Derrick Dearman, facing six counts of capital murder for a Saturday bloodbath in Citronelle, had a simple statement as he was escorted into Mobile County Metro Jail on Monday: "Don't do drugs." 
 
 Meanwhile, an investigator hinted that the case against Dearman will hinge as much on domestic violence as on whatever chemicals might have influenced his actions on Saturday. 
 
 Dearman appeared composed but withdrawn as he made the walk from an administrative building where he had been questioned, and did not speak clearly or in great detail. He said he apologized, though it was not necessarily clear to whom or for what. Asked by a reporter why he had spared two people in the massacre he's accused of committing, he offered a chilling response: Because he'd sobered up enough at some point to realize what he was really doing, he said. 
 
 Capt. Paul Burch, of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, said he couldn't go into detail about evidence on the scene, or what Dearman had told authorities during questioning. But he described the amount of evidence as "overwhelming." 
 
 Derrick Dearman at Metro Jail 10 Gallery: Derrick Dearman at Metro Jail 
 
 "I wish all our cases were this solid," Burch said. 
 
 According to a timeline released by the Sheriff's Office, events began somewhere around 1 a.m. Saturday morning, when residents of a home on a secluded stretch of Jim Platt Road west of Citronelle called 911. A woman named Laneta Lester, who was in a relationship with Dearman, had gone there to stay with friends and get away from him. They called 911 to report that he was trespassing on the property. Citronelle police responded but did not encounter him. 
 
 He allegedly later returned and attacked while the occupants of the house were asleep, using one or more guns and one or more unspecified other weapons. Burch and Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich have described the crime scene as the worst they've encountered in their careers. 
 
 The victims are Robert Lee Brown, 26; Chelsea Marie Reed, 22; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Shannon Melissa Randall, 35. Chelsea Reed was five months pregnant when she was killed. 
 
 Authorities say Dearman spared Lester and an infant, who was the child one of the female victims, but took them with him when he fled to his father's house in Mississippi, for which he faces two counts of first-degree kidnapping. His father evidently convinced him to turn himself in, which he did in Leakesville, Miss. Lester returned to Citronelle with the baby, alerting authorities to what had happened. 
 
 Sheriff Stanley McLeod of Greene County, Miss., reportedly has said that Dearman initially refused to waive extradition to Alabama, but later consented. McLeod reportedly said that when Dearman turned himself in, he said he had killed one or more people in Citronelle. 
 
 Burch said that the infant had been placed with a family member, and that authorities had visited the home to make sure the child was in safe circumstances. 
 
 While Burch declined to reveal whether there was evidence that drugs were a factor in the case, he said that domestic abuse clearly was a driving force. He described the case as "another example of the cycle of domestic violence, and more will come out about that." 
 
 Burch said the next step was for a bond hearing date to be set for Dearman. The Sheriff's Office plans to ask that he be held without Bond, Burch said. ||||| Crime scene tape marks the home on Jim Platt Road near Citronelle, Ala., Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016, where authorities said five people were killed on Saturday. Police said that Derrick Dearman, 27, of Leakesville,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Crime scene tape marks the home on Jim Platt Road near Citronelle, Ala., Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016, where authorities said five people were killed on Saturday. Police said that Derrick Dearman, 27, of Leakesville, Miss., has been taken into custody in connection with the murders. (John Sharp/AL.com via... (Associated Press) 
 
 CITRONELLE, Ala. (AP) — Under arrest and shackled following the slaying of five friends in a rural home, a Mississippi man professed his love for the estranged girlfriend whose family and friends were massacred and blamed the killings on drugs. 
 
 Speaking with reporters as he was escorted to jail by deputies in Mobile, Alabama, Derrick Dearman said Monday that he was on methamphetamine when he went to the house, located at the end of a dead-end dirt road. 
 
 "Drugs (were) making me think things that's not really there," said Dearman, 27, hanging his head and dressed in a bright yellow jail uniform. 
 
 After the killings, authorities said, Dearman abducted estranged girlfriend Laneta Lester, who had sought refuge at the house, and a child of two of the victims. Dearman said he spared their lives because "I came down and realized what was really going on." 
 
 "(I) turned myself in because I was sober and knew what was the right thing to do," Dearman said. 
 
 In videotaped comments broadcast on Mobile-area television, Dearman expressed his love for Lester and apologized "to all the family members." Dearman, saying all the victims were friends, added: "Don't do drugs." He said he doesn't deserve to live. 
 
 A man who said his family provided a home for Dearman and Lester earlier this year near Leakesville, Mississippi, said Dearman was often on methamphetamine and physically abused Lester during walks in the woods in rural southeast Mississippi. 
 
 "He was taking her out there and beating the crap out of her," said Charlie Passarelli Jr., who said he had known Dearman for years. Passarelli said he suspected Lester was either buying or selling drugs before he and Lester moved out in late spring. 
 
 The slayings left three men and two women dead, including a pregnant woman and her unborn child. A teenager who said she was related to all five victims by marriage or blood shook her head and fought back tears as she described her anguish over the slayings. 
 
 "They were really good people. They'd call and check on you, ask if you want to come down and eat," said Madison McDaniel, 17, who lives near the scene of the violence. 
 
 Relatives of the victims started an online fundraiser to help cover funeral expenses, and clerk Dawn Sullivan collected donations in a plastic jug on the counter at D&B Quick Stop, where the victims often stopped for snacks and drinks. 
 
 "It's a sad situation. It never should have gotten to that point," said Sullivan, whose husband was related to one of the victims. 
 
 Dearman, of Leakesville, will be charged with six counts of capital murder, including one charge for the unborn child, Mobile County sheriff's spokeswoman Lori Myles said. Alabama court records don't indicate whether Dearman has an attorney who could speak on his behalf. 
 
 The slain were identified as Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Chelsea Marie Reed, 22; and Robert Lee Brown, 26, Myles said. 
 
 Turner was Lester's brother and had let her stay at the house, which all the victims shared, McDaniel said. Turner and Randall were married. 
 
 "I'd always get on my horse and ride down there bareback," McDaniel said. Her step-aunt Randall would say, "'Be careful because you're already got a hurt knee.' I'd say, 'OK, Shan-Shan.' That's what I called her." 
 
 Brown was Randall's brother, McDaniel said, and Chelsea Reed was Randall's niece. Chelsea Reed was pregnant with the child of her husband, Justin Reed, said McDaniel. 
 
 About 1 a.m. Saturday, someone inside the home called 911 and reported that Dearman was on the property, authorities said in a statement. Citronelle police came to the house, but Dearman had left before officers arrived, sheriff's officials said. 
 
 Before daylight Saturday, Dearman returned to the home and attacked the victims while they were sleeping, the sheriff's department said. Authorities said at least one gun and other, unspecified weapons were used. 
 
 After the killings, Dearman forced Lester and a 3-month-old identified by relatives as the child of Randall and Turner into a vehicle, and they drove to Dearman's father's house in Mississippi. Dearman released Lester and the infant and turned himself in, authorities said.
– Derrick Dearman has offered up not a motive but an explanation for why he says he murdered five people, one of whom was five months pregnant: the drugs. While entering the Mobile County Metro Jail on Monday the 27-year-old spoke briefly to reporters, telling one he didn't kill estranged girlfriend Laneta Lester and an infant who were also in the Citronelle, Ala., home because at some point the drugs wore off enough for him to comprehend what he was doing, reports AL.com. "Drugs (were) making me think things that's not really there," he also said, per the AP, which reports that he says he was on methamphetamine during the Saturday morning massacre. "Don't do drugs," he advised. Capt. Paul Burch with the Mobile County Sheriff's Office wouldn't say whether the investigation has turned up drug evidence, but the evidence he does have is "overwhelming." Burch described domestic abuse as a major factor in what transpired, and a man whose home Dearman and Lester previously lived in described Dearman as frequently taking Lester into the woods surrounding the home and "beating the crap out of her." Police are now explaining the relationships between the victims: Lester had sought shelter from Dearman in the Citronelle home, which her brother, Joseph Turner, lived in. Turner was married to Shannon Randall; Robert Brown was her brother, and Chelsea Reed was her niece. Reed was expecting a child with husband Justin Reed.