Derrick Dearman has four of ten capital murder convictions thrown out
MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday vacated four of the ten capital murder convictions against Derrick Dearman.
Dearman was charged with 12 counts of capital murder and 2 counts of kidnapping in the 2016 brutal mass murder of six people, including an unborn child, in Citronelle in August 2016.
Robert Lee Brown, Chelsea Marie Reed (5 months pregnant), Justin Kaleb Reed, Joseph Adam Turner and Shannon Melissa Randall were murdered at a home on Jim Platt Road.
Dearman plead guilty to ten of the capital murder charges in exchange for the state dropping 2 capital murder and the 2 kidnapping charges, a jury sentenced Dearman to death in 2018.
Dearman argued that 4 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 victims.
The appeals court agreed and on Friday remanded the case to the Mobile County Circuit Court to vacate four of the convictions and the death sentences.
The court concluded that on all the remaining counts “the death penalty was the proper sentence in Dearman’s case.”
Dearman still has six capital murder convictions and sentences of death.