Smallwood executed for murder of ex-girlfriend's mother

Thursday, January 18th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ A man who beat his ex-girlfriend's adopted mother with a croquet mallet, threw her in the back seat of her car and then burned her alive was executed Thursday night.

Dion Athanasius Smallwood, 31, was pronounced dead at 9:09 after receiving a lethal dose of drugs in the death chamber at Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Smallwood was the fourth person executed in Oklahoma this month, with four more executions scheduled in the next two weeks.

He was convicted of murdering Lois Frederick, 68, on the afternoon of Feb. 5, 1992, after forcing his way into her Oklahoma City home.

In his final moments, a goateed Smallwood smiled widely and apologized.

``To the victims of this case, if you didn't hear me before, hear me now. I'm sorry,'' Smallwood said. ``This (execution) doesn't change anything. It just creates more victims.''

He then looked at members of his family, telling them he truly loved them.

``I'll be waiting for y'all on the other side, all right?'' he said. ``Don't forget me.''

Terri Frederick witnessed the execution with her biological sister, Monnette Moody.

She said Smallwood's remorse was meaningless.

``He was somebody that I dated. His apology meant nothing,'' she said after the execution.

At Smallwood's murder trial, Frederick testified he had attacked her several times throughout their relationship, once even putting a gun in her mouth and busting out one of her teeth. She said he warned her several times that if she ever broke up with him, he would kill her family and friends. At the urging of her mother, she finally did. Her mother paid for it with her life.

In an 11-page handwritten letter to the Oklahoma clemency board, Terri Frederick urged the state not to forgive the man she once loved.

``I remember my mom begging me to leave him as she was so scared that one day he was going to end up killing me,'' she wrote.

Frederick wrote that she has suffered depression and feelings of guilt since her mother's death and has attempted suicide several times.

``I am no longer able to trust people. I'm still afraid to be by myself,'' Frederick wrote.

According to testimony at Smallwood's trial, he entered Lois Frederick's home and began fighting with her about Terri, who had recently moved out of the apartment she and Smallwood had shared and filed a protective order against him.

After smashing Frederick's phone and striking her, Smallwood beat her over the head with a croquet mallet. He then threw her limp body in the trunk of a car that Frederick forbade her daughter to use, fearing she would go see Smallwood.

After driving around for several hours, Smallwood bought some gas, parked the car in a rural area in northwest Oklahoma City, then doused and ignited it.

An autopsy of Frederick's remains _ burned beyond recognition _ indicated she died in the trunk of the car, a possible combination of smoke inhalation and the mallet blow.

Smallwood spent Thursday visiting with family members and friends. At noon, he ate a meal of two pizzas, strawberry ice cream and a basket of strawberries.

Terri Frederick said she hoped Smallwood's execution would relieve some of the pain she has felt since Feb. 5, 1992.

``I hope it finally brings peace to me and I can put this somewhere in my life where I can deal with it and go on,'' she said.