JUST IN: Michael Dewayne Smith Execution | Crime, Last Meal + Final Words | Death Row US Oklahoma…
On April 4th, 2024, after spending more than 21 years on death row, Michael Dwayne Smith was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in Mallister. In this video, we’ll uncover what happened, his last meal, and his last words. But this wasn’t the story of one murder. It was the story of three.
a 19-year-old gang member who in a span of just four months left a trail of bodies across Oklahoma City. Two of those killings happened on the same day carried out against people who had done nothing wrong. People who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Michael Dwayne Smith, known on the streets as Hoover Killer or HK, was a member of the Oak Grove Posi, a violent subset of the Oklahoma City Crips.
And by the time he was finally caught, the damage was already done. Michael Dwayne Smith was born on June 24th, 1982 in Oklahoma. But from the very start, the odds were stacked against him. He grew up in a neighborhood where gang violence and drug activity weren’t just common, they were everywhere. His father was an alcoholic who was physically abusive toward his mother.
By the time Michael was 2 years old, his parents had separated and his world began to fracture. With no stable father figure, Michael was raised in chaos. His older brothers introduced him to drugs and gangs at an early age. School became an afterthought. He struggled academically and never found his footing. And somewhere between the ages of seven and eight, Michael was sexually abused by an older woman, a trauma that would go unressed for years.
By the time he was 10, Michael lost his father entirely. The absence left a hole that nothing seemed to fill. He turned to PCP, a powerful hallucinagen that would become his escape. And by the year 2000, at just 18 years old, Michael had officially joined the Oak Grove Posi. Years later, in a phone interview before his execution, Michael reflected on his choices with regret.
He said he had always been good at sports, that he could have easily gotten a scholarship, but surrounded by gang members and trapped in a culture of violence, he made a different choice. One he called the biggest regret of his life. By 2002, Michael wasn’t just a gang member. He was already wanted on five separate felony charges, including shooting with intent to kill, assault, and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Assault on a police officer, attempting to elude police, and driving under the influence. He was 19 years old, and he was spiraling. To understand what Michael did, you first have to understand what happened on November 8th, 2000. That day, three members of the Oak Grove Posi set out to rob two convenience stores in South Oklahoma City.
Their names were Terron Tok Armstrong, Kenneth Peanut, Kinchin, and Dwayane Pudgy O. Shirley. The first robbery went off without a hitch. They hit Coker’s Corner on South Kentucky Street around 10 in the morning with Kinchion carrying the gun. But the second robbery just after 8 that evening ended in disaster.
They walked into Trans Food Mart on South May Avenue. This time Armstrong was carrying the weapon, but the store’s owner, a Vietnamese man named Han Vanho, wasn’t about to be a victim. When Armstrong threatened him with the gun, Han Vanho pulled a 38 caliber revolver from beneath the counter and shot him dead. Kinchian and Shirley fled the scene.
They were eventually arrested and charged with felony murder and robbery. Han Van Ho was never charged. His actions were ruled justified self-defense. Michael wasn’t involved in the robbery, but Terron Armstrong had been one of his closest friends. And when Michael read a newspaper article about the incident, something inside him snapped.
According to the article, someone connected to a neighboring store, the AZ Food Mart, had made comments to the press. Comments that Michael believed were disrespectful to his gang. Comments that, in his mind, disrespected Terron Armstrong’s memory. Michael decided someone had to pay. Two weeks after Armstrong’s death on November 24th, 2001, Michael made his first move.
He was with his 29-year-old accomplice, David Walter Burns, along with two other men, Melvin Moore, and 26-year-old Otis Payne Jr. The four of them were inside an SUV parked outside the Lexus Club, a nightclub in northeast Oklahoma City. What started as a night out quickly turned violent. An altercation broke out inside the vehicle.
Michael handed his gun to Burns and then both men opened fire. The shots were meant for Melvin Moore, but the fatal bullet struck Otis Payne instead. He was killed instantly. Moore survived with a gunshot wound to his shoulder. Michael and Burns fled the scene. Police identified them quickly and issued warrants for their arrest, but Michael had no intention of turning himself in.
Instead, he went into hiding, moving through Oklahoma City like a ghost, evading capture while the pressure mounted. For 3 months, he stayed one step ahead of the law. But the longer he hid, the more paranoid he became. And on February 22nd, 2002, that paranoia would explode into violence.
It was just after 6:30 in the morning on February 22nd, 2002. Michael left his apartment at the Delmare complex in Oklahoma City. His roommate, Marcus Barry, watched him grab a 357 caliber revolver before walking out the door. Michael had a target in mind, a man named Philip Zachary Jr. Michael believed that Zachary had been feeding information to the police that he was the reason the cops were closing in.
In Michael’s mind, Zachary was a snitch and snitches had to be dealt with. But when Michael arrived at the apartment where Zachary lived, he didn’t find him. Instead, he found Zachary’s mother. Her name was Janet Denise Miller Moore. She was 41 years old. A loving mother, a dedicated hospital worker in the insurance division at U Medical Center.
Her family would later describe her as a rock, someone who was always willing to lend a hand, an ear, or a kind word to anyone who needed it. That morning, Janet was alone in the apartment getting dressed for work. She had no idea that a wanted killer was about to kick down her front door. Michael burst inside. Janet screamed. She called out for help, panicked and terrified, but there was no one to hear her.
Later, in his confession, Michael described what happened next with chilling indifference. He said she panicked, that she wouldn’t stop screaming, and so he shot her once in the chest. Janet collapsed. She was dead before she hit the floor. Michael didn’t run. Instead, he walked through the apartment, wiping down every surface, removing his fingerprints.
When he later learned who the woman was, the mother of the man he had come to kill, he simply shrugged and said, “Oh well.” But Michael wasn’t finished. Not even close. Because in his mind, there was still one more score to settle. By 7:30 that evening, just 1 hour after killing Janet Moore, Michael walked into the A Food Mart in South Oklahoma City.
This was the store next door to Trans Food Mart, where Terron Armstrong had been killed over a year earlier. Michael believed that someone who worked here had made disrespectful comments about his gang to the newspaper. He had come to make them pay. Behind the counter was a 22-year-old college student named Sarat Babu Puluru.
Sarath had been born and raised in Andra Pradesh, India. He was the first person in his family to come to America, chasing a dream of education and opportunity. He was described as fun to be around, generous, and inspiring. His younger brother, Harish, would later say that Sarra was the reason he became a doctor.
But Sarra wasn’t the person who had spoken to the newspaper. He wasn’t even supposed to be working that night. He was filling in for a friend. It was a tragic case of mistaken identity, and it would cost him his life. Michael entered the store holding Sarra at gunpoint. Sarra asked him what he had done wrong.
What had he done to deserve this? Michael didn’t answer. He raised his weapon and opened fire. He emptied two guns into Sarath’s body. Nine bullets tore through his arms, legs, chest, and face. Even after Sarra had fallen, Michael kept shooting until there was nothing left to fire. But he wasn’t done.
Michael pulled out a container of lighter fluid. He doused Sarra’s body. He poured it over the cash register. He splashed it across the back room. Then he struck a match and set the store ablaze. As flames consumed the building, Michael grabbed money from the register and disappeared into the night. He went home, changed out of his bloody clothes, and disposed of them.
Then he started talking. That same night, Michael returned to his apartment and told his roommate, Marcus Barry, exactly what he had done. He admitted to killing Janet Moore. A few hours later, he went to the home of a female acquaintance, 20-year-old Sheena Johnson. And once again, he couldn’t keep quiet. Michael told Sheena that he had gone to Janet Moore’s apartment looking for her son, the one he believed was a snitch.
When he found Janet instead, she started screaming. In Michael’s own words, “The [ __ ] wouldn’t shut up, so he shot her.” Then he told Sheena about the second killing. He said he had murdered a man at the [ __ ] store because someone there had been on television dissing his set. He described in detail how he had set the body and the cash register on fire.
What Michael didn’t know was that none of those details about the fire had been made public yet. The police hadn’t even connected the two murders at that point. Sheena now knew things that only the killer could know, and eventually she would tell the police everything. 2 days later, on February 24th, 2002, police finally caught up with Michael, but not for the double murder.
They arrested him for the killing of Otis Payne Jr., the nightclub shooting from 3 months earlier. Michael was brought in for questioning. And at first, that’s all detectives wanted to talk about. But during the interrogation, something changed. Detectives Janet McNut and Terresa Sterling began asking Michael about the murders of Janet Moore and Sarra Puru.
At first, Michael denied everything, but as the hours passed, something cracked. He broke down. And on videotape, Michael D. Dwayne Smith confessed to both killings. He told detectives that he had killed both victims in retaliation for wrongs done to him and his family. He explained how he had gone to Janet Moore’s apartment looking for her son, how she had panicked and started screaming, and how he had shot her to make her stop.
He described how he had gone to the a food mart to avenge Terron Armstrong. How he believed the store clerk had insulted his gang, how he had emptied two guns into Sarra Polluru’s body, dowsed him in lighter fluid, and set him on fire. He admitted to wiping down Janet’s apartment to remove fingerprints. He admitted to disposing of his clothes.
He admitted to setting fires to destroy evidence. The confession was detailed, coherent, and devastating, and it was all captured on video. In March 2002, Michael was formally charged with three counts of firstdegree murder, along with burglary, robbery with firearms, and arson. Michael’s trial for the murders of Janet Moore and Sarra Puru began on June 6th, 2003 in Oklahoma County.
But procedural errors led the judge to declare a mistrial. A second trial began on August 28th, 2003. This time, there would be no mistakes. The prosecution’s case was overwhelming. Sheena Johnson took the stand. And recounted everything Michael had told her, details that only the killer could have known. Marcus Barry testified that Michael had confessed to killing Janet Moore.
And then the jury watched the videotaped confession, hearing Michael describe the murders in his own words. The defense argued that Michael had been high on PCP when he confessed, that his statements were involuntary and unreliable. But the trial court disagreed. Investigators who had questioned Michael described him as very cocky and extremely verbal.
They said he was animated, not disoriented, that he understood exactly what he was saying and the consequences of his actions. On September 11th, 2003, the jury returned their verdict. Guilty on both counts of firstdegree murder. Guilty of robbery by firearm. Guilty of burglary. Guilty of arson. Nine days later, the same jury of nine women and three men recommended the death penalty for each murder conviction along with 85 years in prison for the lesser charges.
On October 14th, 2003, Oklahoma County District Judge Twi Mason Gray made it official. She sentenced Michael Dwayne Smith to death. As she handed down the sentence, Judge Gray spoke directly about the victims. She called them hard-working individuals who did not deserve to be murdered. She said the death penalty was appropriate given the brutality of the crimes.
Janet Moore’s son, Philip Zachary Jr., the man Michael had originally been hunting, addressed the court. He said justice had been served for his mother. In March 2004, Michael returned to court to face charges for the murder of Otis Payne Jr., the nightclub shooting from November 2001. After a five-day trial, the jury found him guilty of seconddegree murder.
He was sentenced to life in prison with the sentence ordered to run consecutively with his two death sentences. Michael’s accomplice in that killing, David Burns, was also held accountable. Burns was sentenced to 25 years for seconddegree murder and an additional 5 years for firearm possession.
At 21 years old, Michael Dwayne Smith had been convicted of three murders. He would spend the next two decades on death row. For more than two decades, Michael fought to stay alive. His attorneys filed appeal after appeal, raising claims of intellectual disability, involuntary confession, and ineffective legal counsel.
In 2007, his first appeal was denied. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his conviction and death sentence. In 2016, his case reached federal court. His lawyers argued that Michael’s IQ scores, which ranged from 71 to 79, indicated intellectual disability that should make him ineligible for execution.
But the court disagreed. The scores fell just above the legal threshold. By March 2017, Michael had exhausted all avenues of appeal. He became eligible for execution, though no date had been set. But even on death row, Michael couldn’t stay out of trouble. According to prosecutors, he remained in contact with gang members both inside and outside the prison.
As recently as 2019, he was caught with weapons in his cell. The state argued that he remained a continuing threat to society, a lingering menace who had never truly changed. In August 2022, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued death warrants for 25 inmates. Michael was on the list. His execution was originally scheduled for July 6th, 2023, but was later rescheduled to April 4th, 2024.
On March 6th, 2024, one month before his scheduled execution, Michael appeared before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board via video call. For 15 minutes, he pleaded for his life. He expressed his deepest apologies and sorrows to the families of his victims. But then he did something that would doom his chances. He maintained his innocence.
“I didn’t commit these crimes,” Michael said, tears streaming down his face. “I didn’t kill these people. I was high on drugs. I don’t even remember getting arrested. His attorney, Mark Henrikson, argued that Michael was intellectually disabled, that years of drug abuse had worsened his condition, and that his confession had been made in a PCP induced haze.
He pointed to new evidence suggesting that trial witnesses had been coerced. But the prosecution wasn’t buying it. They reminded the board of Michael’s detailed videotaped confession. They played clips of him describing the murders in graphic detail. They pointed out that he had confessed not just to police, but to Sheena Johnson and Marcus Barry as well, people who had no reason to lie.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond was blunt. He called Michael a ruthless killer who has confessed to his crimes on multiple occasions. He noted that Michael was among just 10% of death row inmates nationwide who had killed multiple victims. The families of Janet Moore and Sarathuru were present at the hearing.
They asked the board to deny clemency. Sarah’s brother, Harish Polluru, had submitted a written statement. He described how Sarath had been the first in their family to come to America. How he had inspired Harish to become a doctor. How as a child in India, Harish would wait in a phone booth just to receive Sarah’s calls from the United States.
He described the pain his parents lived with every day. And he asked the board to let justice be served. The board voted 4 to one. Clemency was denied. In the days leading up to his execution, Michael made one last attempt to save his life. His attorneys filed emergency appeals with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. They were denied four times.
On the morning of April 4th, 2024, just hours before he was scheduled to die, Michael’s lawyers made a final plea to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that his confession had not been sufficiently corroborated. The Supreme Court denied the stay. The execution would proceed. The night before, Michael was offered a last meal. He declined.
He didn’t want anything. As the hour approached, Reverend Jeff Hood, Michael’s spiritual adviser, joined him in the execution chamber. Hood would later say that Michael was tearful in those final minutes, struggling with the weight of what was about to happen. At 10:08 a.m. on April 4th, 2024, the execution process began at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in Mallister.
Michael lay strapped to the gurnie. When the execution team leader asked if he had any final words, Michael’s response was brief. Nah, I’m good. He then turned to Reverend Hood and spoke quietly. His microphone was off, so the media witnesses couldn’t hear what he said, but prison officials later revealed that Michael was expressing his love for his fami
- At 10:09 a.m., the first drug was administered, a sedative called Midazolam. Michael’s body reacted almost immediately. Witnesses saw him shake briefly and attempt to lift his head from the gurnie before relaxing. Then came a series of short audible breaths, sounds that resembled snores or gasps. Prison officials would later say Michael appeared to have some form of sleep apnnea.
At 10:14 a.m., a masked doctor entered the chamber. He shook Michael several times and declared him unconscious. About a minute later, Michael appeared to stop breathing. At 10:19 a.m., the doctor returned to check for a pulse. At 10:20 a.m., Michael Dwayne Smith was pronounced dead. He was 41 years old. Reverend Hood, who had stood beside Michael throughout, later described the moment.
He said a single tear fell from Michael’s right eye after he appeared to be gone. Hood called the execution unnecessary. He said Oklahoma would be no safer that afternoon than it had been that morning. The only difference, he said, was that the state would be less ethical. In the witness room, Janet Moore’s son, Philip Zachary Jr.
, and her niece, Morgan Miller Perkins, watched through one-way glass. For 22 years, they had waited for this moment. After the execution, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond read statements on behalf of the victim’s families. Janet Moore’s family offered a prayer of gratitude. They thanked the state for pursuing justice over the past two decades.
They honored Janet as a mother, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, and an angel. They said her memory, her work, and her deeds would continue to live on. and they declared that justice had been served. Sarathuru’s family spoke of the devastation his death had caused. They called Sarah the life of their family, a close-knit group shattered by his violent murder.
They said he would forever live in their hearts, and they too expressed gratitude that justice had finally come. Drummond himself offered a reflection on the victims. He called Janet a rock for her family. He described Sarra as a bright young man with a generous spirit, the first in his family to come to America in pursuit of education.
He noted the cruel irony of their deaths. Neither had done anything wrong. Neither had been Michael’s intended target. Janet and Sherath were murdered simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Drummond said that was all. I am grateful that justice has been served. Not everyone agreed that justice had been done.
Reverend Don Heath, chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, offered a different perspective. He described Michael as a troubled and vulnerable young man with intellectual disabilities, someone who had been failed by the system at every turn. Michael Smith has a painful story, Heath said.
A 10-year-old boy with borderline intellectual disability loses his father, gets strung out habitually on PCP, and joins a gang with tragic results when he is 19. We all stand in need of mercy, and Smith has gotten precious little. Heath criticized Michael’s legal adviserss, saying they had ills served him by encouraging him to proclaim his innocence instead of accepting responsibility.
That decision, Heath said, had cost Michael any chance at clemency. He had needed mercy and forgiveness, and he had gotten none. Michael Dwayne Smith was the first person executed in Oklahoma in 2024. He was the 12th person put to death since the state resumed executions in 2021, ending a six-year moratorum that had followed a series of botched lethal injections.
and he was the fourth person executed in the United States that year. His story is one of violence, of loss, and of choices that can never be undone. Three people, Otis Payne, Janet Moore, and Sarra Paluru are gone forever. Their families will carry that grief for the rest of their lives. And Michael Dwayne Smith, the boy who once dreamed of sports scholarships but chose a different path, paid the ultimate price.
What do you think? Has justice been served? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
