Oklahoma prepares to execute man for 2001 hotel slayings

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man for the brutal slayings of two hotel workers during a robbery in 2001. Forty-six-year-old Donald Grant is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday morning at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. During a clemency hearing in November, Grant admitted killing Brenda McElyea and Felicia Suzette Smith so that there would be no witnesses to his robbery of the Del City hotel. Court records show both women were shot and stabbed, and Smith was also bludgeoned. Grant expressed “deep, sincere remorse” and apologized for the killings, but the state’s Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 against recommending clemency.