A man, aged 74, is slated to become the oldest prisoner to face execution in Florida’s records.
Dennis Sochor was convicted of kidnapping and first-degree murder when 18-year-old Patricia Gifford rejected his advances on January 1, 1982. He’s been on death row since the 1980s and now, following a denial from the Supreme Court on his appeal, is scheduled for execution this Tuesday.
The execution is set to be carried out using a tri-drug protocol, beginning at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison, located in Bradford County.
According to Fox 13, Sochor encountered Gifford at a bar where she was celebrating New Year’s Day in the Fort Lauderdale area, with his brother accompanying him.
74-year-old Dennis Sochor was found guilty of murdering an 18-year-old woman during the 1980s. (Florida Department of Corrections.)
The group talked through the night but Gifford left with Sochor and his brother to get breakfast. Sochor drove his truck to a secluded area and asked Gifford if she wanted to have sex, to which she refused. Sochor then attacked the then-teenager, according to investigators.
Sochor was arrested in 1986 on unrelated charges and extradited to Florida, where he confessed to choking Gifford and disposing of her body.
Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla., Aug. 3, 2023. (AP)
His brother told authorities that Sochor was responsible for Gifford’s disappearance, with her body never being found.
Photo of the view from outside an execution chamber in Florida (Courtesy, Florida Department of Corrections)
In 1987, a jury convicted Sochor of first-degree murder and kidnapping, and was sentenced to death.
While Sochor will be the oldest inmate in Florida who has been executed, an 80-year-old prisoner is scheduled to be executed later in July.