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The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 Wednesday against recommending clemency for a man convicted of murdering his girlfriend’s husband. 

James Pavatt, 70, shot Robert Andrew two times on Nov. 20, 2001, in Oklahoma City, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors claimed Andrew told many people leading up to his death that his estranged wife, Brenda Andrew, finally found someone who would kill him. Pavatt, a life insurance agent, was friends with Robert Andrew.

Pavatt wanted Robert Andrew’s money and his wife, prosecutors with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office argued. Pavatt and Brenda Andrew had been involved in an affair, resulting in her kicking her husband out of their house. 

Pavatt addressed the board and apologized for the heartbreak that Andrews’ family has faced since his murder but said he was only guilty of falling in love and having an affair, not murder.

“I am not guilty of shooting anyone,” he said. 

The lovers had tried to kill Robert Andrew once by cutting his front brake lines and faking that his wife was having a mental health breakdown at ‌Norman Regional Hospital. But Robert Andrew had already learned his brakes had been tampered with by the time he got the call, according to information from prosecutors. Less than a month later, Pavatt shot Robert Andrew, who was helping his wife light the pilot light on their heater. To avoid being blamed for the murder, Brenda Andrew had Pavatt shoot her in the arm and tried to make the scene look like a break-in. Pavatt and Brenda Andrew were both convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a felony, and sentenced to death. 

After the murder, the lovers fled to Mexico with Brenda Andrews’ children, Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Crabb told board members. Pavatt eventually confessed to the murder. 

“An unrepentant murderer should not be given clemency,” Crabb said. 

Pavatt’s public defender, Hunter Labovitz, argued there wasn’t “credible” evidence that Pavatt shot Andrew. He argued Pavatt’s conviction was based on a prosecutor wanting to win at all costs.

“There is not even credible evidence that James was at the crime. For that alone, he should not be executed,” Labovitz said. 

Prosecutors told the jury at Brenda Andrew’s trial that she was the shooter, but alleged at Pavatt’s trial that he was the gunman, Labovitz said. 

Crabb argued that both offenders worked together to commit the murder and that either could have pulled the trigger. She said evidence was presented at Pavatt’s trial in 2004 showing this. 

In a recorded video, the jury foreperson, Mark Haydon, told board members he voted in favor of the death penalty because prosecutors said that Pavatt was the shooter, but now he doesn’t think Pavatt should be on death row. 

“Why can’t we just get it right? Why do we have to win?” Haydon said.

Prosecutors described Pavatt as a military assassin during his trial, Labovitz said, but he described his client as a decorated Air Force veteran. His former commander told board members that Pavatt was kind-hearted and would have testified on Pavatt’s behalf at trial, but defense counsel never called him as a witness. The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office disputed these claims and said Pavatt’s military service was presented in both stages of his trial. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond told board members that Pavatt’s military career wasn’t a defense against murder and said Pavatt spent weeks planning how to kill his friend. 

Pavatt is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Nov. 12. It would be Oklahoma’s last execution of the year if Pavatt’s sentence is carried out.