#500 - Episode 500!! Slaughter At The Shack - Citronelle, Alabama
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, and Joe, too! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy, yay indeed. All aboard the murder train and a very special ride on the SS Murder today. And that is, it is episode 500 today. We've made it. Unbelievable.

All the way to 500. So we definitely want to say thank you all for hanging out with us for 500 episodes or however many you've been along for. And just thank you for supporting us. Thank you for spreading it. Just thank you to everybody that supports it. Got to say thank you to Sarah. She's done a ton of work on this. Thank you to Allison, who does research for us. She's done a terrific job and she's been a big part of it for the last couple of years.

So just thank you to everybody, all the listeners, the whole team. 500, man. This is...

This is something to be proud. We're never proud of anything. It's a big number. We go to a theater and it's big and sold out and we go, yeah, they'll turn on us eventually. They'll quit. Let's be proud of something. We're never proud. We always do. We go walk away and we go, you know, let's kick ourselves in the asses. So there we go. 500. That's something to be proud of. I'm excited. Definitely head over to shutupandgivememurdered.com. Get your tickets. Live shows.

Minneapolis, you're up next. So get those tickets for there and sell it out. It's so big. Such a big show. It's going to be our biggest show ever. You can beat Chicago. Isn't that what you want to do, Minneapolis? The Vikings want to beat the Bears.

So, you know, yeah, I would imagine. So the twins want to beat the White Sox and you're going to beat Chicago here. Hopefully, maybe we'll see. But we love Chicago, too. Anyway, moving on. Do that. Get Patreon. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. Hopefully, you know, if by now five dollars a month or above, get you a whole bunch of stuff. Hundreds of back episodes, new ones every other week. This week, we're going to do Ed Gein part two. Small town murder. Going to get into the weird psychology and.

how the house was disposed of, we'll say, and things like that. And then for crime and sports, we got New England Patriots cheating scandals, a ton of them, so check that out. You'll get access to all that stuff, and you'll get a shout-out at the end of the regular show. Patreon.com slash crime and sports. That said, I think it's time, everybody. Yeah.

Let's dive right into this. I think it's time to take a deep breath wherever you are out there. A big, giant 500th episode. Let's do it. It's all shout. Shut up and give me more.

Let's do this, everybody. Hey. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Let's go. All right. Let's do it. And we were looking for a special episode this week. And thank everybody for all their suggestions, too. We were overwhelmed. Some of you didn't follow instructions. You sent them to the wrong places. Yeah.

They didn't even get looked at for it. If you sent them to Jimmy, he went, well, that's not for me. And he moved on to the next message. So, oh, you missed. You got the wrong guy. Wrong guy. Yeah, that's a that's a thing. If you send it to the whatever. So I looked through a lot of them and we ended up finding this. And it's just a wild episode. It's a it is definitely 10 pounds of murder in a two pound bag here. So let's go on a trip down south here.

Way down south, too. This is way, way down south. It's Alabama. Okay. We are going to Citronelle, Alabama. Oh, like the candles. Like the candles. Not a mosquito to be seen here. Nope, and it's named after the plant because it grows here. So this is in southwestern Alabama. So it is down there 40 minutes outside of Mobile.

And if you know Mobile, Mobile is on the Gulf there. So, I mean, this is as south as it gets down here. It's about, let's see, it's a while to our last Alabama episode was Chunchula, Alabama. And that was episode 447, which was Bargain Bin Bundy. So it's been a while since we've been back here. Population of this town, 3,940.

And where our murders take place this week, too, is just outside the town on a rural dirt road. I mean, this is small-town murder as it gets here, and that's why we had to make sure. We didn't want to have one in a suburb of somewhere. We wanted it to be real gritty, backwoods, small-town murder action for this. Yeah, median household income here, well below the national average. It's $50,956. It's usually almost $70. Median home price, though.

Everybody buckle up for this shit. $159,000. Good Lord. You couldn't get a trailer in Phoenix for that. No. That's insane. No, no, no. And the motto here, they have a motto, the best kept secret in southern Alabama. Bet you hurricanes have heard of it. They have. There's a tree that was, we'll talk about it, but in the things to do, it gathers around a tree that was taken out down in a hurricane, which is interesting here.

I thought the best kept secret in southern Alabama is that those two cousins were fucking over there. That's what I thought the best kept secret was. But I guess the whole family knows about that probably. So history here. The first Europeans here were the French in the 18th century. Really? Yeah, they came, you know, 1700s. They heard that the land had healing herbs and mineral springs. So they came here.

And it was ended up being settled in about 1811. The name Citronelle is French derived from the Citronella plant. And the town became a popular resort destination in the late 1800s, which is interesting. Interesting.

They never been to a good resort? They had healing waters here. Back then, they'd go anywhere with a hot... Arkansas had tons of resort spots because they had natural sulfur water. Guys, that's mud. It's just sulfur water. Yeah. What smells? That's the healing waters. That's what stinks.

Shit rotting. A lot of hotels were built to accommodate these people. Really? Yeah, now that's all gone, though. As we know, 3,900 people live here. In 1955, oil was discovered here. Is that right? So today, this town is known as the oil capital of Alabama. Of Alabama. Yep, that's right. I believe Judd Clampett was the guy who found it, if I'm not mistaken. Seems like. So reviews of this town, five stars. Citronelle is a small community town.

Is it a community or a town or both? There we go. There is plenty of good people. There is plenty of good people. There is. Who live in the surrounding neighborhoods. The schools in Citronelle are excellent for such a small town. There's plenty to do in terms of outdoor activities such as going to the golf course or swimming in the lake.

There's a lake. There's a lake. Things will crawl up inside your body. That's something to do. Yeah. They'll swim up your pee hole. That's not good. All up your pee hole and your butthole. Yeah, you think it's watertight, but those things, they sneak in. Any submergible holes getting things in it. That's what I mean. You ever seen a bug sneak through a spot? They can smush down to nothing. Oh, yeah, yeah. It works. So four stars. I am from Citronelle, Alabama, and it's a small town, nothing big.

It is like a town I prefer to live in than a big city. That's a sentence. It is like a town I prefer to live in than a big city. Really exposing that top quality education that Alabama offers. Tell me how good the schools are, please. The backwoods are great and a peaceful, relaxing place to live. I like the woods. That's fine. There are things that need improvement, but what town slash city does not need that? Overall, it's great.

So take the bad good with the bad. Sure. Couple of things. Sometimes there's some bad shit. Grain of salt. Shit happens. Whatever. Nothing's perfect. Three stars. I've lived in Citronelle all of my life. And while I do feel there is a sense of community here, the small town life can also be stifling.

Oh, wow. Everybody knows everybody, which can be a good thing, but it can also be very negative. People here also don't care for their views to be challenged or disagreed with. I think that's everywhere. I don't think that's...

And it's nice when everybody knows you. Right up until everybody knows you. Yes, that's the thing. That's so good. When you have, oh boy, I'll tell you after the show, but I had a weird conversation today, boy, that just... With the neighbor? Oh, never mind. Never mind, because they might listen, so I don't want them to blow my house up. Anyway, things to do here. Here we go. The Surrender Oak Festival.

Okay. This is a festival around both a surrender of Confederate unit and a tree that blew down. We'll combine the two. We'll combine. Well, the tree was it's called the surrender oak because that's where the surrender happened.

And then a hurricane took the tree down. Right up its ass? Wow. Right up its ass. So, yes, it's the festival, the first Saturday in May. It's the celebration or they do a reenactment of the last surrender of the Confederate Army east of the Mississippi River. Very specific. Very specific. In Citronelle on May 4th, 1865. They were trying to find something to have a festival about. And they're like, did you hear about this shit? Yeah.

They say the closing scenes of that awful, bloody drama, the Civil War, were witnessed in this vicinity. Lee and Johnson had surrendered.

That already happened. Mobile had been occupied by Union forces after the Battle of Mobile Bay, but no one organized a body of Confederates that could be called an army that remained in the field. The last army of close to 9,000 soldiers surrendered on May 4th here, and that's what they did under a large white oak tree in Citronelle. Yeah, that's what they did. And they called it the Surrender Oak.

Because it's white, James. Because it's white. Exactly. It's perfect. White flag. And then Mother Nature didn't like it at all. Didn't like it. Well, we don't even know what year. Either in 1902 or 1906, depending on the source, it blew down from a hurricane. So...

I have no idea. So they made walking canes, gavels, and other items as souvenirs out of the tree. Wow. And they have a few of them in the Smithsonian, actually, there. Really? Yeah. They put a memorial marker. They placed it on the spot here. And the city of Citronelle planted a young live oak tree in the approximate location of the Surrender Oak.

They don't even know where it was? Nope. They don't even know where it was because it was 100. They don't even know what year it fell down. They're like, what's that here? Real special tree. It's totally special. And then they reenact their lowest moment. It's a very strange festival. How hilarious that they lost the tree. They lost track of it. It's a fucking tree. God damn, we lost the war. We lost the tree. We lost it all. Damn this town.

No. So this town looks very quaint. I will say that. It looks like a nice, cute little quaint. It looks like where like Reese Witherspoon would have a romantic comedy in 1999. You know what I mean? Horse and buggy rides, children's train rides, a petting zoo. This all says Civil War reenactment, doesn't it? A turpentine demonstration.

See how that is? Watch this. Came off right there, cleaned it with the turpentine. Like, that's a demonstration. Put it on a pretty girl's mouth and do what you want. There you go. Choctaw Native American dancers. I mean, moonshine still. No samples, they say next to it. They're just going to show you. A wooden bowl maker demonstration.

Show me how to make a bowl and a cross cut saw demonstration. Watch us saw things. Yeah. And then finally, the surrender reenactment ceremony, which will take place. Obviously, the culmination of the evening.

There's a lot of people laughing at that. That is insane. That said, let's talk about some horrible murder. Let's do it. This is insane what we're talking about here. It's episode 500. How can it not be insane? Great. You have to do this. Let's get into this. Let's talk about a couple of people. First off, let's talk about a couple. This is Joseph Adam Turner. He is 26 years old in 2016. So that's where we're going to start. So pretty recent here.

2016, Joseph Adam Turner. Joseph, he has a girlfriend that they live together and everything. She is Shannon Melissa Randall. She's 35, actually. He's 26. She's 35. Yeah, so they get together. They have a three-month-old son named Darren.

So they have that's coming along here at this point. Joseph here, the guy, he also has a sister that hangs out with them a lot. Her name is Lynetta Lester Lester.

L-A-N-E-T-A. Lynetta. Lynetta Lester. And Lynetta here, Lynetta's got kind of a wild life since she's hooked up with this guy. She's got a boyfriend. Oh? Was she married? How'd she have a different last name? I have no idea. They probably have different dads. Yeah, this is...

When I show you the house that everybody resides in, you'll go, oh, nobody has the same father in this house at all. Nobody has the same last name at all. Never. No. So, yeah, she's got a very explosive relationship with a guy named Derek Ryan Dearman. D-E-A-R-man. He's 27. He's from Leakesville, Mississippi, which isn't too far.

from here. They started dating. We're going to catch up with them in August of 2016, and they only have been dating since January 2016. Pretty new relationship. And it's complicated. Already? Oh, they live together, and then they're fighting, and she goes, it's eight months. Just break up. It's not working. Wow. If you have explosive fights in the first six months of knowing someone- Oh, it's over. Yeah.

That's not – that has no future probably. You got to get along for a while anyway. You're not going to work that out. No. No. You just don't like each other. You just got together. They had their relationship status on Facebook said in a relationship with each other in February of 2016. Not complicated. Just in a relationship. With each other. Picture together the whole deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were together from January to August and –

He's very abusive toward her the whole time, by the way. Multiple people see it. It's like he doesn't. Oh, it's on the surface. Oh, he doesn't even hide it. No, this guy's a lunatic. Well, he's high on meth most of the time is the problem. When you're high on meth, I feel like your judgments are a little off. And they are for him. Evidently, yeah. Seems like as people do a lot of weird shit they probably wouldn't do normally on meth. Yeah.

You ever see people riding bikes around at 4 o'clock in the morning scratching their face? Without meth, that's not happening probably. It's a fascinating life. I don't – still, for the life of me, cannot gather. You know what the end is. Why start? And if you can do – look, I'm not a coke guy. Never was. Just not my thing. But there are people I know that do –

I've done coke for a long time and they know how to deal with it. And then there's people that's destroyed their whole life. So it's, but meth is like, I never known anybody to be like just a casual meth user for the last 10. I only use it to party once in a while. It's never like that. No, it's like smoking crack. Once you get to that point, it's not a party anymore. It's not, it's a need. You're missing teeth and you, your, your family doesn't recognize you. Yeah. Open sores are not the best look for anybody. Yeah.

So a man said his family at this time provided a home for Derek and Lynetta earlier in 2016 near Leakesville, Mississippi. And this man said that Dearman was pretty much all the time on meth. So that was a problem. He rent a place to a guy and now he's a meth head and that he would take Lynetta out in the woods to do walks, walk her into the woods in rural Mississippi and beat the shit out of her out there.

Just beat her in the woods. So no one would see it. He'd just take her out there and beat her up in the woods. Oh, boy. Which is, that's disturbing because she probably knew that she was being taken out there to be beaten. I figure after the first time, you know. Yeah. You go, I'm not going in the woods anymore. We've done this twice. Both times. Crazy. So Charlie Passarelli Jr. I didn't think we'd have a lot of Passarellis down here, but apparently we do. No.

Charlie Passarelli Jr. said he knew Dearman for years and he said, quote, he was taking her out there and beating the crap out of her. He's beating the crap out of her out there. He said that he always figured that that Dearman was just buying or selling drugs. And that's kind of how it was. Now, Derek Dearman has been married before. He's only 27, but he is has been divorced for six years and has two kids.

with a woman. Yeah, Crystal is her name, his ex. She divorced him in 2010. She said he always had a temper, especially when he didn't get his way. People on meth are usually so reasonable. You know, that's really strange. They're usually just real approachable and open to suggestion, new ideas. I wonder how much goes his way. Probably not a ton when you hear a little bit about this story. She said he's very violent.

Also is the problem. She said, quote, I once woke up to him holding a knife to my throat in bed with my baby in the crib right there. Jesus, he may he's made threats the entire time we were together and after we separated.

He's a terrible, crazy person. What has happened to this guy? Since he was a teenager, he's been on and off with the meth, with pills, with other shit here. Apparently, after finding lots of records on him, the courts did here, he had a history beginning at the age of five of disciplinary problems.

So this is like systemic as fuck. Bad ones, tantrums, right? Like tear apart a kindergarten classroom and shit like that. Yeah. Like a, like a rock star. So terrible living situation, very tumultuous at home. And his parents will say the same thing later. He's got all of his records throughout everything. Say that he's aggressive. He has defiant behavior. He had a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder as well.

Hmm. What is that one? He can't be not a twat. That's what that is. Authority ain't for him. I've been looking this over and I mean, we're not big on authority. That's why we're comedians. But at some point we're like, you know, yeah, I can't. Sometimes you got to get along to go along. Go along. You know, you understand there's certain things you can't do. Yeah.

You know what I mean? I can't like, you know, strap up human to the roof of my car and drive 95 miles an hour down a main street of a small town. Probably. That's probably illegal. You know, you can't scream fire in a theater. You can't. There's things. And these people are like, I'll scream fucking fire all I want. How dare you tell me not to fucking. I'll scream fire the bombs. I don't give a shit.

So just a complete theme of being just a no respect for anything. Not just authority, just anything. Just a complete asshole. They're around, but they can't control him ever since the time he was a little kid. They're divorced and they have a lot of problems and he takes it out on the world, basically. Weird. In 2003, he was in a car accident.

which is when he was, let's see, 13, so when he was 14, 13, 14, he was in a car accident. Driving or not? No, no, no, he was in the car, where he and a woman survived, but two people died in the car accident. Oh, shit. Yeah, killed a 21-year-old and a 34-year-old in the car accident. One of the people who died, Larry Hill was his name, his mother, whose name is Betty Davis, by the way. Is that right? Yeah, she...

She said that, you know, he was a nice kid back then. He said, quote, he used to stay at my house all the time with Larry. Why was her 21-year-old son hanging out with a 13-year-old and having sleepovers, first of all? I'd like to know about that. So there's no ages? Like, why would you want to hang out with a 13-year-old when you're 21? I guess you're both drinking. You know, you're probably dating the same chick, so yeah, you know.

So they said that he, the kid, Dearman, when he was a kid, served as a pallbearer at the funeral and everything when he was 14. And they said it didn't seem to really affect him. He didn't seem to have PTSD or anything like that, but...

Who knows if they actually tried to get him any kind of counseling or anything after being a child watching two people die before your eyes. He may have been already fucked up long before this. Yeah, this is around when the meth starts, too. Okay. So let's fast forward to August 17th, 2016. It is a Wednesday. Okay. It's a Wednesday. And Dearman here, Derek and Joseph Turner get together. That is his girlfriend's brother.

They get together at his house. Well, this house is barely a house, really. It's a place where Dear Man stays. No, it's Joseph Turner's house. And Dear Man is sort of allowed there sometimes when he's not on meth and trying to beat up the guy's sister. So it's on Jim Platt Road is the name of the road where it's out there if you're in that local area. They were together on Wednesday the 17th to chop up an old trailer.

So fascinating, right? So that so that Dearman could sell it for scrap.

Oh, so this is what we're doing. This is he's like bubbles from the wire, basically. Like he's got a shopping cart full of aluminum. He's going to go sell for drug money, a holiday rambler skin. Yeah. What is happening? So that night, Dearman spent the night with his girlfriend here at that at the home of the brother.

So they let him stay over. Yeah, Lynetta stays. They're having a good day, I guess. So they've chopped up a trailer. It's Miller time, and then we're going to relax. So...

The next day, Randall, who owns the home, that's his girlfriend who's pregnant there, who owns the home too with Turner, told Derek she didn't know that he was going to be able to stay there. And the brother already told Derek that he could stay there. So they let him stay the night. And the next day she was like, you can't stay here anymore.

I don't want you in my fucking house. I don't like you, whatever. So Lynetta had her brother take her back to a home in Loosedale, Mississippi, where the two were staying at the time, Derek and Lynetta. Okay. That night, Dearman beat the shit out of her.

Yeah. So they didn't. Yeah. So that gives her a beating, apparently. And he's also high on meth because he sold all his scrap metal. So that means he's got meth money. So she called her brother and said, can I can I come back to your house on Jim Platt Road there and stay with you because he's beating the shit out of me? And they were like, yeah, we told you not to leave in the first place. For Christ's sake, we left your air mattress set up on the living room. We knew you'd be back.

So today place over there on Jim Platt road is the funniest thing you've ever over there on Jim Platt road.

I hope she sounded exactly like that. I think she did, probably. That's the thing. Because everything I see, everybody keeps referring to it. They keep saying, a house on Jim Platt Road. Like every interview and stuff, it's about Jim Platt Road, Jim Platt Road. So it's stuck in my head like this endless loop of Jim Platt Road, Jim Platt Road, Jim Platt Road. It's all I'm going to think of all night. So Thursday goes by pretty uneventfully besides her going back home. Yeah.

to her brother's house then friday comes around friday august 19th 2016 so at the the jim platt roadhouse it's an isolated home by the way all by itself sitting out here on a dirt road west of citronelle so it's not only neighbor they had was a trailer and it's chopped up some other screams all you want ain't nobody gonna hear you that's that's what we're talking about now

So everybody decides to have a low-key weekend. We have Lynetta. We have her brother and Shannon, her brother's girlfriend, who's pregnant, by the way. Oh, I'm sorry. No, this one's coming up. They have a three-month-old, sorry, named Darren. Then there's two other friends here, Justin Caleb Reed, who's 23, and his wife, Chelsea Marie Reed, who's 22 and pregnant. Right.

Five months pregnant, 22 years old. So Justin is trying to figure out a way to go to college because he wants to be a video game developer. He's got a lot of he's good with electronics. So instead, he's having a cookout. Ninety eight dream. Yeah, he's got. Yeah. Yeah. Shit. Kids now still are crazy for that shit because it's unbelievable. But they want to play them, not develop them. That's what developing them is, though.

Is it? It's half playing them. It's what game would I like to play? And then you get to program. You have to have so much creativity, too. It's not just computer. It's not just like technical savvy. You have to have a whole. You have to be able to imagine a world that's entertaining enough to charge someone $100 to dick with. And create a goal that's different and new. I mean, I guess you don't have to create a new. Just got a guy to kill. Yeah, just kill. What weapons will you use to kill these people over there?

Wild ass guns. So here they are. Chelsea, by the way, is Shannon's niece. So Lynetta's brother's girlfriend's niece. Everybody's sort of related here. These are young people to be just hanging out wildly. Yeah, they're just well, they're hanging out at the house there. Have they decide to have a nice, easy weekend Friday night? They have a cookout. Robert Lee Brown comes over. He is Shannon's brother.

So Shannon's brother's there. Shannon's niece is there with her husband and Linetta. It's a big party. Everybody's sort of related a little bit. And they're going to have a big cookout, and then they settle in to watch a movie together. So it's a nice night, nice and relaxing. 2016, it really sounds like a 1993 night they're having. It does. We went to Blockbuster. We rented fucking...

Doing nothing for the stereotype of Alabama is 15 years behind everybody. Yeah. They're doing 15 years ago shit. That's exactly right. Then they all got on MySpace afterwards and they were like checking to see their top friends list. So their AOL CDs and they're online. Get on a chat room and really start cooking. You know what I mean? Meet some people.

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Now back to the show.

So Justin and Chelsea here, the young couple, 23 and 22, they got married shortly after they graduated from Citronelle High School. They were high school sweethearts. They got together. They don't really have a big plan in life. One of their friends said they were kind of spur of the moment, fly by the seat of your pants kind of people.

Yeah. You can call us white trash if you'd like, but that's what we are. That's, yeah. They got to figure something out. We're just living it day by day. In about four months, they're going to have a baby, so they got to figure something out. And they're living...

at her aunt's fucking like you know on their in their aunt's living room basically so this is you know this isn't very we got to get it together pull it together everybody i've been through this this is a tough time it's a tough time in your life they had moved to fresno california for jobs in the summer of 2015 and about after a year they moved back and then here they are so they had just gotten back

a couple months ago from California. Feels like weed clipping, right? Something like that, maybe. Yeah, probably. We're going to go work the crop, I guess. Go work the harvest when it comes in. Yeah.

So when they got back, they told everyone Chelsea's pregnant. So this particular day, Friday the 19th, Derek has been doing quite a bit of meth for a while. I think he's probably on a bender from when he sold a scrap metal. Because you don't just like, you know, you don't go, oh, it's 930. I'm going to turn in. I'll smoke more meth in the morning. Like, you just keep going with that shit if you have it.

So this night, Lynetta is staying at her brother's house. Like we said, everybody's there. Joseph Adam Turner, Shannon Randall and the Reeds and the other guy to Robert Lee Brown. They're all there. Five people. Jesus Christ. Oh, and the little baby to six people. Three month old. Yeah. So he is told there. I guess he comes over at some point. He shows up. Derek does at the home and he's told you got to get the fuck out of here.

She came back. She's still got a black eye from two days ago when I picked her up from your house after you beat the shit out of her. Get the fuck out of here, right? So he says, all right, all right. Yeah, yeah, fine, fine, fine. Derek leaves. I feel like he's been kicked out of quite a few places, right? He probably knows how to leave. He knows how to leave. One thing he knows how to do is turn on his fucking heels and head toward the door because...

Everywhere. Movies, restaurants. He knows he's not welcome. Arby's parking lots. He's been kicked out of everywhere. He's built the Tide ship and goes...

I don't think I'm welcome here. You know, if I was a suspicious person, if I was a paranoid person, I'd say, y'all don't want me here. I'm not a man who likes to stick around where I'm not wanted. That's what I mean. So that's what he says. I'm out. I'm out of here. I get it. Three hours later, he shows back up.

Hi. Like it never happened. I'm back again. How y'all doing now? Yeah. How about after you watched fucking Pulp Fiction? Are you after you rented that from Blockbuster in 1994? Are you? Yeah. Are we good? So he shows up and that's when he is told in no uncertain terms by by the brother of his girlfriend here. Joseph Adam Turner tells him that not only do you have to leave now, you're no longer welcome on my property.

86th, babe. Don't ever come back. Right. Just like, you know, every Taco Bell in the metropolitan mobile area. You are not allowed in here. So get the fuck out.

Listen, James, and I'll tell you this. That's a temporary order, too. I've been back to many places. Oh, so many. So many places. I got kicked out of a whole development, like an entire community one time. Neighborhood? Jesus. The whole neighborhood. The cops told us. The HLH told a visitor no more. No, no, no. This was the police told us. If you come in this area again, I'm going to arrest you on sight because. For trespassing.

Yeah, because, well, we were buying drugs. Because you don't live here. Yeah, and we were also causing problems, I'm sure. But still...

Yeah. That's not right. I've gone back since. Oh, there was not one time that I was told don't come back that was undeserved. I totally deserve it. I was only there to buy drugs, so I totally get it. But now one of the first things I did when I came back here and moved back home and I was driving around was I went to that neighborhood and drove all around. I'm like, ha, ha, ha. That cop who kicked us out is probably fucking dead by now. Dead or retired. Yes.

Yes. Take that. Felt really good. I hope he'll recognize me now. Yep. I feel like Dearman might have those moments himself. Probably. So he comes back, tells him he's no longer welcome, and Shannon says, you know what? Fuck this. No longer welcome, and I'm calling the cops, too. How about that? Let's get the police involved. He never even thought. I would never think for a second that they would, like, get the authorities involved in this group. Rationally, yeah.

They do. They call the police department and they say, Dearman's on the property and we don't want him here. So that's trespassing. They're going to come get him. So the officers showed up at the home. By the time they got there, though, he already took off. Oh, he's gone now. Yeah. So they patrolled the area surrounding the home looking for him, but they couldn't find him.

So hopefully he's been scared off into the night. He's like hiding in the bushes from cops that are creeping around looking for him. That'll make you go away, right? You don't want to be on meth and have to talk to cops. You don't want to be on anything. 3 a.m., though, he comes back. Wow. Third time tonight.

What a time to be there. He is very persistent and a real asshole. I feel bad for these. These people are trying to have a nice night. You know what I mean? Trying to barbecue some ribs and hang out. They're doing their best and trying to have some nice barbecue. And I wonder what was on the menu, by the way.

Hamburgers and hot dogs? Are we talking like chicken thighs? What are we talking here? Or is it wild southern Alabama shit? Or is it groundhog for breakfast? What are we doing here? Is there some strange game? I don't know. So 3 a.m., Derek comes back. He's super high on meth, obviously. And everybody's sleeping in the house. Now, Lynetta is sleeping in the living room. She is awoken by a tap on her shoulder.

She turns around. The tap is as Derek is reaching through the living room window, tapping on her shoulder. There's no screen. What? Just in August in Southern Alabama, the amount of mosquitoes in that trailer and that house have got to be. It's more mosquito than than wood at this point. It's just awful. Reach through a window and tap somebody awake. That's crazy. So she's like, what the fuck do you want?

And he says, this is amazing. He said, I really, really, please don't, don't, don't, you know, freak out. Don't tell everybody I'm here. I just want something to drink and a cigarette. So I came all the way here. I live in Mississippi, mind you. I came all the way here to tap on your shoulder. States away. But it's so he,

She said, you got to leave, dude. No, I'm not giving you a cigarette and a drink. Get the fuck out of here. So he got pissed off at that point. Rightfully so, obviously. You wake people up through a window at 3 in the morning. They don't have a cigarette for you. Just wanted an Arizona iced tea and a cigarette. Man, Jesus. And it's not cans, too. It's the jugs they got there.

So she said, no, I'm not going outside. I'm not dealing with you. Fuck off. And she rolled back over, went to sleep again. He pulled the window shut. Yeah, that's it. So that's how it goes. So he wow. He decides, what should I do now? Well, I'll go to the sliding glass door in the back and I'll break into them or on the front of the house. I'm sorry. So they were locked.

retrieved an axe from the front yard. Okay. Came in. Those sliding glass doors are pretty easy to pop. And something tells me a guy who's been on meth for 15 years knows how to pop open a sliding glass door to steal shit from places. He knows. So he does that and then he comes into the house with an axe. Everybody's out cold sleeping, by the way. No one sees him. No one knows he's there.

Oh, my God. He's standing over these sleeping people with an axe in his hand at 3.30 in the morning, high on meth. This is going to go so bad, right? It's fucking horrible. He takes the axe, and the first person he sees is Robert Lee Brown, who is the guy who came over. He's asleep in the recliner in the living room just inside the door of the house. He...

no other way to put it, axes him multiple times in the head. Just starts axing this guy in the head. Just cleave the fuck out of this guy with an ax. Okay. 26 year old Robert Lee Brown. Now, Lynetta is asleep on an air mattress there in the living room. Like I said, that she's got the air mattress and she's,

We always say the air mattress is a fine start again, especially when you're meth addicted. Fucking significant other is trying to beat the shit out of you. So she's asleep there. She never she didn't hear the axe attack. This guy was sleeping and he just axed him up and she stays asleep. So he then walks down the hall. He leaves her asleep.

Just walked past her. Walked down the hallway into a bedroom that was occupied by Lynetta's brother. Turner. Yeah, Turner and Randall. And their three-month-old baby. Oh, no. What? He takes the axe, and the first person he goes after is Turner, the brother, because he's the one he's probably the most mad at. And he multiple times strikes him in the head with the axe.

Okay. Then he Randall wakes up. What the fuck? She's holding the baby, by the way. She wakes up. So he starts attacking her with the ax in the head. Oh, boy. And walks, walks away from them. Doesn't ask the baby. Then he goes and finds he does that. So then he goes into another bedroom to two bedroom old couple where he finds Chelsea and Justin Reed. Oh, God damn it. Pregnant Chelsea and Justin Reed here.

I guess Chelsea awoke from all of this and was like, what's going on? So he attacks her multiple ax shots to the head, multiple ax blows to the head, then turns to Justin. Justin had pulled a gun out.

Atta boy. Justin's got a gun, but he turns around and whacks him in the head with the axe and keeps coming at him and then wrestles the gun away from him. You gotta use it, man. So now he's got a pistol and an axe. Uh-huh. This is fucking horrible. So...

Both Chelsea and Justin, everybody too, Brown in the living room, Randall Lee Brown. They're all, or not Randall Lee, what's his name? It was Brown, Justin Lee. Robert Lee Brown, Robert Lee Brown. I want to get it right. Jesus, the guy's getting attacked by an ax for Christ's sake, this poor bastard. So none of them are dead. Everybody's alive, even though they've been struck in the head with axes. They've all, they're all still alive and in pain. So next he goes down, takes the gun from Justin,

And he shoots Chelsea. Starts firing shots at her. Then he starts firing shots at Justin as well. Then he goes into the next room and shoots Turner as well, the brother. He's out of ammo though. What's a fella to do? Right. Well, you pick up the nearest shotgun. There's a shotgun. There's a shotgun in the house too. So he takes the shotgun and shoots fucking Randall in the back of the head while she's still holding the baby.

Baby's unharmed. Completely fine. Not a pellet hits the baby. That's pretty amazing. Uninjured. It's three months old. It doesn't know what's going on. It doesn't know if it's, you know, is it time to eat? That's all they know. They don't know shit. So he then comes back to the living room where Randall Lee Brown is writhing from his axe wounds. And he shoots him in the head, too.

Now, Lynetta is sitting in the living room now. The gunshots woke her up. She's like, what the fuck? Now he's standing there covered in fucking blood. I mean, head to toe horror movie with an ax in one hand and a fucking shotgun in the other. And menacing ass weapons. And this guy's got no head on the recliner over here inside of the chair. And, you know, you heard all these shots and, you know, your brother and his wife and all your friends are down there, too. Oh, this is horrifying. It's fucking horrifying. Yeah.

So Derek then takes the keys to Randall's car, grabs her keys, grabs Lynetta, says, you're fucking coming with me. Doesn't kill her.

Also goes, grabs the baby. We're taking this with us too. Oh boy. Me, you and the baby. We're starting over. That's it. This is our baby. We're going to Mexico. I don't fucking fucked up raising Arizona ever. It's way worse. Way worse. Way worse. This is Jesus Christ. This is a lady that was on the couch. Is she still there?

That's his girlfriend, Lynetta. Oh, okay. She's the one who got the tap on the arm. She's on an air mattress in the living room. Jesus fucking man. Holy shit. Now, Brown is dead. Robert Lee Brown is dead by the front door. The Reeds are in the second bedroom, and Turner and Randall are in the back bedroom. Everybody's dead as shit now. They're all fucked. So-

So now they take off him in a stolen car with his estranged running away from him, ex-girlfriend and a baby. That's not even either of theirs. He goes to his sister's house in Leeksville, Mississippi.

Okay. They stop there. You know, just a stopover. Hey, how you doing? Just wanted to come by for a cup of coffee here. Yeah. Meth isn't known for most logical behavior, but this is, what are you going to do, man? Your linear thinking tends to be off when you're- Where are you going?

There's no plan. That's the thing. He went over to get a cigarette and a drink and ended up doing this. So there was never a plan for this to happen and escape. This is not... He's just like, give me a cigarette and a drink. No? Well, I'll break in and fuck all these people. Yeah. So maybe he's not... I'll kill them, not fuck them, actually. Now there's five bodies. You need a shower and you're in a lot of trouble. Yeah. Five bodies and a five-month-old baby, too. Or five-month-old in the womb baby. That's what they were trying to have. So...

The whole thing's obviously horrible. So he leaves his sister's house, stops at a friend's parents' house, and says, take this baby.

Here, watch this baby for they know he doesn't have a baby. Right. If I'm station, if your friends, if your son's friends meth head, if your son's meth head friend shows up with a baby that you know is not his and says, hold on to this for a while. I'm calling the cops immediately right now. Right now. They just were like, all right, well, pick it up whenever.

Is this your niece? Oh, boy. Cutie. Okay. So that's insane. Drops the baby off, then takes Lynetta to his friend's trailer to go to sleep because he's coming down now. Once they wake up, okay, they wake up. They go back to that friend's parents' house to pick up the baby. Thanks for watching him while we slept.

Then he goes to his dad's house. Going to dad's house. So while they're there, Dearman gets out of the car and goes up to his dad's house. Okay. Leaves her in the car. While he's not looking, she jumps in the driver's seat of the car, throws it in fucking reverse, and takes off peeling off like the Dukes of Hazzard with giant dirt clouds behind her.

She's got the baby? Got the baby in the car. Oh, boy. Takes off, heads right to the Citroen L Police Department. Okay. With the baby. Shows up there. And what a story does she have to tell? She shows up walking in haggard looking like fucking Linda Hamilton from Terminator but with a baby in her arms. Every cop sit around crisscross applesauce. I got something to tell you. Wow, do I have a fucking tale for you. So...

They turn up there. She tells the officers what happened. His father convinces him to turn himself in, Derek. His father's like, because they take off and the father's like, what happened? He's like, oh boy, let me tell you.

Shot a bunch of people, killed them, kidnapped them, a baby she took off with the car. So he heads to the local police station. His father convinces him. What do I do, Dad? I don't know, cops? Not here. Somewhere, I'm thinking something away from my house, probably. Off the property is going to be the solution to this problem.

I'd draw him a treasure map. There's an X far away from my house. As a dad, you've got to convince him that the cops is the safe bet, right, for him, for his safety. Who knows? The whole clan could come after him at this point. The whole family could come out of the hills. We have no idea. Or I think he's just convincing him that what you did was terrible. There's that, yeah. So his dad drives him to the Greene County Police Department where he sort of turns himself in.

He goes in, he goes, I'm going to turn myself in. And they go, well, for what? And he goes, for not paying child support. And they look through their shit, their computer or their whatever they got down there. Yeah. And...

I don't know what they're doing. Speak and spell or whatever. Look at the books. Yeah. The written on. I have no green. Green County, Mississippi. I don't know what they're doing down there. So he they say to him, there's no we don't have a warrant for you for that. Your dues are paid. You're good, dude. I'm sure they're not. But just the ex didn't turn him in because she probably doesn't want him to come stalker now.

So then the father says, you got to tell him what you actually did, son. So he does. He tells the officers and he says this. This is his explanation. When he says her, he means Lynetta in this, his girlfriend. He said, quote, through all this, I truly thought everybody was trying to kidnap and hurt her. After everything, I told my girlfriend to grab the baby and get in the car. She did so out of fear of me.

He said, I was on a lot of meth and I was delusional. I didn't know what the hell. He said, I honestly thought they were kidnapping and holding her hostage and hurting her, which, come on, dude, you were asking for cigarettes. Give me a break. She jumped in the car because she saw you murder five people. Yeah, she was terrified because obviously he's capable of it. Then he said, quote, if I can't have her, nobody, they couldn't have her either. That's what he said. Oh.

So it's a classic one. So the the Mobile County Sheriff's Captain Paul Birch said, quote, It's unprecedented here. We're breaking records, everybody. Come on down, sir.

He said that this was experts would term this overkill, excessive violence. He called it obviously horrific. He said they were down for the night sleeping and he had enough familiarity with the house when he entered. I guess you could say in a rage and he's disabling people as he's in there. He was able to overpower them before they were able they were able to protect themselves.

What a sterile thing to say. That's really, yeah, not just like, holy shit, did you, what the, there's fucking brains everywhere, man. Burn this house. He didn't yank the fucking positive cable off their batteries. He pulled a spark plug. That's what he did. He caved fucking heads in, officer. Yeah. So, caved heads in, then was like, not good enough.

Yeah. The district attorney said in her 20 year career, she's never encountered a crime where there was five people who were brutally and viciously murdered. And that's what we have here.

So, August 23rd, 2006. Now, this is three days after this whole mess happens or two days after. He's being escorted to the jail from a court hearing here from his arraignment or whatever. And the press is there. He stops and has a chit chat with the fucking press. What's he say? They let him stop in the parking lot. I'll show the picture on social media because he's surrounded by people with cameras and mics and he's just standing there like he just, you know.

You just won the Powerball. What are you going to do with it all? He's like, well, I'm going to pay off my house, first of all. I mean, that's been bothering me. Interest rates and all. He hit the half-court shot at the fucking Thunder Gang. It's so strange. So, yeah, he said he was high on meth. And he said, quote, drugs were making me think things that were not really – think things that's not really there. Wow.

Drugs were making me think things that's not really there. It's hard to say in his vernacular here, so...

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He said that I came down and realized once he came down, he said, I realized what was really going on. I turned myself in because I was sober and knew what was the knew it was the right thing to do. Holy shit. He also then expressed his love for Lynetta. I love you, Lynetta. And then said to all the family members, quote, don't do drugs. Yeah.

Don't do drugs. You'll murder everybody. It's just normal. Don't do drugs. That's the fucking lesson here that he's trying to... You know, you guys, that egg frying really doesn't stick. But I'll tell you what does. Yeah.

This chick's brain's on her bedroom wall. What do you think of that? The inside of a young man's head. That'll do it. Then they said, well, what do you think should happen to you? And he said, I deserve to die as he was led away. The injuries here, Dr. Stacey Turner of the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. Oh, she's got to tell us. Yeah, she performed the autopsies on...

three of the victims and certified the autopsies of the other two. She also castrated a pig that day. I was going to say, yeah, she also just got done milking a cow earlier and taking down a sorghum field, so she's got a lot going on right now. A lot going on. Yeah.

I don't know why I apologize, Alabama. When I read Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, I was like, come on. I'm just kidding. That's a joke. That's a joke. I make fun of New York worse, so shut the fuck up. I don't want to hear it. Fishkill, New York. Making fun of pigs. Popped the balls off a pig this morning.

So they said despite the fact that all the people were wounded after the attacks with the axes and in great pain, the victims continued to resist his attacks like Justin tried to defend himself with a handgun, but he was able to wrestle it away. It's a .45, by the way. Quite a big boy. Good Christ. That's your big boy. That's who he's shooting people with. That's a big fucking gun. Wow. Used it to shoot him and three of the others, and then he picked up the 12-gauge shotgun he found in the home and shot Randall with that.

And then Brown too. So immediately this house becomes a tourism spot. Immediately. There's only 300 people here, James. Two days later, there's just crowds of people taking pictures in front of it and all that kind of shit. Gross. And they said that they've been – it's a secluded area. You're only coming out to this house to go to the house. And one neighbor said, you've got 10 to 15 people a day trying to come in for sightseeing.

And this neighbor said that the what makes the extra car and foot traffic strange is that some people have brought children to see the home. And he said, why would anybody want to bring a young into a crime scene? That's exactly what he said. Because we ain't got no sitter, sir. Because the Wi-Fi is down. That's why.

Can't get wah-wah-wubsy to put it. God, no. So two weeks after the murder, the house burns down. What? The house burns to the fucking ground. Okay. On purpose, right? The detectives, they had gotten all the evidence they needed out of it first, but the volunteer fire department was called to the place it burned down, and the sheriff's department said they got a tip from someone in the community about the fire before it happened. What?

Heard that house is about to burn down. That house is... I'll tell you, I don't know about that wiring. I'll tell you what. That house is about to be on fire, y'all. Oh, man. So a relative of the owner of the home gave...

a news outlet, the chance to photograph the video and video, the burned down home. And they said, um, quote, they said, hopefully having, having the disintegrated home and the pictures out there in the media will prevent people from coming here. Now. I think they burned it. It's all, it's a win, win. You burn it down, you get insurance. No one comes here anymore. And it's salt of the earth of this thing. Other people still come.

They probably do. Just look at the spot. He says, quote, they were treating it like the Manson house or something. People just need to stop and think about the fact that this whole neighborhood has just been rocked. So another neighbor said, having no idea what went on in that house, don't you all think our nerves are fried? Every time I see every time something goes bump in the night, I'm running. So they relative said they didn't know who burned the house down, but they're relieved to have it burned down. That's what they said.

Could it be more obvious that this was burned down on purpose? Yeah. I don't know why it burned down. I don't know how it burned down, but I'm so goddamn glad it is. Oh, boy. They said it's a blessing that it went up, and I don't know who did it or why they did it, but it's gone. I wonder. So he has court-appointed attorneys, Derek does. He pleads not guilty. Then a week later, he fires his attorneys and says, I want to plead guilty. It changed my mind. Oh, okay.

So he does that. He goes to this arraignment to see if he's allowed to do that. He writes a handwritten letter to the court indicating that, you know, I want to do that. And to be able to do that and to be able to basically proceed pro se, your own lawyer, pro per whatever the fuck it is, you have to – they have to do a mental evaluation on you to make sure you're not like just saying you're guilty because you're insane. You're like, I'm guilty. I also fucking killed Abraham Lincoln. You know, like you never know.

So they do that. They asked. It's what he wants that he meets with the court without a lawyer. And they found that he had knowingly, freely, intelligently and voluntarily waived his right to assistance of counsel. They do appoint advisory counsel to be present and available to assist him because he can't just sit there by himself. He doesn't know what the fuck to say. He's a fucking meth head. He has no idea what he's doing. So.

The district attorney says all this shit about, you know, what he did, the whole thing. He killed these people. It's brutal, cold-blooded, blah, blah, blah. His response is, quote, everything the district attorney has said is true. Okay? Oh, you're bad at this, man. Not good. Not a good lawyer. Not a good lawyer. There's lawyers. No, no, the opposite of that.

Robert Lee Brown, the victim in the recliner, his father said he's already forgiven Derek. Wow. What a nice man. Imagine how nice he is if you're nice to him. You kill his son and he's nice to you. Imagine if you bring over a six-pack. Holy shit. He's going to do anything for you. He said, I can't bring my son back. I forgive this guy because he don't know no better. I feel for his family.

What a sweet young man. Nice man. That's I, that's incredible. I can't imagine. I don't even know how a person can get to that, but I'm, I'm jealous of it to be able to do that. Cause I can't, I'd be like, I'll kill him and the rest of his family too. Yes. So in jail here, um,

He said that he's talking and he said, quote, I am guilty, plain and simple. I turn myself in and I want to plead guilty. Once I got moved over to county and spent a week down there sleeping every day, my mind is coming back to me a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. I was just in shock. I couldn't comprehend the magnitude of what happened because those people were good people.

They're just nice people that he killed that were trying to protect his sister from being beaten. Fascinating, fascinating choices he makes. Fuck yeah. This is why it's episode 500. We had to pack in a lot of murder into this. You know, as I get better and better sleep, I'm tending to figure I'm really a dick. Less meth, more sleep really does something to the brain. I'll tell you what. Stay up too long. You start saying and seeing some weird shit. Weird stuff. I don't know what's going on.

Now, under Alabama law, even if you plead guilty to capital murder, there must be a trial also. Oh, they must have a trial even if you plead guilty. So you're already pleaded guilty, but they have to make sure that you're that you're not just a crazy person pleading guilty because this is a death penalty case. So obviously he killed five people and an unborn baby. So, yeah. And so his the only defense they really have for him is too much meth, just too much meth.

Really? Yeah. They said that they did intellect. He's got an IQ of 96 in his intellectual functioning in the average range. He's, you know, he's an average guy. He can, you know, he can make a plan and carry it. You know, that's that's totally dead average. Is it really? Absolutely. They saw a thing of like different IQs in different states. Pretty much 100 is dead average.

Really? Everybody's around 100. Some are 102 and some are 97. Is there a reliable online test I can take to see if I'm dumb? Yes. Absolutely. There's good IQ tests out there. You should check it out. Let's see how dumb we are. This is going to be embarrassing.

So they say he's fine. He can make a plan and carry. He can say, I'm going to go to the gas station, then go to the grocery store and get these items and then do it and return home with things. So he's a competent man. Now, the verdict comes in. Not much of a for the jury to decide. They say he did all this terrible shit. And he's like, I totally did that, man. Yep. It was terrible. I was on a lot of meth and I did it.

So guilt or innocence is not really in play. It's just the sentencing that's going to be really the thing, whether it's going to be the death penalty or life. So they find him guilty on 10 counts of capital murder.

Yeah, it's a weird thing that they double charge you on certain shit. Oh, maybe because of the axe and then a shotgun, axe and then a gun, maybe that's it? Possibly, yeah. It's a weird little quirk of the law, but we'll find out that it shouldn't be there anyway. So during sentencing, they said the judge noted that he saw the reports for psychological evaluations, and he asked Dierman about his request for his attorneys not to enter any mitigation procedures

evidence during the sentencing. And Dearman said he didn't want to use his religion as a crutch or require his family to be put out and have to go on the stand and testify. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be a burden on nobody. So that's wild. I'll just take the death penalty. He said that he felt that this decision was best for him and his family, regardless of the outcome. And he understands that could be the death penalty. So that's fine.

But the court says the lawyer, the advisory attorney, has to put on some mitigation for him. We can't just railroad this guy through. On appeals, that's not going to look good. So the argument is intoxication negated his ability to form the intent to commit the murders. That's basically what it is. They talked to a couple people. One lady he knows that worked at a gas station that night, she said that he did not look the same as he normally did that night and that his eyes were, quote, sunk in.

You know, meth bingey. And also he was acting antsy and kind of hyper. He just described a meth addict perfectly. So, yeah, they did that. They talked to other people. He doesn't even believe in this. But they also talked to the person he dropped the baby off to the next morning. And that person said he seemed fine, didn't look high at all.

But they also didn't ask questions about where a fucking strange baby came from either. So why do you have a child? Why do you now have a baby? Who would give you a baby at eight in the morning? Are you kidding me?

So, yeah, that's insane. So he admitted to using the axe to injure the people and shoot them. The prosecutor said, in this case, I know that Dearman has done something unusual. He has represented himself. And in this case, you know as to why I can argue why. So you could see him in another setting so that you could feel sorry for him because everyone feels sorry for lawyers. That's the most –

You couldn't get a more sympathetic group out there than lawyers. There's not a million jokes about them all drowning in the ocean at the same time or anything. They all have giant houses, undeservedly so. That's what I mean. There was jokes about Bundy at the time where it's like, it's one thing if you're going to be a serial killer, but now he's a fucking lawyer too? No. Fucking execute this man. There was jokes about that. I heard them when I was a kid.

So they said you could see him in another setting, feel sorry for him so that you could empathize with him so that he would seem real to you. He is real. But what he did far outweighs anything else in this case. What he did was real. And what he did was heinous, atrocious and cruel. What he did is deserving of the death penalty. Give him that.

So they said there's two aggravating factors the jury finds, that the capital murders were committed during the course of a burglary because he took shit about a baby in a car and a shotgun and an axe. A baby. He just took a baby, straight took a baby. Yeah. And that he intentionally caused the death of two or more persons by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct, which is considered an aggravator.

Additionally, they found that the crimes were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel compared to other capital offenses. He told the jury that, you know, yes, I did this. I put on this mitigating evidence, but don't listen to that.

He doesn't have any real significant prior criminal history. I found like a speeding, like going 75 and a 50, and then some other shit that I don't know what the code for it was. I couldn't figure it out. But that was like 2008, 2009. Seems like there's a lot of reasons to arrest him, but...

Not really. So the mitigating circumstances they find are that he has no significant prior criminal history. He generally follows the law. Never been in jail for armed robbery or attempted murder or anything. They also find non-statutory mitigating circumstances that Dearman accepted responsibility for his conduct. He is the most...

I did it. You know, my bad guy I've ever seen in a murder. I'll try harder. Yeah. He got the prosecution says all this terrible things. And he go, I can't argue with one word of that. Like, I'll do better. No, I won't kill me. That's this thing. Right. You all should kill me because this is as good as I can do. I can't do much better.

Nope.

During the defense presentation in the penalty phase, his dad took the stand. He was all put out here. He said, I take full responsibility for how my son was raised. This is just a responsibility taken family boy. They're not on meth. Several other family members spoke mostly about his years growing up, making reference to him getting involved with drugs from a young age.

He testifies himself, Derek, and he said, the state presented evidence and there's nothing I can do to make it right. It doesn't mean I don't try. I put my mitigation on behalf of my family. I'm only doing this for them, is what he said. Yeah.

The judge said, quote,

They said, you're not crazy. There is no drug use to mitigate these murders, even if you did it. He said those mitigating factors were found not to exist. After the axe attack took place, Dearman then callously shot each victim. Then you, sir, may fuck off 10 death sentences.

All 10. 10. You and all your friends. That's a lot to hand out. Wow. Almost a hard dozen. Yeah. We're going to warm that chair up times 10 and just do it once and explode your little ass. Just keep doing it until you're a pile of ashes like a cartoon. And there's one. There we go. We've got to fire them back up again. Wait for the smoldering to stop and then do it.

That's what they're going to do. So profiting off the murder is something also. After the sentence is handed down, the DA asks the judge to prevent Dearman and his family from profiting from his story by signing movie TV shows or any kind of book deal. The judge agrees to that request in principle, but he said he would need a motion written up at a later date. And, you know, he has the right to object, which Dearman then shouted out. I have no objections to that request. I'm good. Yeah.

Then he turned around, looked at his dad. His dad put up a closed fist like, you know, you do. And he gave him he gave him one back. Like, yeah, we ain't selling shit. Kill my son. Absolutely.

Atta boy. Atta boy. So he speaks after the sentence. The press talks to him on the way out again, and he says, quote, they knew that I wasn't in my right mind. They knew that the sober me would have never done those horrible things. I wasn't even going to litigate my conviction, but I allowed my family to get up there and plead and plead the courts, you know, for to not seek the death penalty. So he appeals in 2022 and he does get a small victory.

They got to take some of those death sentences away, right? They take away some of these. That's a lot.

They said four of the five convictions, he argued, that four of the five convictions violate the double jeopardy principles, which prevent a defendant from being tried and convicted on multiple counts of capital murder when they involve the same victim. The court concluded that on all remaining counts, the death penalty was the proper sentence in his case. So they do strike down four of the capital murder sentences and charges, but he's still got six to go. He'll only go to die six times. That's all. 2024 in February, the...

They there's an appeal. So it's this year. He claimed he's not competent to plead guilty is the thing that he wasn't competent to do any of that stuff. He alleges the trial court's failure to hold a competency hearing because they tried. He tried to get a competency hearing and they wouldn't give him one. They just had him interviewed. It wasn't another trial trial.

Well, I don't know what he wants here. I don't know. You're not going to get a new trial. That's ridiculous. Yeah. Maybe if you can get it knocked down to life without, I guess. I don't know what he's trying to do here. So he argues that the findings of one of the doctors that he was not competent to stand trial provide exactly the reasonable grounds for this particular appeal. Okay.

One doctor, though the state doctor, says that he was not experiencing symptoms of a severe mental disorder at the time of his crimes. Although he was abusing methamphetamine, he appears to have been aware of his actions and their effect on the victims and have been able to discern the wrongfulness of his behavior, which is the legal threshold for crazy or not here. So.

Another one here, Dr. Alicia Ellis Cox performed a psychiatric evaluation. She stated that Dearman presented symptoms that were indicative of bipolar disorder, PTSD, and polysubstance use disorder and remission.

So he's got to be there's there's something between his ears that's wrong, regardless of the drugs and substances he's on. He's fucked up. He's fucked up in the head for sure. So they said also diagnosed him with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, mild neurocognitive disorder, the criteria for which is met when an individual exhibits evidence of modest or modest cognitive decline from a previous level of performance in one or more cognitive domains.

that does not interfere with capacity for independent functioning, also stimulant use disorder, and unspecified depressive disorder. So they said, another shrink said, to summarize, Mr. Dierman knows the charges against him, the roles of the participants in trial, and the plea bargain process. Basically, he understands everything, so he should have done that. Well, then they also say that the prosecutor asked improper jury questions about

Which they do a lot of times. That happens a lot. Said that they...

used the comments about his choice to represent himself. They made comments about that and they weren't allowed to do that to the jurors. That's what he said. Fucking moron thinks he's better than me. Makes he's better than me. I'm a lawyer. God damn it. So the Alabama Supreme court denied the application to appeal a sentence and upheld six of the murder convictions there. Cause he was trying to get rid of the other six. They upheld all six. That's February, April 4th, 2024. He wants to die. Fucking kill me now.

Changed his mind. Yeah, he just realized there's no winning this. Yeah, this place sucks, man. So he said he's dropping his appeals and wants to be executed. He wrote letters to the governor. He's 36. He says he's at peace with this decision. He says now it's time for the victims and their families to get the justice they rightly deserve to start the closure. That's what he said. He said that he has not yet told the victims fair.

of his decision. He said, quote, I've laid many nights thinking. I've laid, not awake, just laid. Laid many nights thinking. What would I say to them if I ever had the chance, the opportunity to say something, meaning the victim's family's.

He said,

That was almost six years ago, and I feel like I've given them a fair chance. He said drugs turned me into a very unpredictable, unstable, and violent person. That's not who I am. The person that committed these crimes and the person who I truly am is two different people. Well, those people who are dead aren't anybody anymore. That's the problem. And he says that doesn't change the facts that the crimes were committed.

So he says that he wants to do a lethal injection and he says, quote, the execution. I mean, does it scare me? Yes and no.

He said, because they asked him about the failed executions, because Alabama had a couple of botched ones there where the electric chair didn't work. And remember that one? That was crazy. They couldn't get veins. Yeah, it's a mess. Was this there where a man lived for like several botches? Yeah, and then survived the whole thing? Yeah, that's crazy.

He said, on one side, you have, you know, worse complications for whatever reason. You know, it's very agonizing and painful. I mean, there is a chance Alabama has been known to have trouble with their execution process. He says, actually, go. That's like a challenge. You fuckers can't kill me. You pussies. What's up? We'll put a pillow over his face. He said, I'm actually going through with it. Actually going through it, I think about the least of all. My mind is so focused on trying to make sure to do the right thing.

And he said that he's got a spiritual advisor, a reverend, who said, though I'm vehemently opposed to the state of Alabama having the right to kill him, Derek Dierman is competent to make his own decisions and I'll continue to prayerfully stand beside him as he proceeds. And he also said there's guys in general population that committed way worse crimes than half the guys on death row. Guess what? Not Derek. Yeah, not Derek. No, no, no. This is this is pretty fucking bad.

Unless, yeah, I mean, a lot of, there may be people who did some sexual things to kids, but you shot a pregnant woman. Like you didn't even give that kid a chance. No. Wow, man. The only way he could have put a cherry on top is if he fucked the baby's face and then crushed his skull with a big clap. You know what I mean? Like pushed in a soft spot would have been the only fucking way. What a scumbag.

What a sick thing to say. That poor kid has no fucking parents now. No. Yeah. And we'll never know them because it's too little. That's horrible. And there was another baby. That's the second baby that, Jesus, fuck, this guy's a monster. He's a fucking monster. So they said there's some guys here on death row. If you would let them go today, they would never commit a crime and be productive members of society. That might be true.

Maybe. You ain't him, bro. Dearman said he is preferable, this dying is preferable to spending the rest of his life in the system here, he said, but that's not why he wants to be executed. He said, am I doing this because I can't live with myself? No. I made this decision for different reasons. One of those reasons is so all parties involved, not just the victims and their families, but my family as well, can get some kind of closure and healing and begin moving forward. Okay.

Sometimes they do this shit to take a stand and be remembered. Nobody remembers the convict who wants to be put to death. Nobody knows. No, they remember the guy who was botched or he went kicking and screaming. Yeah, you know six guys' names that have been executed. Outside of that, you can't...

know it unless you fucking Google it. Or you gotta have great last words. Really great last words like Gary Gilmore. You know what I mean? Shit that'll launch a marketing campaign that'll be decades long. That's the type of shit you gotta do.

So anyway, there you go. That is Citronelle, Alabama, episode 500. We knew it had to be a wild one. We had to mix a lot of elements, multiple murders, some rural shit. Didn't want it to be in a suburb of a city and all this type of thing. It needs to be somewhere terrifying. I'll tell you what. I think we fucking nailed it. There you go. Yeah.

Found it. There you go. Hope you enjoyed that episode. If you did, please do this because if you've been listening for 500 episodes, give us a review on whatever app you're listening on. Helps drive us up the charts. It really helps us so much on a business side of everything. So please check that out and do that. Also, head over to shut up and give me murder dot com. Yeah. Get your tickets. Live shows. Minneapolis here up next September 20th. You can be our biggest show ever.

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And also check out your stupid opinions, which, fuck, it's funny, man. That's just such a funny show. There's a lot of those, too. Yeah, there's a lot. God, we're coming up in the 40s now on those. We've been doing those for almost a year. So check those all out and hang out with us there and do that shit. And Patreon this week, though. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports for Crime and Sports' Patreon, which you'll have access to. Because you get it all. You get every damn drop of it. It's a whole goddamn thing. We're going to talk about all the New England Patriots cheating scandals. Yeah.

Then for a crime or for a small town murders episode, we're going to talk about Ed Gein part two. Weird shit. Psychological shit. What happened to his house? What happened to Ed? Where'd he go? What'd he do? We'll talk about all that stuff and get all into it. Patreon.com slash crime and sports. And you'll get a shout out at the end of the regular show for sure. You want to follow us on social media, shut up and give me murder.com has links to all that shit. Come hang out with us.

And again, thank you so much for 500 episodes worth of hanging out with us. Thank you to everybody. Thank you to you, Jimmy. Thank you to me, James. Thank you to the audience. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Allison. Thank you, everybody that contributes to the show. Orrin, Joe, the whole team, Shelby, everybody that contributes to the team here. You've done an amazing job, everybody. And it wouldn't be possible without all these people and you. So thank you so much. We're going to keep showing.

There we go. We'll keep going. You know when we'll keep going? Next week. Next week. We'll be back next week. And until next week, everybody, it's certainly been our pleasure. Bye.

Was there a crime committed?

As far as I'm concerned, there wasn't. Guilty by Design dives into the wild story of Alexander and Frank, interior designers who in the 80s landed the jackpot of all clients. We went to bed one night and the next morning we woke up as one of the most wanted people in the United States. What are they guilty of? You can listen to Guilty by Design exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.