James Pavatt, an Oklahoma man convicted of helping plan the murder of his lover’s estranged husband, was executed Thursday. He was 73 and made no final statement.
Pavatt died by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m. local time. Prison officials described the execution as uneventful.
His last meal included a strawberry milkshake and a barbecue dinner of smoked chicken, brisket, pulled pork, fried okra, baked beans and pickles.
Pavatt was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the 2001 killing of Rob Andrew, a 39-year-old advertising executive. Andrew was shot in his garage while picking up his two young children shortly before Thanksgiving.
Pavatt had been having an affair with Andrew’s wife, Brenda, who was convicted in a separate trial and also sentenced to death. Weeks before the murder, Andrew told police that someone was trying to kill him after the brake lines on his car were cut.
Brenda Andrew later said masked intruders had shot her in the arm and killed her husband at their former home in Oklahoma City. Prosecutors argued that she and Pavatt had planned the killing together.
After the shooting, the pair fled to Mexico with Brenda Andrew’s two children. They were arrested three months later while returning to the United States.
At a clemency hearing last month, Pavatt maintained that he was innocent and said Brenda Andrew had manipulated him. He told the board he only began to understand the extent of that manipulation during his trial, adding that he could see why jurors believed both of them were involved.
Prosecutors said the two were equally responsible for Andrew’s death, regardless of who fired the fatal shots.
Pavatt’s execution was the first of two scheduled in the United States Thursday. John Allen Rubio, 46, was due to be executed in Texas that evening for the 2003 killing of three young children he was raising in Brownsville. The children were 3 years old, 14 months old and 2 months old.
