Oklahoma Death Row inmate James Pavatt scheduled to be executed Thursday

James Pavatt is scheduled to be executed on Thursday for the 2001 killing of an Oklahoma City man.

OKLAHOMA CITY—Oklahoma Death Row inmate James Pavatt is set to be executed for the 2001 murder of advertising executive Rob Andrew. His execution is scheduled for Nov. 12, 2026.

In 2004, Pavatt and his lover/co-conspirator, Brenda Andrew, were sentenced to death for planning the killing of her estranged husband in an attempt to claim his $800,000 life insurance policy. Brenda is the only woman on Oklahoma’s death row.

Police said Pavatt gunned down Rob Andrews in the garage of the home the Andrews previously lived in together.

On Nov. 20, 2001, authorities said that Rob Andrew was shot twice in the garage. Brenda received a superficial .22-caliber gunshot wound to her left arm, and told police two masked men shot them while Rob Andrew was trying to light the pilot on her heating unit. Court documents said the children were found in a bedroom, watching television with the volume turned up very high.

Following Rob’s murder, police said Pavatt, Brenda and her two children left Oklahoma City without attending the funeral. A three-month-long search for the pair began, and they were taken into custody after trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico.

In Oct. 2026, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to deny clemency for James Pavatt.

Following the board’s decision, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond commended them for denying clemency to Pavatt.

“James Pavatt plotted Rob’s murder and then, working with Brenda Andrew, gunned down the man who had once been his friend,” Drummond said. “Justice will be served when the death penalty is carried out on Nov. 12.”

Source: News9, Destiny Pittman, November 10, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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