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CITRONELLE, Ala. (AP) — The Latest on the slaying of five adults at a home in Alabama (all times local):
4 p.m.
An Alabama sheriff says the suspect in the slaughter of five adults was armed with an ax as he attacked them in their sleep, using the weapon to strike one of his first victims in a reclining chair and then moving through the house to assault the others.
Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran says Derrick Dearman overpowered the victims in the ax attacks, and then used guns from inside the house to shoot them.
Court records state that an ax and gun were used to kill each victim in Saturday's rampage in the south Alabama town of Citronelle.
Dearman, of Leakesville, Mississippi, is charged with six counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping.
Authorities say Dearman abducted his estranged girlfriend and an infant from the home after the killings. Both were found alive.
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12:45 p.m.
Criminal complaints allege that a man used both a gun and an ax to slaughter five adults as they slept in an Alabama home.
The complaints filed Tuesday in Mobile County District Court do not allege in which order Derrick Dearman used the weapons, or elaborate further on the nature of the killing.
Dearman of Leakesville, Mississippi, is charged with six counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping.
The bodies of all five people were found Saturday inside the home in Citronelle, Alabama. A sheriff's captain says Dearman attacked them as they slept, then abducted his estranged girlfriend and an infant from the home. Both of them were found alive.
11:30 a.m.
A prosecutor says it is likely she will seek the death penalty for a man accused of killing five adults in a south Alabama home.
Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich told The Associated Press on Tuesday that "by all appearances at this point" the mass killing will be a death penalty case. She said no final decision has been reached, as the investigation is still in its early stages.
Derrick Dearman of Leakesville, Mississippi, is charged with six counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping.
The bodies of all five people were found Saturday inside the home in Citronelle, Alabama. A sheriff's captain says Dearman attacked them as they slept, then abducted his estranged girlfriend and an infant from the home. Both of them were found alive.
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8:15 a.m.
A prosecutor says the man accused of slaughtering two women and three men at a south Alabama house has been charged with six counts of capital murder.
Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said in a statement early Tuesday that Derrick Dearman is to have a first court appearance Wednesday morning.
The bodies of all five people were found Saturday inside the home in Citronelle, Alabama. A sheriff's captain says Dearman attacked them as they slept, and then abducted his estranged girlfriend and an infant from the home. Both of them were found alive.
Alabama court records don't indicate whether Dearman, of Leakesville, Mississippi, has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
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2:30 a.m.
A man held in the slayings of five people in rural Alabama says drugs are to blame for the killings.
Derrick Dearman made the comments Monday as he was led to jail in shackles by law enforcement officers. He expressed regret for the deaths and professed love for the estranged girlfriend whose relatives and friends were slain.
Dearman is from Leakesville, Mississippi. He says he was on methamphetamine when he went to the rural house where three men and two women were later found dead.
Authorities say Dearman will be charged with six counts of capital murder, including one charge for the unborn child of a pregnant victim.
Dearman told reporters he doesn't deserve to live.
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