Brenda Andrew—white, age 37
Sentenced to death in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
By: A jury
Date of crime: 11/20/01
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Andrew and her lover James Pavatt (who was sentenced to death in 2003 for this crime) conspired to kill Andrew’s husband Rob for an $800,000 insurance policy. Pavatt shot Rob in the side with a shotgun in the Andrews’ garage, and then Brenda took the gun and shot Rob in the neck as he lay on the floor. Brenda suffered a superficial wound, and told the police she and Rob had been attacked by two masked men. Pavatt and Brenda and her children went to Mexico the day before Rob’s funeral, and were arrested three months later as they tried to re-enter the United States. The defense argued that the murder was committed by Pavatt and that Brenda had nothing to do with it.
Prosecutor(s): Gayland Geiger, Fern Smith
Defense lawyer(s): Greg McCracken, George Miskovsky III
Sources: Bucks County Courier Times (PA) 7/15/04 (www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-07152004-331926.html); Daily Oklahoman 9/19/04 (2004 WL 94230486), 9/23/04 (2004 WL 94231038); Tulsa World 9/23/04 (2004 WL 94040757)
Benjamin Cole—white, age 38
Sentenced to death in Rogers County, Oklahoma
By: A jury
Date of crime: 12/20/02
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Cole was playing video games. He was interrupted by the crying of his 9-month-old daughter Brianna. He went to her crib and bent her legs backward and then flipped her over. This broke her spine and ruptured her aorta. He went back to playing video games, but eventually checked on Brianna, found her unresponsive, and called for emergency assistance. Cole had a conviction for abusing his infant son in California in 1987. In mitigation, the defense offered evidence of Cole’s terrible childhood, mental problems (including intermittent explosive disorder, paranoia, and narcissism) and drug dependence.
Prosecutor(s): Patrick Abitol
Defense lawyer(s): James Bowen, Lynn Burch
Sources: Tulsa World 10/19/04 (2004 WL 94044414), 10/20/04 (2004 WL 94044540), 10/21/04 (2004 WL 94044677), 10/22/04 (2004 WL 94044874), 12/9/04 (2004 WL 94053830)
Richard Eugene Glossip – white, age 34 (re-sentence after an appellate reversal of the death sentence)
Sentenced to death in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
By: A jury
Date of crime: 1/7/1997
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Glossip solicited motel maintenance worker Justin Sneed to kill motel owner, Barry Alan Van Treese. The motive was either to rob Van Treese, or because Glossip believed Van Treese was going to fire him Sneed beat Van Treese with to death with a baseball bat. Sneed pled guilty and agreed to testify against Glossip to receive a life sentence. Glossip maintained throughout the proceedings that he had nothing to do with the murder, although he admitted to helping Sneed after the fact. (Note: Glossip’s sentence was overturned because of grossly ineffective assistance of counsel, particularly in failing to impeach Sneed’s testimony in some very obvious ways. While not making a ruling on the sufficiency of evidence for the conviction, the appellate court noted that evidence to corroborate Sneed’s testimony was “extremely weak.”)
Prosecutor(s):
Defense lawyer(s):
Sources: The Daily Oklahoman 6/4/04; Tulsa World 9/24/00; State v. Glossip, 29 P.3d 597 (Okla. Crim. App. 2001)
Phillip Hancock—white, age 37
Sentenced to death in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
By: A jury
Date of crime: 4/27/01
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Hancock shot and killed Robert Jett and James Lynch. The prosecution argued that he had shot one of the victims while the man was fleeing, and taunted the other victim between gunshots. Hancock argued that he had acted in self-defense. Hancock had other convictions.
Prosecutor(s): Cassandra Williams
Defense lawyer(s): Merle Gile
Sources: Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City) 6/28/02 (2002 WL 23136908), 9/30/04 (2004 WL 94231913)
Michael Edward Hooper—white, age 20 (re-sentence after an appellate reversal of the death sentence)
Sentenced to death in Canadian County, Oklahoma
By: A judge after waiving a jury. Hooper had been sentenced to death by a jury in 1995, but his sentence had been reversed, which led to this second sentencing proceeding.
Date of crime: 12/7/93
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Hooper kidnapped his ex-girlfriend Cynthia Jarman and her two children (Tonya, age 5, and Timothy, age 3), shot each of them twice in the head, and buried them atop each other in a field. At the resentencing Hooper did not wish to present evidence that might spare him from death, but his attorney nonetheless pointed out that Hooper suffered from serious mental health issues and was a victim of childhood abuse and neglect.
Prosecutor(s): Cathy Stocker
Defense lawyer(s): Mark Henrickson
Sources: Daily Oklahoman 10/1/04 (2004 WL 94232053); Hooper v. State, 947 P.2d 1090 (Okla. Crim. App. 1997)
Elwood Jackson Jr. – white, age 43
Sentenced to death in Comanche County, Oklahoma
By: A jury
Date of crime: 2/10/2003
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Jackson shot Lena Jean Bohay (22) John Andrew Limberger (25) in the head and beat Mark Donald Wright (57) to death with a fire poker. Jackson murdered the three co-workers in an effort to cover up his stealing from them to pay for his drug habit. Jackson owed the rental home the employees lived at.
Prosecutor(s): Robert Schulte
Defense lawyer(s):
Sources: The Daily Oklahoman 10/23/04 (2004 WL 94234903); Tulsa World 10/27/04 (2004 WL 94045556)
Wesley Deion Jones—black, age 24
Sentenced to death in Tulsa County, Oklahoma
By: A jury
Date of crime: 9/15/02
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Jones entered a convenience store to “take care of” the owner, who was an enemy of Jones’s cohort. Jones shot Mohammed “Sonny” Rahaman twice, and then shot customer Sterling Mullis once in the neck. Both victims died. The prosecution could not prove a robbery motive, nor that Jones received any payment from his cohort for the killings. The defense suggested that the prosecution’s case was weak at the guilt phase because it relied heavily on Jones’s confession. In that confession Jones said he had been high on drugs for a week, and recalled leaving the store, but nothing else. In mitigation the defense presented evidence that Jones had a horrible childhood.
Prosecutor(s): Doug Drummond, Bill Musseman
Defense lawyer(s): Sid Conway, Marna Franklin
Sources: Tulsa World 1/27/04, 1/28/04, 1/29/04, 1/30/04, 2/26/04 (available in LEXIS, News library, TLSWLD file).
Tremane Wood – black, age 22
Sentenced to death in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
By: A jury
Date of crime: 1/1/2002
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Ronald Wipf and Arnold Kleinsasser picked up two women who said they were prostitutes, and took them back to their hotel room. In fact, the women were girlfriends of Tremane Wood and his brother Zjaiton who were setting Wipf and Kleinsasser up to be robbed. The masked Wood brothers burst into the hotel room and killed Wipf with a stab wound to the chest as he struggled during the robbery. Kleinsasser was hit over the head with a knife, but managed to escape. He testified and identified Tremane Wood person who stabbed Wipf. However, Zjaiton testified that he, not Tremane, had stabbed Wipf. At the time, Zjaiton was awaiting his own capital murder trial for the Wipf stabbing. The brothers had committed another armed robbery earlier in the evening. In mitigation the defense presented Tremane’s mother, who pleaded for his life.
Prosecutor(s): George Burnett, Fern Smith
Defense lawyer(s): Johnny Albert, Lance Phillips
Sources: The Daily Oklahoman 3/28/04, 4/1/04, 4/3/04, 4/6/04