Termane Wood also known as Tremane Wood was sentenced to death by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of Ronnie Wipf
According to court documents Termane Wood and his brother along with their girlfriends planned a robbery at a nearby hotel. The girlfriends poising as hooker would lure Ronnie Wipf and another man to a hotel room. Soon after the Wood brothers would burst through the door killing Ronnie Wipf and injuring the other man
Termane Wood would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Update – Tremane Wood death sentence was commuted to life in prison on November 13 2025
Termane Wood Photos
Termane Wood Now
Gender: Male
Race: Black
Height: 6 ft 0 in
Weight: 176 lbs
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Alias: T-Locc Wood
Alias: Tremane L. Wood
OK DOC#: 271967
Birth Date: 10/9/1979
Current Facility: OKLAHOMA STATE PENITENTIARY, MCALE
Reception Date: 5/17/2004
Termane Wood Case
On New Years Eve 2001, Ronnie Wipf and Arnold Kleinsasser went to the Bricktown Brewery in Oklahoma City where Zjaiton, Tremane, Lanita and Brandy were celebrating. Near closing time, Wipf and Kleinsasser met Lanita and Brandy believing they were two ordinary girls celebrating the new year together. Lanita and Brandy agreed to accompany Wipf and Kleinsasser to a motel on the pretext of continuing to celebrate the new year. Brandy, Lanita, Tremane, and Zjaiton then made a plan whereby the women would pretend to be prostitutes and the brothers Wood would arrive at the motel later and rob Wipf and Kleinsasser.
¶ 4 Once in their room at a Ramada Inn, Lanita made a telephone call to Zjaiton to let him know where they were, ending her conversation by saying, “Mom, I love you” so the victims would not be suspicious. The call to “Mom” was followed by some general conversation among the four which included a discussion of what each did for a living. Lanita told Kleinsasser that “this” is what she did and he realized that she meant she earned her living by having sex with men. That revelation was followed by a negotiation whereby the two women agreed to have sex with Wipf and Kleinsasser for $210.00. Since neither man had that much money, Brandy drove Kleinsasser to a nearby ATM. He gave her the money he withdrew and they returned to the room
Back at the motel, the women went into the bathroom together, and shortly after, someone pounded on the door and called out, “Brandy, are you in there? Brandy, are you ready to go home?” Wipf refused to open the door and urgently told Kleinsasser to call the police. Before he could reach the phone, Lanita picked it up and pretended to call the police. Since it was now clear that the women were not going to have sex with them, Wipf demanded the return of their money. After a brief period of pandemonium in the room, Wipf opened the door and the women ran out. Recognizing a white car as the one Zjaiton and Tremane were driving, they got in and waited. Meanwhile, two masked men rushed into the motel room, a larger man, subsequently identified as Zjaiton Wood, holding a gun and a smaller man, subsequently identified as Tremane Wood, brandishing a knife.6 Zjaiton pointed the gun at Kleinsasser’s head and demanded money. Kleinsasser gave him the rest of the money in his wallet. Zjaiton then joined Tremane in his attack on Wipf. As the three struggled, Kleinsasser heard one of the intruders say, “Just shoot the bastard” and then a gunshot. Tremane then turned his attention to Kleinsasser, demanding more money. Kleinsasser showed him his empty wallet, and Tremane hit him on the head with the knife. Tremane rejoined the struggle with Wipf and the fight moved into the bedroom area. Kleinsasser could see Wipf was bleeding and knew that he was seriously injured. While the two intruders struggled with Wipf, Kleinsasser escaped and sought help from the motel office. Before anyone could unlock the office door and help him, however, Kleinsasser fled to a nearby apartment complex to hide. From his vantage point there, he watched the motel and saw a white car leave the parking lot. He saw people come and go throughout the night, but, with no sense of whom they were, remained in hiding. It was 6:00 a.m. before he returned to the scene of the attack and learned of Wipf’s death from a police detective.
¶ 6 The medical examiner concluded that Wipf died as the result of a stab wound to the chest. There was no evidence he had sustained any kind of gunshot wound. Surveillance videotape from the motel’s camera showed Brandy and Lanita renting the room with Wipf and Kleinsasser. The motel’s phone records showed that three calls were made from the room to Zjaiton’s pager and one to the house where Tremane lived. Surveillance videotape from a local Wal-Mart showed Brandy, Lanita, Zjaiton, and Tremane buying ski masks and gloves earlier in the evening.7 As part of her plea bargain, Brandy testified against Tremane detailing the events of the evening from buying the masks and gloves through their actions the morning after the murder
Zjaiton testified for the defense, against the advice of counsel. He said that it was he who stabbed Wipf, aided in the crime by a man named Alex. Zjaiton claimed that he took the knife from Alex and stabbed Wipf with it. He testified that Tremane was not involved in the crime.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ok-court-of-criminal-appeals/1417542.html
Tremane Wood Death Sentence Commuted
Tremane Wood, the 46-year-old death row inmate who faced execution on Thursday in Oklahoma, has had his life spared just minutes before he was set to receive a lethal injection.
Kevin Stitt, the state’s Republican governor, accepted the Oklahoma pardon and parole board’s recommendation that Wood’s sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. It is just the second time during Stitt’s nearly seven years as governor that he has granted clemency.
Earlier in the day, the US supreme court issued a ruling denying a request from Wood’s attorneys to stop the execution.
Wood was convicted of felony murder in the stabbing death of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Montana, during a botched robbery in 2002. Wood’s attorneys have not denied that he participated in the robbery but maintain that his brother, Zjaiton (“Jake”) Wood, was the one who stabbed Wipf.
Zjaiton Wood was sentenced to life without parole and died by suicide in prison in 2019 after admitting in court that he killed Wipf, said Tremane Wood’s attorney, Amanda Bass Castro Alves.
In issuing the pardon, Stitt said in a statement: “This action reflects the same punishment his brother received for their murder of an innocent young man and ensures a severe punishment that keeps a violent offender off the streets forever.”
Wood has been imprisoned at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester for more than 20 years. The state’s pardon and parole board issued an uncommon clemency recommendation last week.
I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer,” Wood told the hearing via a video link from prison. “I never was, and I never have been.”
Wood’s attorneys had argued, among other things, that trial prosecutors did not properly reveal details of a plea agreement with a key witness.
Prosecutors have painted Wood as a dangerous criminal who has continued to participate in gang activity and commit crimes while incarcerated, including buying and selling drugs, using contraband cellphones and ordering an attack on another person in the prison.
“Even within the confines of maximum security prison, Tremane Wood has continued to manipulate, exploit and harm others,” the state’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, said earlier.
Wood’s son, Brendan Wood, spoke to the Guardian just outside the prison later on Thursday morning, having moments before been on the premises waiting to witness his father’s execution. He said he felt “very joyous”.
“I feel lighter. I feel like a thousand pounds has been lifted off my shoulders”, Brendon Wood added.
He called the fact that the clemency was not granted until the minute that his father was about to be put to death “mental torture”.
Brendon Wood said: “I think there needs to be possibly some precaution in place maybe even a bill that prevents last-second decisions like this … I believe that a person wholeheartedly thinking that they are about to take their last breath, and its coming down to seconds, minutes before the decision is made … I find that to be mental torture, I don’t find that to be humane.”
He added: “I think it is cruel and inhumane, mental torture because at that point they are trying to find their peace and find a place where they aren’t going to go out in anguish.”
Oklahoma inmate’s life spared moments before scheduled lethal injection | Oklahoma | The Guardian
