Abusive boyfriend who hacked and shot five of his girlfriends family to death after she fled is executed after telling court he deserved to die

Alabama has executed a man who dropped his appeal and asked to be put to death for murdering five people in their beds.

Derrick Dearman, 36, admitted to killing five members of his estranged girlfriends family with an axe and gun during a drug-fueled rampage August 20, 2016.

He was pronounced dead at 6.14pm on Thursday at Holman Prison in southern Alabama, his last words a plea for forgiveness.

Forgive me. This is not for me. This is for you... Ive taken so much, he said while strapped to the gurney in the execution chamber. 

He closed by telling his own family, Yall already know I love yall. Some of his words were inaudible.

Derrick Dearman, an Alabama death row inmate, 36, begged to be executed as he dropped his appeals to allow the families of the five people he massacred in 2016 to attain justice

Dearmans bloodlust began when he broke into the home where his girlfriend Lanera Lester (pictured) took refuge after fleeing from him

The lethal injection was carried out after Dearman dropped his appeals this year and asked that his execution go forward. 

I am guilty, he wrote 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.

Dearmans execution was one of two planned around the US on Thursday, but a judge granted a request from Texas lawmakers to delay the other execution.

Robert Roberson was scheduled to be the nations first person put to death for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, in the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter. 

The judges order was expected to be quickly appealed by the Texas Attorney Generals Office.

Dearmans bloodlust began when he broke into the home where his girlfriend Lanera Lester took refuge after fleeing from him.

The killer, who struggled with drug addiction since he was a teenager, was high on meth when he stormed the house near Citronelle, about 30 miles north of Mobile.

He murdered Shannon Melissa Randall, 35, Joseph Adam Turner, 26, Robert Lee Brown, 26, Justin Kaleb Reed, 23, and Chelsea Randall Reed, 22. 

Chelsea, who was married to Justin Reed, was pregnant when she was killed, getting Dearman a sixth capital murder charge.

The house of horrors on Jim Platt Road near Citronelle, Alabama, where Lester was hiding when Dearman stormed in and killed five of her family as they slept

The victims were Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; and Robert Lee Brown, 26 and five-months pregnant Chelsea Marie Reed, 22

After the massacre, Dearman forced his estranged girlfriend and a three-month-old infant - the child of one of the victims - into a car, and drove to his fathers home i in Mississippi.

He released Lester and the infant after they arrived, then turned himself in at the local sheriffs office.

Bryant Henry Randall, the father of Chelsea Reed who also lost his sister and brother, wrote a statement read at the execution by the Alabama prison commissioner.

He wrote there were no words to describe the impact the murders had on him and his family, and that Dearman got to say goodbye to his family, but they did not.

I so long for a final goodbye to my daughter and I would have loved to meet my grandchild, he wrote, adding that his siblings did not get to see their children grow up.

I was stripped in many ways of happiness and the bond of family by your senseless act.

Robert Brown, the father of Robert Brown, told reporters that his family would suffer for the rest of their lives.

This dont bring nothing back. I cant get my son back or any of them back, he said.

Dearman, then 27,  is escorted into Mobile County Metro Jail in Mobile, Alabama, after his arrest in 2016

The execution started about 5.58pm, but it was unclear when the drugs began flowing. 

At one point, Dearman raised his head and looked around the chamber as if to inquire when they were starting. He soon after appeared to lose consciousness.

His left arm moved slightly after a guard performed a consciousness check - which involves shouting his name and pinching his arm - to make sure he is not awake when the final lethal drugs are given. 

Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said Dearman was not awake and the arm movement was not a sign of consciousness.

When the curtains to the viewing room closed at about 6.08pm, his father, who was in the same viewing room as media witnesses, sobbed and repeatedly called out his sons name.

Lesters brother Joseph Turner brought her to their home the day before the massacre, after Dearman became abusive toward her.

Dearman showed up at the home multiple times that night asking to see his girlfriend and was told he could not stay there. 

He returned sometime after 3am when all the victims were asleep, according to a judges sentencing order. 

He worked his way through the house, attacking the victims with an axe taken from the yard, and then with a gun found in the home, prosecutors said. 

This undated photo from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Dearman in prison

As he was escorted to jail, Dearman blamed the rampage on drugs, telling reporters that he was high on meth and that the drugs were making me think things that weren´t really there happening.

Dearman initially pleaded not guilty but changed his plea to guilty after firing his attorneys. 

Because it was a capital murder case, Alabama law required a jury to hear the evidence and determine whether the state had proven the case. 

The jury found Dearman guilty and unanimously recommended a death sentence.

Dearmans former lawyers questioned if he was competent to make the decision to plead guilty.

Before he dropped his appeal, Dearmans lawyers argued his trial counsel failed to do enough to demonstrate Dearmans mental illness and lack of competency to plead guilty.

The Equal Justice Initiative, which represented Dearman in the appeal, wrote on its website that Dearman suffered from lifelong and severe mental illness, including bipolar disorder with psychotic features and was executed despite evidence that he suffers from serious mental illness.