STARKE, Fla. — Florida put to death one of its oldest prisoners 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 6:16 p.m. 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.

Another 74-year-old inmate just a week younger than Sochor at the time of execution was put to death late last month. And later this month, the state is preparing to execute an 80-year-old, the state’s first octogenarian scheduled to receive a lethal injection.

The execution plans highlight the aging death row population in the U.S. and the busy death chamber in Florida, which has now carried out 10 executions this year — more than every other state combined.

It’s unclear why Florida scheduled the executions of the three prisoners consecutively.

Maria DeLiberato, legal director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, noted that in Florida the governor has practically sole discretion when it comes to scheduling executions. In many other death penalty states, the scheduling is up to the courts.

DeSantis did not respond to an email prior to Tuesday’s lethal injection seeking comment about the executions.

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.

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, which was never found. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in 1987, and he was sentenced to death.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Sochor’s last request to intervene.

And last week, the state Supreme Court denied Sochor’s appeals. His attorneys had argued that the state violated his right to a fair trial by failing to disclose a 2022 letter sent to Sochor’s brother from a South Florida detective asking for information about the location of Gifford’s body. The attorneys also claimed that the execution drugs wouldn’t effectively keep Sochor sedated.

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.

According to Florida Department of Corrections records, the oldest inmates executed by the state before Spencer were both 72: Samuel Lee Smithers on Oct. 14, 2025, for the 1996 killings of two women and R. Charlie Gifford on Feb. 21, 1951, for the 1950 shooting of a state representative, Charles Schuh Jr.

Meanwhile, Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is scheduled to be executed July 28 for the killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents.

He would become the second oldest prisoner known to be put to death in modern U.S. history after 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr. Moody was executed in Alabama in 2018 for killing a federal judge and a Black civil rights attorney during a wave of Southern mail bombs.

A total of 16 executions have been carried out this year in the U.S., with Florida, so far, carrying out more than all other states combined.

Florida carried out a record 19 executions in 2025. DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was eight executions set in 2014.

Kangaroos, monkeys, giant lizards, snakes and a 2,000-pound white rhinoceros are among more than 140 animals that escaped from captivity in Florida since 2022, according to state wildlife records obtained by News4JAX sister station WKMG in Orlando.

The escaped animals, which include some exotic and non-native species that require a state license to possess, slipped away from enclosures located in homes, businesses, wildlife sanctuaries and accredited zoos.

One notable case includes a white rhinoceros at Wild Florida in Osceola County in 2022. The rhino was supposed to be part of a new exhibit at the park, but it escaped its enclosure and, in the end, was killed.

The USDA determined the park violated the federal Animal Welfare Act in that case.

Another case involved a kangaroo in Volusia County that escaped its enclosure after a bear damaged it in 2024. The kangaroo was eventually found and the owner was fined.

Several escapes have been reported at the Jacksonville Zoo & Botanical Gardens since 2022, but in each case, the critters were recaptured by zoo staff and no injuries were reported.

In one case at the zoo, during an education program on April 1, 2022, a cane toad kept in a small container was left on a wagon in a portable classroom while everyone went outside for the outdoor segment.

Video security footage later showed the cane toad hopping out of its container and then heading out a door that was left ajar. Staff set traps near the portables and searched for days before recapturing the cane toad on April 18, 2022.

Only certain species of captive animals must be reported to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission when they escape. The state agency believes those escapes are under-reported due to the owners’ apprehension and fear of enforcement action.

INTERACTIVE MAP: Tracking animal escapes around Central Florida

According to FWC records obtained and compiled by WKMG investigative reporter Mike DeForest, escaped animals in the Northeast Florida area since 2022 include:

• Striped Skunk — High Springs (Alachua County), Feb. 2022; captured by neighbor and returned to owner

• White-faced capuchins (3) — Gainesville (Alachua County), March 2022; ​two of the monkeys never left the property of Koreymonde Capuchin Rescue and were recaptured quickly. The third monkey was caught by a neighbor luring it into vehicle where it was contained.

• Cane Toad — Jacksonville (Duval County), April 2022; a cane toad used in education programs at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens escaped from a small container that was placed in a wagon in the classroom when everyone went outside for the outdoor segment of the program; video security footage shows the cane toad hopping out of its container and then heading out a door that was left ajar; later recaptured by zoo staff

• Wild Turkey — Jacksonville (Duval County), October 2022; two turkeys in the Wild Florida exhibit at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens escaped; one went back in immediately and the other jumped out and ran down the tracks toward the bald eagle exhibit. Staff netted the turkey behind the scenes between the bald eagle and whooping crane exhibit

• Fox — Lake City (Columbia County), January 2023; remains loose; owner issued written warning

• Raccoons (2) — Hilliard (Nassau County), March 2023; 2 disabled raccoons escaped and are presumed dead

• Axis Deer — Robert’s Ranch BHP (Putnam County), April 2023; recaptured by owner, who received written warning

• Capybara — (Duval County), March 2024; recaptured by owner

• Chinese Alligator — St. Augustine (St. Johns County), April 2024; escaped at St. Augustine Alligator Farm; recaptured by staff

• Fennec Fox — Yulee (Nassau County), Aug. 2024; recaptured by owner, who received written warning

• Capuchins (2) — Gainesville (Alachua County), Oct. 2024; escaped from Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary; recaptured by staff

• Warthog — Jacksonville (Duval County), Dec. 2024; escaped at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens; recaptured by staff

• Red Fox — Jacksonville (Duval County), March 2025; fox escaped from owner, killed by car

• Ring-tailed Lemur — Jacksonville (Duval County), April 2025; escaped from same owner as red fox above; recaptured by owner, who received a written warning

• Blackbuck — Gainesville (Alachua County), April 2025; escaped and was killed on a road

• Boa constrictor — Yulee (Nassau County), June 2025; escaped and was recaptured by unpermitted owner, who received written warning

• Beaded lizard — Gainesville (Alachua County), June 2025; escaped and was recaptured by owner, who received written warning

• Black throat monitor — Jacksonville (Duval County), July 2025; escaped unpermitted owner and remains on the loose; written warning issued/misdemeanor pending

• Rhino Iguana — Gainesville (Alachua County), Aug. 2025; escaped and was recaptured by owner

• Wattled Crane — Jacksonville (Duval County), Aug. 2025; escaped at Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens before being recaptured

BOCA RATON, Fla. — There are only two facilities in the entire world that study leatherback turtle hatchlings, and South Florida is home to one of them.

Inside, there are pools upon pools upon pools, all filled with newborn sea turtles.

The team at the Florida Atlantic University Marine Science Lab in Boca Raton provides groundbreaking research in understanding how turtles live and survive in the ocean.

“We bring in different species of sea turtles, the loggerheads, the greens and the leatherbacks and we raise them usually anywhere from two to six months,” said lab coordinator Emila Turla.

Director Jeanette Wyneken has been studying these reptiles for 24 years.

“We need to know what characteristics the population of turtles have that may be advantageous for species recovery, they are all either threatened or endangered,” she said. “One of the things we never knew was that this species of turtle dives down pretty far, at least at this age, we know the big ones do but we didn’t know the little guys are going down.”

Experts say the mysterious leatherbacks spend 70% of their lives in deep water.

The research facility is using satellite tagging to answer questions about the turtles that have never been known, until now.

“One of our turtles went down to 330 feet on one breath, one little baby leatherback turtle,” said Turia. “And the turtles are typically going to about 230 feet deep.”

But it’s what is happening in the nests on the beach that has these scientists focusing on the vulnerable leatherbacks that have declined by 90%,

David Anderson works in tandem with the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex on one very important study.

“My team and I survey all five miles of Boca Raton beaches for all the sea turtle nesting activity,” he said. “The sex ratio study, to determine how many hatchlings are male and how many hatchlings are female from that particular nest, because they are temperature dependent to be male or female.”

Meaning if its cool in the sandy nests, the leatherbacks will be male, and if those nests are hot then the turtles will be female.

Tje team’s research over decades shows the heat is producing way too many females and not nearly enough males.

“We know in general its hot chicks cool dudes, but the hot part up here, that’s easy, it’s too hot to make anything but girls,” said Wyneken. “If it gets too much hotter they’re just dead so that’s too hot to hatch.”

Climate change, a hotter planet, warming oceans, all of these symptoms are capable of wiping out the sensitive sea turtle population, but this turtle nesting season has seen a whopping 41 leatherback nests on Boca Raton beaches so far, which is double the annual average.

“Just because there’s a lot of nest numbers doesn’t mean everything’s great, because the hatchlings still have a tremendous struggle to survive to adulthood, which would take them 20-25 years to do so,” said Anderson.

Only one in one thousand hatchlings will even survive, and this summer season has seen record breaking heat.

Hatchlings also get confused by light pollution and piles of seaweed that trump the feverish work of tiny flippers.

After the turtles grow to the size of a human hand, they take a boat ride offshore to be released into the gulf stream.

Some will be equipped with satellite tags to continue the search for answers to help understand how to help in the sea turtle species survival.

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