Diana Baldwin| Oklahoman
The daughter of murder defendant James Pavatt was questioned by defense attorneys Tuesday as they tried to destroy her credibility and distance their clients from the death of Rob Andrew.
Janna Larson, Pavatt's 26-year-old daughter, appeared nervous as she twisted her hands and told what she knew about her father and co-defendant Brenda Andrew.
Pavatt, 48, and Brenda Andrew, 38, are charged with the Nov. 21 slaying of her estranged husband.
Rob Andrew, 39, was fatally shot at his wife's home at 6112 Shaftsbury Road when he went to pick up the couple's two children for the Thanksgiving holiday. Brenda Andrew was shot once in the left arm with a .22-caliber bullet. She said two masked men shot them.
Pavatt, Brenda Andrew and her two children disappeared Nov. 25. Pavatt and Brenda Andrew were arrested Feb. 28 in Hidalgo, Texas, as they attempted to re-enter the United States from Mexico.
Larson began her preliminary hearing testimony June 12. For more than four hours Tuesday, she was questioned by defense attorneys.
The daughter told Special District Judge Carol Ann Hubbard she helped her father prepare to leave the country with Brenda Andrew.
Larson testified that her father told her they decided to flee to Argentina because they feared they were going to be charged with the slaying after Rob Andrew's funeral Nov. 26.
The daughter said she began working with the FBI as agents tried to apprehend the pair. The FBI gave her a cell phone for her father to call her, she said.
Larson testified she received 15 to 25 calls from her father. Each time, he wanted money, she said.
District Attorney Wes Lane called Larson's testimony devastating for the defendants.
Lane said he anticipates the judge will find there is enough evidence for the defendants to go to trial when the state's witnesses finish testifying.
"Janna Larson testifies her father very specifically said that Brenda Andrew wanted him to kill her husband, Rob Andrew," the district attorney said. "That is admissible under the law and good evidence. It was admitted and heard by this court.
"I think the proof's in the pudding. We'll see next week when we complete this case."
Prosecutors are expected to call at least six more witnesses when the preliminary hearing resumes July 17.
Defense attorneys Greg McCracken and Mike Arnett said Larson's testimony fails to tie their clients to the slaying.
McCracken, Brenda Andrew's attorney, said, "I don't think that I heard anything in there today from Janna Larson that in any way implicates Brenda Andrew in the death of Rob Andrew. She doesn't have any proof."
Arnett said: "There has been no evidence placing Mr. Pavatt at the scene of the crime, no evidence that Mr. Pavatt committed this crime.
"I think the most important thing that was said during Janna Larson's testimony was the last question when I asked her if she had any evidence at all that her father, James Pavatt, was involved in this crime, and she replied she did not."
Larson testified that the FBI wired money to her father twice. Once, Pavatt requested $1,200 and the FBI decided to send only $120, she said.
Pavatt and Brenda Andrew were angry because the entire amount of money had not arrived when they called on New Year's Eve from Cancun, Mexico, she said.
Brenda Andrew got on the phone, angrily demanding the money, the daughter said.
McCracken denied that Brenda Andrew talked to Larson that night from Mexico.
He said, "There is no way to verify Janna Larson's statement that Brenda Andrew was on the other end of that telephone.
"I don't believe it was Brenda Andrew and... Janna Larson can't identify Brenda Andrew."
Defense attorneys defended the pair's decision to flee Oklahoma City because Brenda Andrew and Pavatt weren't charged with a crime when they left.
Arnett said, "At the time that he left, according to her testimony, Jim Pavatt was not charged with a crime and everything he did was based on the advice of his attorney at the time, Tom Cummings."
McCracken said: "The fact she left doesn't prove she was involved in a crime. If that is the only proof that they have that connects her with this crime, I ask you, is that enough? I don't think it is."
Larson gave lengthy testimony June 12 about conversations she said she had with her father about Brenda Andrew, her father's involvement and what she was told before and after the slaying.
On Tuesday, McCracken asked Larson whether Brenda Andrew said or did what Larson had earlier linked to her father.
Larson said she defended her decision to work with the FBI, despite her belief at the time that her father was innocent.
"It was the right thing to do," Larson said. "A man's family deserved to know what happened. I didn't think he would leave the country. I thought he would stay and talk to police and this would be sorted out."
Archive ID: 1037938
