Gilbert Postelle Executed for Killing Four Innocent People in Cold Blood | Final Meal & Last Words
Happening today, Oklahoma expected to put its death it to put to death its second death row inmate of the year. Gilbert Pastel set to be executed later this morning for the death of four people in 2005. Pastel’s father and brother also involved in this murder. They say the victims were behind a motorcycle crash that badly injured Pastel’s father.
Pastel’s brother [music] was sentenced to life in prison. Their father declared incompetent to stand trial due to a brain injury suffered in that accident. Gilbert Pastel [music] has been on death row ever since. I want to be better for my family. I want to be somebody that they can [music] be proud of. I learned that drugs was not a good thing for me to get involved in.
I think he needs a certain amount of forgiveness. That’s what Gilbert Pastel’s lawyer told the parole board in December 2021. Forgiveness for what exactly? Gilbert Pastel walked up to four people on Memorial Day 2005. He made them kneel in the dirt outside a trailer park. Then he fired over 30 rounds from an AK-47 rifle into their bodies. Two of them tried to run.
[clears throat] He shot them in the back. One victim’s mother never got to see her son’s body. It was too riddled with bullets to view. Gilbert was 18 years old when he did this. He’s now 35, sitting on death row asking for mercy. His execution date is set for February 17th, 2022.
But here’s what makes this case so disturbing. Gilbert didn’t kill these people for money. He didn’t kill them over drugs or a deal gone wrong. He killed them because his father got into a motorcycle accident and blamed the wrong person. Four innocent people massacred over something that never even happened.
But the story gets darker when you learn what happened during the actual attack and why Gilbert’s own family helped him do it. Before we continue, please like this video and subscribe to True Crime Matter. You won’t want to miss how this case ends. May 30th, 2005, Memorial Day, Oklahoma City. Four people were hanging out at a trailer home complex.
Donnie Swindle, James Alderson, Terry Smith, and Amy Wright. They were relaxing, probably enjoying the holiday, maybe [clears throat] grilling food or having drinks. They had no idea they were about to die. A van pulled up outside the trailer park. Four men got out. Gilbert Pastel, his brother David Pastell, their father Brad Pastel, and another man named Randall Wade Bias.
All four were armed. This wasn’t a robbery. This wasn’t a random attack. This was planned execution. The four men stormed the property in what investigators later called a blitz attack. They moved fast and with purpose. They knew exactly what they were there to do. They rounded [music] up Donnie, James, Terry, and Amy at gunpoint.
The victims had no chance to fight back, no chance to run, no chance to call for help. The attackers forced all four victims outside into the yard. They made them walk to an open area. Then they gave them an order. Kneel. Donnie Swindle dropped to his knees. James Alderson did the same. Terry Smith knelt in the dirt. Amy Wright was terrified but complied.
They were begging for their lives. They were asking what they did wrong. They didn’t understand why this was happening. Gilbert raised his AK-47 rifle and started firing. He didn’t fire a few shots. He fired over 30 rounds. The sound of gunfire echoed through the trailer park. Neighbors heard it and thought it was fireworks because it was Memorial Day.
All four victims were hit multiple times. Amy Wright and James Alderson somehow managed to get up and run. Despite being shot, they tried to escape. They ran for their lives. Gilbert turned and shot them both in the back. They collapsed in the dirt. Blood poured from their wounds. They were still alive, but couldn’t move anymore. Gilbert walked up to each victim and made sure they were dead.
He fired more rounds into their bodies at close range. When it was over, four people lay dead in a trailer park. Their bodies were torn apart by bullets. Blood soaked into the ground. The four attackers got back into their van and drove away like nothing happened. The entire attack lasted less than 5 minutes.
Neighbors started [music] coming outside. They saw the bodies. They started screaming and calling 911. Police arrived within minutes. What they found was a massacre. Four victims, all shot multiple times with high-powered rifles. Shell casings everywhere. Blood covering the ground. One of the officers on scene said it looked like a war zone.
Donnie Swindle’s body was so damaged by bullets that his mother, Mary Joe Swindle, was told she couldn’t view it. The funeral had to be closed casket. She never got to see her son one last time. James Alderson had been shot in the back while trying to flee. He died face down in the dirt. Terry Smith never even had a chance to run.
He was shot so many times that investigators couldn’t immediately count all the wounds. Amy Wright was the only woman killed. She tried to escape but was gunned down from behind. None of the victims were armed. None of them fought back. They were executed. But why? What did these four people do to deserve this? The answer is nothing.
Absolutely nothing. To understand how this massacre happened, you need to know about the Pastel family. Gilbert Ray Pastel was born on June 22nd, 1986 in Oklahoma. His mother abandoned him when he was young. He was raised by his father, Brad Pastel. Brad wasn’t exactly father of the year. He had a drug conviction in 1996.
By 1999, police suspected he was manufacturing methamphetamine in an old school bus behind his house. He was charged with trying to manufacture meth and drug possession. But the charges were eventually dropped. Gilbert grew up in this environment, drugs everywhere, no stable mother figure, a father who was a criminal and a drug manufacturer.
Gilbert started using methamphetamine daily while he was still a teenager. By 18 years old, he was a full-blown addict. He was arrested at least eight times in Midwest City. The charges were always related to drug manufacturing and weapons complaints. Gilbert’s brother, David, was following the same path.
Drug use, criminal activity, weapons charges. The Pastel family was known to local police. They were trouble. Then came the motorcycle accident. Brad Pastel was riding his motorcycle when he crashed. The accident was serious. Brad suffered a traumatic brain injury that caused seizures and permanent cognitive damage.
After the crash, Brad’s personality changed. He became paranoid and violent. The brain injury made him unpredictable and Brad became obsessed with finding out who caused his accident. There was no evidence that anyone else was involved. It was a single vehicle accident. Brad lost control of his bike and crashed.
But Brad didn’t see it that way. He convinced himself that someone had caused the crash. Someone had forced him off the road. Someone had tried to kill him. [clears throat] Brad focused his paranoia on one person, Donnie Swindle. There was absolutely no evidence that Donnie had anything to do with the motorcycle accident. Donnie wasn’t even there. He didn’t know Brad.
He had no reason to hurt him. But Brad didn’t care about evidence. His brain injured methfueled mind decided Donnie was responsible and Brad wanted revenge. Brad started talking to his sons Gilbert and David about making Donnie pay. He told them that Donnie had tried to kill him.
[clears throat] He told them that Donnie needed to die. Gilbert was high on meth constantly. He’d been using for days straight leading up to Memorial Day 2005. His judgment was gone. His sense of right and wrong was destroyed when his brain injured father said they needed to kill Donnie Swindle. Gilbert agreed. David agreed too.
They recruited another man, Randall Wade Bias, to help them. The plan was simple. Go to Donniey’s location, kill him, send a message. What they didn’t plan for was that Donnie wouldn’t be alone. There would be three other people with him. Gilbert and his father didn’t care. If those people were with Donnie, they would die, too.
On May 30th, 2005, the four men got their weapons and drove to the trailer park. They were going to execute everyone they found. After the massacre, police had a crime scene, but no immediate suspects. They collected shell casings. They took photographs. They interviewed neighbors who heard the gunfire.
One neighbor mentioned seeing a maroon van leaving the area right after the shooting. Surveillance footage from nearby businesses confirmed it. A maroon van was captured on camera leaving the trailer park complex around the time of the murders. Police put out a bulletin for the van. They needed to find it. Meanwhile, investigators started looking into the victims.
Was this a targeted hit? Did someone have a grudge against these four people? They learned about the tension between Brad Pastel and Donnie Swindle. They learned about Brad’s motorcycle accident and his belief that Donnie was responsible. Police started watching the Pastel family on July 7th, 2005. More than a month after the murders, detectives got a break.
The maroon van was found in Terara, Indiana. Police tracked it to two men, Avis Sanders and Daniel Ashcraft. Both admitted they had driven the van to Indiana after the murders. They told police everything. >> [clears throat] >> They said Gilbert Pastell, David Pastell, Brad Pastel, and Randall Bias were the shooters. Police recovered trace evidence from the van.
Blood, gunshot residue, DNA, everything connected back to the Pastel family. On August 16th, 2005, police arrested David Pastell and Brad Pastel. The next day, August 17th, 2005, they arrested Gilbert Pastel. Police also arrested Avis Sanders, Daniel Ashcraft, and another man named Arthur James Wilder.
All three were charged as accessories to murder. Gilbert was 19 years old when he was arrested. He’d spent the last few months on the run, high on meth, knowing police were looking for him. Now, he was in custody facing four murder charges. Randall Bias was arrested separately. He immediately started talking. He wanted a deal. Bias told prosecutors he would testify against Gilbert in exchange for a reduced sentence. Prosecutors agreed.
Bias described the massacre in detail. He said Gilbert fired the most shots. He said Gilbert shot the victims in the back as they tried to run. The evidence was overwhelming. witness testimony, physical evidence, surveillance footage, and now a codefendant willing to testify. Gilbert Pastelle was going to trial for quadruple murder.
In 2008, Gilbert Pastell stood trial for four counts of murder. The prosecution laid out the case methodically. They showed the jury crime scene photos. They played 911 calls. They brought in forensic experts who explained the ballistics evidence. They called Randall Bias to the stand. Spias testified that Gilbert was the primary shooter.
He described how Gilbert made the victims kneel. He described how Gilbert shot them in the back as they tried to escape. Mary Joe Swindle, Donniey’s mother, testified about losing her son. [clears throat] She told the jury she never got to see his body because it was too destroyed by bullets.
The families of James Alderson, Terry Smith, and Amy Wright all testified about the impact of losing their loved ones. Gilbert’s defense team tried to argue that he was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time. They said his father, who had a brain injury, influenced him. They said Gilbert had a learning disability with an IQ in the low70s. The jury didn’t buy it.
After deliberation, they found Gilbert Pastel guilty of all four murders. Now came the sentencing phase. Would Gilbert get life in prison or the death penalty? The prosecution argued that Gilbert deserved death. He killed four innocent people in cold blood. He shot two of them in the back as they fled. He showed no mercy.
The defense argued for life in prison. They said Gilbert was young. They said he was influenced by drugs and his brain injured father. They said he deserved a chance at redemption. The jury made their decision. Gilbert Pastel was sentenced to death for the murders of Amy Wright and James Alderson.
He was sentenced to life without parole for the murders of Donnie Swindle and Terry Smith. He received two death sentences. Gilbert showed no emotion when the sentence was read. He just stared straight ahead. David Pastel, Gilbert’s brother, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He would never see freedom again.
Brad Postel, their father, was declared incompetent to stand trial due to his brain injury. He would never face justice for his role in planning the massacre. Brad Pastel died on February 18th, 2011 at age 46. He died before he could ever be held accountable. Randall Bias, because he testified, received a plea deal. He got a reduced sentence.
Gilbert was sent to death row to wait for his execution. Gilbert spent years on death row filing appeals. In December 2011, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his death sentence. His appeals were denied, but Gilbert’s case became caught up in a larger legal battle about Oklahoma’s execution methods.
In 2014, a lawsuit called Glossip V. Chandler challenged Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol. Several inmates, including Gilbert, claimed the drugs used in executions caused extreme pain. [clears throat] There had been botched executions in Oklahoma. Inmates writhing in pain. Executions taking over an hour. It was a disaster. Oklahoma put a moratorium on executions from 2015 to 2021.
Gilbert used this time to file more appeals. He argued that lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment. In February 2020, Gilbert and other inmates tried to reopen the lawsuit. They claimed autopsy evidence showed the drugs made people feel like they were drowning and being burned alive. In August 2021, a federal judge ruled that Gilbert and five other inmates had to be removed from the lawsuit because they refused to specify an alternative execution method.
Gilbert had refused to choose an alternative based on religious grounds. He didn’t want to help the state figure out how to kill him. [clears throat] Once Gilbert was removed from the lawsuit, Oklahoma scheduled his execution. In October 2021, Oklahoma executed John Grant. The execution was botched.
Grant vomited and convulsed for several minutes before dying. Gilbert and other death row inmates filed for an injunction. They argued Oklahoma hadn’t fixed the problems with their execution protocol. The courts rejected their request. In December 2021, Gilbert [clears throat] had his clemency hearing. This was his last chance to avoid execution.
[clears throat] His lawyer, Robert Nance, told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that Gilbert deserved forgiveness. He argued Gilbert grew up in an environment that was almost exclusively negative. Gilbert testified that he had been using meth for days before the murders. He said he didn’t remember much about what happened.
Gilbert told the board, “I do understand that I’m guilty and I accept that. There’s nothing more that I know to say to you all than I am truly sorry for what I’ve done to all these families.” Mary Joe Swindle testified again. She told the board she never got to see her son’s body because it was so riddled and torn with bullets. The pardon and parole board voted 4 to1 to deny clemency.
Gilbert’s execution would proceed. In January 2022, Gilbert made one final attempt. He asked for a temporary injunction to halt his execution until a trial could be held on the constitutionality of lethal injection. That trial was scheduled for February 28th, 2022. After Gilbert’s execution date, Gilbert and another inmate, Donald Grant, offered to be executed by firing squad instead of lethal injection.
The courts rejected this, too. The United States Supreme Court refused to grant Gilbert a stay of execution. There was nowhere left to go. No more appeals, no more delays. Gilbert’s execution was set for February 17th, 2022. February 17th, 2022. Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Gilbert Pastelle was 35 years old. He had been on death row for 14 years.
For his last meal, Gilbert ordered McDonald’s, 20 chicken nuggets, three large fries, two chicken sandwiches, one large cola, and one caramel frap. Nothing fancy, just fast food. At 10:00 a.m., Gilbert was brought into the execution chamber. He didn’t resist. He cooperated fully with the prison staff.
He was strapped to a gurnie. The IV lines were inserted into his arms. Prison officials asked if he had any last words. Gilbert declined. After 17 years, he had nothing to say. The lethal injection began flowing through the IV. At 10:14 a.m., Gilbert Ray Pastel was pronounced dead. He was the fourth person executed in Oklahoma since the state resumed executions in 2021.
Gilbert [clears throat] Pastel killed four innocent people because his brain injured father convinced him that one of them had caused a motorcycle accident. There was no evidence, no proof, no connection. Donnie Swindle, James Alderson, Terry Smith, and Amy Wright died for something that never even happened. Mary Joe Swindle never got to see her son’s body.
She never got closure. Gilbert spent 14 years on death row. His brother David is serving life without parole. Their father died without ever facing trial. Four families destroyed. Two brothers imprisoned for life. One father dead. All because of meth, paranoia, and a brain injury that made a man believe a lie.
Was justice served. Do you think Gilbert deserved the death penalty, or should he have been given life in prison instead? Let us know in the comments below. Subscribe to True Crime Matter for more cases about how quickly violence can destroy lives. Hit that like button and share this video to keep others informed about the criminals who hide among
