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Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant Wednesday for Dennis Michael Sochor, who was convicted of strangling an 18-year-old woman he met at a New Year’s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago.
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’ A year after teacher, 1-year-old son killed on Baymeadows Road, Florida Legislature funds $972K in safety upgradesFILE - Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla. , Aug. 3, 2023. – Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant Wednesday for Dennis Michael Sochor, who was convicted of strangling an 18-year-old woman he met at a New Year’s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago.
Sochor, 74, is scheduled to die by lethal injection July 14 at Florida State Prison in Stark, according to the warrant. The window to carry out the sentence runs from noon, July 14 through noon, July 21. Lukehart was the eighth execution carried out this year by the state, which set a modern era record with 19 in 2025.
According to court documents, Patricia Gifford went to the Banana Boat with a friend to celebrate New Year’s Eve 1981, where they met Dennis Sochor and his brother Gary Sochor. The friend was escorted to a car in the parking lot, where she fell asleep. Gifford left with the brothers in Dennis Sochor’s work truck, intending to get breakfast. Instead, Dennis Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded spot and took Gifford out of the vehicle.
Sochor confessed that when Gifford refused to have sex with him, he became angry, choked her until she died, and disposed of her body, which was never found, records state. Sochor told police his brother wasn’t with him at the time. A photo of Gifford at the New Year’s celebration with an unknown man was shown on the news and Sochor’s roommates testified that he left after seeing the photo.
Sochor wasn’t arrested until 1986, when he was stopped for running a red light in DeKalb County, Georgia. Prior to the murder, Sochor was sentenced to a year in jail and five years’ probation for the abduction and rape of an Oakland Park woman in 1980. He told police he abandoned his employer’s truck in Tampa before going to New Orleans and later Atlanta.
Convicted of first-degree murder after three confessions by Sochor were played to the jury, he was sentenced to death on Nov. 2, 1987. Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, is scheduled to die by lethal injection June 25 for murdering his wife 34 years ago in Orange County. Jim is a Capitol reporter for the News Service of Florida, providing coverage on issues ranging from transportation and the environment to Legislative and Cabinet politics. A pawfect match.
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