Pavatt, a former life insurance agent, was sentenced to death for his part in a plot prosecutors said was designed to collect an $800,000 life insurance policy. He maintained his innocence until the end, but the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted last month against recommending clemency.

According to court records and prosecutors, Rob Andrew and his estranged wife, Brenda Andrew, were separated and going through a divorce when Brenda began a romantic relationship with Pavatt. Pavatt, who was then working as a life insurance agent, helped Rob Andrew obtain the $800,000 policy. Prosecutors argued that Brenda Andrew and Pavatt conspired to kill Rob Andrew so that his estranged wife could benefit from the policy.

During the investigation, authorities learned that Rob Andrew’s brake lines had been cut about a month before his murder. Rob Andrew had reported the incident to dispatchers, telling them, “My brake lines have been cut for my car. That sounds like attempted murder, don’t you think?”

Before Rob Andrew’s funeral, Brenda Andrew fled to Mexico with Pavatt. The pair was captured by Mexican authorities three months later. Both were eventually convicted of the murder. Brenda Andrew currently sits on death row and is the only woman on Oklahoma’s death row.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond released a statement in mid-September urging the Pardon and Parole Board not to recommend clemency for Pavatt. “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 in a news release. “Twenty-five years later, Pavatt still won’t tell the truth about what he did. There must be justice for Rob.”

Pavatt’s family had shared home videos portraying him as a loving family man and veteran. His defense attorney, Labovitz, argued that evidence presented at Brenda Andrew’s trial indicated she was the shooter, but that this information was not shared with Pavatt’s jury. “They said at her trial, Brenda’s trial, the evidence is clear that she is the shooter. They just never bothered to tell Jim’s jury that,” Labovitz said.

For his last meal, Pavatt requested a strawberry milkshake and a three-meat barbecue dinner with smoked chicken, smoked brisket, pulled pork, fried okra, baked beans, and pickles.

The execution marks the latest chapter in a case that has drawn attention for its brutality and the lengthy legal battles that followed. Rob Andrew’s family has long sought closure, and the state carried out the sentence after courts rejected Pavatt’s final appeals.