Donald Anthony Grant
Summary of Offense:
On July 18, 2001, Grant entered a LaQuinta Inn in Del City, ostensibly to fill out an employment application. In reality, Grant had planned to rob the hotel in order to obtain money to post bond for a girlfriend, Shlonda Gatewood (who was in the Oklahoma County Jail at the time), and was prepared to kill any witnesses to the crime. Grant may have been motivated to strike this particular business because another girlfriend of his, Cheryl Tubbs, had been fired from employment there a few months before; in any event, Grant was familiar with the layout of the property and the location of video surveillance equipment.
When Grant saw the hotel manager, Brenda McElyea, he approached her with a pistol in his hand and ordered her to walk to a storage room, where he fatally shot her once in the head, and slashed her neck and back with a box knife to make sure the knife was sharp enough to use on his next victim. Grant then left the storage room and approached another employee, Suzette Smith, in the break room. Grant ordered Smith at gunpoint to give him the money from the hotel register, which she did. Grant then ordered Smith to walk back to the manager’s office, where he shot her three times in the face. Smith continued to struggle to escape, so Grant brutally beat her and cut her numerous times with his knife. He hit Smith in the head with his pistol, attempted to break her neck, and threw a computer monitor on her head in an effort to stop her struggling. Eventually, Smith succumbed to her wounds and died in the office. Before leaving the office, Grant took personal property from Smith’s purse.
Grant then left the hotel and walked to a nearby discount store, where he abandoned his pistol and some traveler’s checks he had taken in the robbery. He then called a cab to take him to the home of Cheryl Tubbs. Later that day, Grant used money from the robbery to pay Shlonda Gatewood’s bond, which was about $200. Grant and Gatewood then used a stolen car to drive from Oklahoma City to New York City, where Grant had family. About a month after the murders, Grant was arrested in New York and returned to Oklahoma.
Grant has been on death row since January 23, 2006.
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