He's the Oldest Inmate Ever Executed in Florida

Florida put to death the oldest inmate in its history on Tuesday, a 74-year-old convicted murderer who was one of three older inmates scheduled for execution within the span of a month in the nation's busiest death penalty state. Dennis Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16pm following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said. He was convicted of killing a woman on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours after meeting her at a New Year's Eve party.

• Alex Lanfranconi, a spokesman for the governor, said the execution was carried out without complications and that Sochor issued an apology in his final words, saying he was "deeply sorry" for his actions, the AP reports.

• According to court records, 18-year-old Patricia Gifford was celebrating the upcoming New Year with a friend at a Fort Lauderdale area bar when they met Sochor and his brother in the waning hours of 1981. The four spent several hours talking, but after the friend became ill and went to sleep in her car, Gifford left with Sochor and his brother to get breakfast. But instead of going for food, Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded area and attacked Gifford when she refused to have sex with him, according to investigators.
• Prosecutors said Sochor raped and killed Gifford by the side of a deserted road. Her body was never found. "He just dumped her out there like trash," lead prosecutor Kelly Hancock tells the Miami Herald.
• Sochor was later arrested in Georgia in 1986 on unrelated charges and extradited to Florida. Sochor's brother told police that Sochor was responsible for Gifford's disappearance, and Sochor himself confessed on tape to choking Gifford and disposing of her body. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in 1987, and he was sentenced to death. On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court rejected Sochor's last request to intervene.
• On June 25, Florida executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer for the killing of his wife Karen. Until Tuesday, Spencer was the oldest inmate executed in Florida. Sochor was a week older at the time of his execution. Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is scheduled to be executed July 28 for the killings of his ex-girlfriend's parents.