OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 18, 2026) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond says clemency should be denied for convicted killer James Pavatt, who was sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of Rob Andrew, a 39-year-old Oklahoma City advertising executive and father of two.
In a clemency packet submitted today, Drummond's office laid out its case against granting Pavatt clemency. According to the packet, Pavatt spent weeks, if not months, plotting with his lover to murder Andrew, a former close friend. Pavatt coveted his money, his wife and his children.
“Rob Andrew was gunned down in his own garage, feet from the children he loved, by a man he had trusted as a friend and an insurance agent,” Drummond said. “Twenty-five years later, Pavatt still won't tell the truth about what he did. There must be justice for Rob.”
Evidence presented at Pavatt’s trial showed he began an affair with Andrew's wife, Brenda Andrew, in 2001. Prosecutors argued, and the jury agreed, that the murder was especially cruel, and that Pavatt killed Andrew for money, pointing to his and Brenda's efforts to gain control of an $800,000 insurance policy on Andrew's life. Brenda was later tried separately, convicted and also sentenced to death for Andrew's murder.
The clemency filing details the planning prior to the murder, including a first attempt in which someone cut the brake lines on Andrew's car. It also notes that Pavatt wrote a letter confessing to his role in the killing after he and Brenda fled to Mexico with Andrew's children, and that Pavatt has continued to deny responsibility for the murder in the years since.
Pavatt's clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board is scheduled for Oct. 14. His execution is scheduled for Nov. 12.
