Nocatee, Florida — Florida executed 74-year-old Dennis Sochor on Tuesday for the 1985 kidnapping and murder of Patty Gifford, making him the oldest inmate the state has put to death in the modern era.
Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, the state Department of Corrections said. He had been on death row since the 1980s.
A jury convicted Sochor of first-degree murder and kidnapping in 1987. According to court records, he confessed on tape to choking Gifford and disposing of her body after meeting her at a Fort Lauderdale-area bar. Her body was never recovered.
> He had 45 years to return Patty's remains to us, but he cruelly chose not to.
Gifford's sister, who read a statement to reporters, said the execution was appropriate because Sochor had been a lifelong brutal and sadistic man. The remarks were relayed by The Associated Press.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Sochor's final appeal without comment. It was unclear why Florida scheduled the executions of several prisoners consecutively.
