The Latest: ‘Several’ firearms, axe used in Alabama killings

MOBILE, Ala. – The Latest on the killing of five people in rural south Alabama (all times local):

5 p.m.

Sheriff’s officials now say several firearms and an axe were used on five adults slain in a house in a rural Alabama town.

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office provided the new detail about the weekend killings in a statement Wednesday, though it didn’t specify the total number of weapons involved.

Derrick Dearman of Leakesville, Mississippi, is accused of having used the axe and guns to kill three men and two women at a house in Citronelle in the southern part of the state. One of the victims was a pregnant woman whose unborn child died.

Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran said Dearman didn’t have the guns when he arrived at the home, but found them in the house. Cochran said he attacked first with the axe, then with the guns.

Dearman is charged with six counts of capital murder and kidnapping. A judge appointed a defence attorney Wednesday for Dearman and scheduled an arraignment hearing for Aug. 31.

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9:40 a.m.

A judge in Alabama is refusing bond for a Mississippi man accused of the killings of five people and an unborn child.

The decision came Wednesday as Derrick Dearman made his first court appearance in Mobile, Alabama.

Authorities say the man used an axe and at least one gun to slaughter two women and three men at a house in Citronelle, Alabama. One of the victims was a pregnant woman whose unborn child died.

Dearman has told reporters he was high on methamphetamine at the time.

The Leakesville, Mississippi, man is charged with six counts of capital murder and kidnapping. A judge appointed a defence attorney Wednesday for Dearman and scheduled an Aug. 31 arraignment hearing.

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5:52 a.m.

Authorities say the man accused of using an axe and gunshots to slaughter three men and two women at a south Alabama house is set to make his first court appearance on six counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping.

Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said Derrick Dearman is scheduled to appear Wednesday morning in a courtroom in Mobile, Alabama.

The bodies of the five slaying victims 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.