The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously denied clemency on Friday for convicted killer Kevin Ray Underwood.

Underwood, 44, has been on death row for almost 17 years for strangling a neighbor girl in his apartment complex in 2006 in Purcell with the plan to act out his cannibalistic fantasies. Police found Jamie Rose Bolin, 10, in a plastic tub in Underwood’s closet. His execution is scheduled for Thursday. Underwood is the fourth and last execution for 2024.

Bolin’s family addressed the board dressed in green shirts with Bolin’s picture on the front and life on the back.

The family described Bolin as a kind girl with a wild laugh. She loved spending time with family and taking part in girl scouts, her family said.

Lori Pate, Bolin’s sister, said she remembered everything that followed her sister’s murder and said Underwood took her childhood and flipped her family’s life upside down. She said in Underwood’s death he wouldn’t encounter the pain that Bolin endured after being beaten, strangled and murdered for sexual gratification.

“You showed me at the age of 14 that monsters are not just something made up in storybooks. That they don’t just hide under our beds, but they wear our same clothing and walk our same streets,” Pate said. 

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement he was pleased with the board’s decision not to recommend clemency for Underwood.

“I am pleased the board voted to deny clemency for this deeply evil monster and ensured that justice will be delivered for Jamie Rose Bolin,” Drummond said. “Jamie’s family has waited 18 excruciating years for justice that finally will be carried out when this murderer is executed.”

Underwood’s attorneys told board members that prosecutors would try to paint Underwood as Ted Bundy, but this was an isolated incident that stemmed from mental health disorders and addiction to pornography. Underwood didn’t have a criminal history before killing Bolin,Brendan Van Winkle said.

“I want to make quite a few things clear. There is no one on this planet who hates Kevin Underwood more than Kevin Underwood does,” Van Winkle said.

Cleveland County jurors convicted Underwood in 2008 and sentenced him to death for Bolin’s murder, which was planned, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s prosecutors. Underwood told police he acted on his cannibalistic fantasies. 

Emma Rolls, representing Underwood, stated the rescheduling of Underwood’s clemency hearing resulted in their mental health expert not being available. 

Rolls read a statement from Kim Spencer, Ph.D. Spence said she was “devastated” she couldn’t address the board via zoom or in person. She explained that the exceptionally disturbing pornographic content Underwood viewed contributed to the crime because it can increase aggression and cause deviant sexual arousal.

Underwood’s mother, Connie Underwood, addressed the board and stated she didn’t know then what her son was going through and thought his isolation was normal. She said the thought of her son dying by lethal injection doesn’t come close to the pain Bolin’s family went through. 

Connie asked the board for mercy and said Underwood wasn’t thinking clearly because of his mental health issues.

“I’m here today with a heart full of regret and pain,” she said 

Underwood’s legal team urged the board to grant mercy based on his mental illness.

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s prosecutors disputed the defense’s claims and stated Underwood gathered supplies for two months prior to the killing, and that Bolin fought for her life.

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Aspen Layman, a prosecutor for the Attorney General’s Office, said Underwood bought supplies including tarp, meat tenderizer and BBQ skewers and lured Bolin to his apartment with the plan to rape, kill and eat her because she was small and “defenseless.”

Layman stated Underwood had a normal upbringing free of physical and sexual abuse. 

In a video shown at the hearing, Underwood admitted to watching kids in his neighborhood with the thought of raping and eating the child. 

“I wanted to get an ice chest, but they didn’t really have an ice chest big enough to put a kid in it,” Underwood said to police.

Underwood suffocated Bolin when beating her with a cutting board didn’t work. He admitted it took 15-20 minutes to kill her.

State prosecutors told the board Underwood is highly manipulative and showed no remorse for the murder. In 2022, Underwood wrote to a woman and said he hopes in the afterlife he can act out his sexual fantasies.

Prosecutors said on Friday that Underwood deserves the same mercy he showed Bolin. 

None.

Underwood cried as he delivered his statement and said he would like to apologize to Bolin’s family and his family.

“It is true that I have blocked out most memory of that day and I do not think about it as much as people probably would wish,” Underwood said.

Oklahoma executions since 2021
Oct. 28, 2021: John Marion Grant
Dec. 9, 2021: Bigler Jobe Stouffer II
Jan. 27, 2022: Donald Anthony Grant
Feb. 17, 2022: Gilbert Postelle
Aug. 25, 2022: James Allen Coddington
Oct. 20, 2022: Benjamin Cole
Nov. 17, 2022: Richard Fairchild
Jan. 12, 2023: Scott Eizember
July 20, 2023: Jemaine Cannon
Sep. 21, 2023: Anthony Sanchez
Nov. 30, 2023: Phillip Hancock
April 4, 2024: Michael DeWayne Smith
June 27, 2024: Richard Rojem
Sept. 26, 2024: Emmanuel Littlejohn