UPDATED: An Oklahoma man identified as Wendell Grissom responsible for the fatal shooting of a woman during a home invasion and robbery 20 years ago has been executed. Prior to his execution on Thursday, he apologized to the family of the victim, but it was too late for an apology.
Grissom, 56, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester at 10:13 a.m. And according to reports, it was Oklahoma’s first execution in 2025.
“It took him a total of 13 minutes to die, and it took him a total of two minutes to kill my best friend,” said Dreu Kopf, who was shot multiple times by Grissom but managed to flee the home.
Grissom and a co-defendant, Jessie Floyd Johns, were convicted of killing Amber Matthews, 23, and wounded Kopf at her Blaine County home. Johns was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
“I apologize to all of you that I’ve hurt,” Grissom, bearded and wearing a grey prison uniform, said while strapped to the gurney, an IV line affixed to his left arm. “I regret so much that I’ve put that hatred in your heart for me.”
Grissom said he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the killing and asked the victims’ family to forgive him.
“I pray that you all can forgive me,” he said. “Not for my sake. For your sake.”
A priest prayed at Grissom’s feet as the fatal chemicals began to pour. He inhaled strongly numerous times and was heard snoring when a doctor entered the execution chamber and declared him unconscious about five minutes later. At 10:09 a.m., he appeared to stop breathing, and the color on his face began to drain.
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More than two dozen of Matthews’ friends and family witnessed Grissom’s execution.
The two guys resolved to commit robberies while traveling west on Interstate 40 after Grissom, who had a long criminal history, picked up Johns, who was hitchhiking, according to the prosecution. They randomly selected Kopf’s home near Watonga, where Matthews was visiting Kopf and her two young daughters.
Prosecutors claimed that Kopf, who was also shot twice and critically injured, was able to escape in Grissom’s vehicle to seek assistance, while Matthews was shot twice in the head and left fighting for his life on the ground. On a stolen four-wheeler, Grissom and Johns also escaped, but they were apprehended after catching a ride to a cafe in a neighboring county before running out of petrol.
Authorities found Kopf’s daughters still inside the home, physically unhurt. Matthews died after being flown by helicopter to an Oklahoma City hospital.
Kopf and her daughters, now 19 and 20, also witnessed Grissom’s execution.
Grissom’s attorneys did not dispute his guilt but argued at a clemency hearing that he suffered from brain damage that was never presented to a jury. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board denied Grissom’s request to recommend clemency.
Grissom’s attorneys told the board he always accepted responsibility and wrote an apology to Matthews’ family during his first interview with police.
“He cannot change the past, but he is now and always has been deeply ashamed and remorseful,” said Kristi Christopher, an attorney with the federal public defender’s office.
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Christopher said his legal team did not pursue a last-minute appeal, per Grissom’s request.
Kopf told the board that she still carries deep mental and physical scars from the attack, including bullet fragments still in her body. In the years since the attack, she said, she has called 911 when the doorbell rings unexpectedly or a stranger appears in her neighborhood.
“I lived in a heightened state of fear at all times,” she said tearfully.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has called Matthew’s killing a “textbook” death penalty case.
“The crimes committed by Grissom, random, brutal attacks on innocent strangers in the sanctity of their own home, are the very kind that keep people awake at night,” Drummond said during last month’s hearing.
Grissom’s lethal injection is the 128th execution by the state of Oklahoma since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976, state prison records show. It was the first since Kevin Underwood was executed in December.
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