Death row inmate convicted of 2005 northwest Oklahoma murder denied clemency

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A death penalty date for Wendell Grissom will stand after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied him clemency on Wednesday morning.

Back in 2005, Grissom and another man broke into a Blaine County home where Grissom ended up shooting and killing Amber Matthews and injuring Drue Kopf.

"I carry the results of your evil actions deep in my body with the fragments of the bullets that cannot be removed,” Kopf said during Grissom’s clemency hearing Wednesday.

Kopf’s victim statement comes almost 20 years after she was shot and her best friend was murdered at the hands of Grissom.

"I carry the results of your evil actions in the mental and physical scars that will never fade,” Kopf said.

In November of 2005, Matthews was visiting Kopf and her two young daughters at their home northeast of Watonga. Grissom, who showed up with a man named Jessie Johns, knocked on the door asking if Kopf’s husband was home. When Matthews said no, Grissom walked away, but came back. This time, Kopf answered the door.

"As she approached, Grissom took a couple steps away from the sliding glass door and fired his .22, breaking the glass,” a state attorney said at the hearing while presenting their case.

Grissom went inside and shot Kopf at least three times. She fought back while Matthews grabbed one of Kopf’s children and ran to a back room where her other child was sleeping. Grissom followed her and shot her in the back of the head as she protected Kopf’s two children. He would then shoot her again in the forehead while she was on the ground. Kopf escaped and got help and Grissom was later arrested.

"It's clear that Mr. Grissom should be granted no sympathy, no clemency, his acts were heinous,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond said after the hearing.

Grissom chose not to appear at the hearing, but his attorney’s argued that it was a robbery gone bad and brain damage, depression and anxiety contributed to his actions. However, state attorney’s argued that he came to the home to kill. The pardon and parole board eventually voted 4-1 to deny clemency.

Kopf in her victim statement described 20 years of pain, but also perseverance.

"I choose to no longer be the girl that was shot, I choose to be the woman that survived, I choose to be looked at as a survivor,” Kopf said.

Family members of Matthews also spoke at the hearing. Grissom is set to be executed on March 20.