in the appeal, wrote on its website Wednesday that Dearman “suffered from a lifelong and serious mental illness, including bipolar disorder with psychotic features.”

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Dearman had been on death row since 2018.

In the hours before his execution by lethal injection, Dearman was visited by his sons, his sister and his father. His last meal was a seafood platter that he brought from a local restaurant.