Death-row inmate convicted in Rob Andrew murder faces Oct. 14 clemency hearing and Nov. 12 execution
OKLAHOMA CITY — Attorney General Gentner Drummond is urging the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to deny clemency to James Pavatt, who is scheduled to be executed Nov. 12 for the 2001 murder of Oklahoma City advertising executive Rob Andrew.
Drummond’s office submitted a clemency packet Friday arguing that Pavatt helped plan Andrew’s murder over a period of weeks or months and has continued to deny responsibility for the killing.
“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.”
Pavatt’s clemency hearing is scheduled for Oct. 14. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections lists his execution for Nov. 12.
Andrew, 39 and the father of two children, was killed in his garage in November 2001. Evidence presented at Pavatt’s trial showed Pavatt had begun an affair with Andrew’s wife, Brenda Andrew. Prosecutors argued that Pavatt and Brenda Andrew sought to gain control of an $800,000 life insurance policy on Rob Andrew. Brenda Andrew was later tried separately, convicted and sentenced to death.
The Attorney General’s Office said the clemency filing also describes an earlier attempt in which someone cut the brake lines on Rob Andrew’s car. It says Pavatt later wrote a letter admitting a role in the killing after he and Brenda Andrew fled to Mexico with Andrew’s children.
Pavatt’s attorneys have argued that questions remain about his precise role in the shooting, pointing in part to differing prosecution arguments in Brenda Andrew’s separate trial over who fired the fatal shot.
Brenda Andrew’s case has recently returned to the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court sent her case back to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2025 to reconsider her claim that prejudicial evidence deprived her of a fair trial. The appeals court again rejected her challenge this year and declined rehearing in August. Her attorneys have said they plan to seek another Supreme Court review.
