Alabama death row inmate Derrick Dearman was executed Thursday evening, eight years after he murdered five people, including a pregnant woman.

Derrick Dearman, 36, was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. Thursday at Holman prison in southern Alabama. He pleaded guilty in a rampage that began when he broke into the home where his estranged girlfriend had taken refuge.

Derrick Dearman was executed for the murder of five people and one unborn child in Citronelle in 2016, marking the fifth execution of 2024.

Derrick Dearman was sentenced to death after pleading guilty to murdering five people with an ax and gun in 2016.

Dearman stormed into a Citronelle home on Aug. 20, 2016, and killed five people who were related by blood or marriage to his then-girlfriend, Laneta Lester.

Alabama’s most recent execution kickstarted a swarm of questions surrounding the use of contraband inside the Alabama Department of Correction’s prisons. Despite being a death row inmate in Alabama, those close to the situation said Derrick Dearman was known to use drugs throughout his six years behind bars.

The state of Alabama executed death row inmate Derrick Dearman by lethal injection Thursday evening for the brutal axe killings of five people in 2016.

Alabama prepared Thursday to put to death a man who admitted to killing five people with an ax and gun during a drug-fueled rampage in 2016 and dropped his appeals to allow his execution to go forward.