Scott Eizember executed for 2003 murders of elderly couple in Creek County

McALESTER — Scott Eizember was executed by lethal injection Thursday in the 2003 home invasion slayings of an elderly couple in their Creek County home while stalking his ex-girlfriend in their neighborhood.

His time of death was 10:15 a.m.

After also shooting his ex-girlfriend’s teenage son and beating her mother, he became the subject of one of the largest manhunts in Oklahoma history, eluding law enforcement for 37 days.

From the small town of Depew located along Route 66, to Arkansas and finally Texas, he left a trail of burglaries and other shootings and beatings of innocent bystanders and good Samaritans who offered him help.

Eizember, 62, had been on death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary since 2005, when a Canadian County jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the beating death of A.J. Cantrell, 76; second-degree murder in the shooting death of Patsy Cantrell, 70; assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in the beating of his ex-girlfriend’s mother; shooting with intent to kill his ex-girlfriend’s son; and two counts of burglary for breaking into the two Depew houses where those attacks occurred. The death penalty was imposed only for A.J. Cantrell’s death.

The trial venue was moved out of Creek County because of the extensive publicity and community participation in the manhunt.

Evidence and testimony presented at his trial showed that Eizember’s crime spree began as a plot to seek revenge against his ex-girlfriend Kathy Biggs, now Smith.

She had accused him of holding her hostage and raping her in her Tulsa apartment before she obtained a protective order against him and fled to her parents’ home in Depew.

While lying in wait for her on Oct. 18, 2003, Eizember broke into the home of the Cantrells, two elderly and ailing neighbors of Biggs’ mother, before crossing the street to Biggs’ mother’s home and shooting Biggs’ 16-year-old son and badly beating the boy’s grandmother with a shotgun.

He also reportedly stole cars from and shot at or beat numerous other people over the next hours, days and weeks, over a 500-mile trail until his capture in Texas.

Eizember’s execution began at 10:01 a.m. Thursday. The state of Oklahoma currently employs a three-chemical cocktail for lethal injection: midazolam for sedation, rocuronium bromide for halting respiration and potassium chloride for stopping the heart.

Earlier this week, Eizember’s attorneys successfully won access into the execution chamber for his priest and anti-death penalty activist, Jeffrey Hood, of the Old Catholic denomination.

After microphones inside the death chamber cut out, Eizember could be seen exchanging final words with Hood that were inaudible to those in witness rooms. Corrections officials said later that Hood offered Eizember words of support, telling Eizember he loved him and that he was also loved by many fellow death-row inmates.

Eizember lifted his head a few times to make eye contact with a few witnesses who were there for him, and he nodded at them. Two were attorneys, and one appeared to be a relative.

Hood prayed over Eizember as he lay dying, and 14 minutes after the execution process began, a medical doctor checked him one last time and declared Eizember dead at 10:15 a.m.

Afterward, a large group of Cantrell relatives who were present came to the prison media center, where reporters were gathered.

Justin Wyatt, a grandson of the Cantrells’, said it was hard to put into words what Eizember’s execution represented to his family.

“I don’t know if today was justice. I don’t know if today was closure. … I do know I am glad the enemy is dead,” he said. “I believe this was the only way to end this nightmare my family has endured for all these years.”

The Cantrells’ nephew Johnny Melton said he spoke for the entire family when he asked the public to honor their losses by educating their daughters about domestic violence and even helping abusers seek help while they’re young.

He shared that the family has actually lost three members to domestic violence-motivated homicide, as A.J. and Patsy’s daughter Linda Cantrell was killed by her boyfriend in a murder-suicide in early 2005.

“Our prayer is that God can create something good from all of this darkness and sadness that surrounds us,” Melton said. “Statistically, Oklahoma is one of the states leading the nation in deaths as a result of domestic violence. One in 4 women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. It must stop!”

Newly sworn-in Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond witnessed Eizember’s execution, calling it his “solemn duty.”

“After nearly 20 years, justice is served. I understand that nothing can ever lessen the pain of a loved one’s death, but I pray that today brings closure and some measure of peace to the Cantrell family,” he said in a statement.

Eizember’s last-ditch attempt at avoiding the death penalty failed in December, when the state Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to deny him clemency. Debra Wyatt, the Cantrells’ oldest daughter, said at the hearing that she has forgiven Eizember but believed justice still needed to be done.

“This is torture,” she said. “It is torture, and I will never get over it. My life will never be the same.”

Eizember addressed the board, saying he profoundly apologized to all involved and believed he could help other prisoners better themselves from what he had learned about himself and through academic study during his imprisonment.

“I make no excuses,” Eizember told the board. “I belong in prison.”

In his last statement Thursday morning, Eizember said to witnesses: “I told the truth. I cannot convince everyone that I told the truth, obviously. The court also said I told the truth. So, for those people out there who don’t seem to want to tell the truth, that’s on them. That’s on their head. I’m at peace. My conscience is clear, completely.

“I love my children.”

Eizember is the 203rd person to be executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary since 1915, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. The state’s current death-row population now numbers 39 men and one woman.