Sunday School Teachers Turned Murderers

Breaking one commandment at a time, these two love birds committed the ultimate sin

On November 20, 2001, a 911 call was made by Brenda Andrews. She and her husband had been shot by two masked gunmen. When the ambulance arrived Rob Andrews, Brenda’s husband was pronounced dead at the scene while Brenda was rushed to the hospital and treated for what turned out to be a superficial gunshot wound that had braised her arm and missed any vital arteries.

There was no doubt in everybody’s mind that Brenda was one lucky woman who had miraculously escaped death. But was she? The events that followed the murder of her husband were dramatic and could make the pages of a bestselling suspense thriller.

Investigating the shooting

The shooting at the Andrew’s home left police baffled. The investigation was not going to be an easy one. Upon looking through the house it was clear that this had not been a robbery gone wrong because the gunmen had not attempted to take anything from the house. The police also interviewed Brenda who could not provide any useful information about who could have possibly wanted her and her husband dead.

The Andrews were a typical Oklahoma family living in suburbia. Rob had been an advertising executive whilst Brenda was a housewife who worked for the church. Both were devout Christians and were known and loved in their community. They had two children who had both been present when the shooting occurred. They had been watching television on a separate floor of the house and had not heard the shooting which killed their father. On paper the Andrew family was perfect and this crime was an extreme anomaly.

In an attempt to make headway on the investigation, the police began interviewing friends and family members of the Andrews. Upon doing so the police found out that Brenda had not been living the perfect fairytale life she had portrayed. She was separated from the deceased and had been seeing James Pavatt, a fellow Sunday school teacher at the church.

A surprising breakthrough in the investigation happened when Janna, James’s daughter handed over a gun she’d found in the car she’d let her dad use over the weekend. This was later confirmed as the same gun used to kill Rob. It’s unclear what drove Janna to hand the gun over to the police. Maybe she hoped that the police would rule out her dad, or perhaps Janna, unlike most people is an upright citizen who believes in justice at all costs.

So what happened?

Although both Brenda and James had separate trials. The prosecutors were able to lay out the events that occurred on the frightful night on 20 November. According to them, Rob had gone to the house to collect the children for the thanksgiving weekend. Unbeknown to him, Brenda and her new lover, James had to have him killed.

Brenda had lured Rob into the garage where she had asked Rob to fix the furnace she claimed had stopped working. As Rob bent down to fix the furnace, as previously planned James approached him from behind. James proceeded to shoot Rob in the chest, killing him instantly.

To disguise the crime scene as a robbery gone wrong, Brenda took the gun from James and proceeded to shoot herself in the arm. James fled the scene and the police were called to the residence. Rob Andrews was pronounced dead at the scene.

Money and lust were the main motivators for the murder. Earlier in the year both, Brenda and James had convinced Rob to take out an $800,000 life insurance policy with Brenda as the main beneficiary. James had organized the policy being that he was an insurance salesman.

Before the shooting Brenda and James had planned to kill Rob by staging an accident. On 26 October 2001, Rob’s brakes were severed and he received two mysterious calls claiming that Brenda was in the hospital and he was needed there. However, before driving off to the fake emergency, Rob had noticed that his brake lines had been cut and he suspected that Brenda and James could have behind it. At this point, he was separated from Brenda who was openly having a relationship with James.

Rob was smart enough to realize that James and Brenda were planning to kill him for the insurance money. Rob had even gone as far as informing the police of his suspicions. He had subsequently attempted to change the beneficiary of the policy from Brenda to his brother who would hold the funds on trust for the children. Rob had approached James about changing the policy’s beneficiary but he had claimed that this change could not be affected. Rob had not been satisfied by this answer and had subsequently gone to James’s supervisor who assured him that the policy beneficiary could indeed be changed.

Although approaching James’s supervisor was smart, it may have been the act that resulted in both James and Brenda quickly planning and executing their next attempt to kill Rob. The second attempt was unfortunately successful.

Brenda and James knew it was only a matter of time before the police caught onto them. On the day of Rob’s funeral, the two were nowhere to be seen which further aroused suspicions amongst the community and with the police. It was later discovered that Brenda and James had gone on the run and crossed over to Mexico with Brenda’s two minor children. However, they were later apprehended while attempting to cross back into the United States after running out of money in Mexico.

Trials and Sentencing

Brenda and James had separate trials but in 2004 both of them were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Brenda’s trial was particularly scandalous as she was painted as a sex-crazed woman who had lost her ways and resorted to killing her husband to fulfill her selfish desires. Testimony of her various affairs was shared in court. Some of the testimonies have been considered unnecessary by many as Brenda was on trial for murder and not infidelity, which is not a crime in the United States of America.

James has equally experienced a dramatic trial as his appeal to have the death penalty rescinded was successful but later reinstated. His lawyers had argued that Brenda was the mastermind of the murder and suggestions were made that she also intended to kill James later and collect insurance money from his death. It’s debatable as to whether this argument is strong enough to render James less culpable for the murder.

James and Brenda were once upstanding members of a small community, leading children in the ways of Christ. But ultimately their lust and selfish desires led them to commit the ultimate sin — murder. Their fall from grace was both scandalous and shocking. No one could have imagined that these two Sunday school teachers would end up on death row.