Oct. 28 (UPI) — Norman Grim Jr. died via lethal injection at 6:14 p.m. EDT on Tuesday as Florida set a record with its 15th execution so far in 2025 while carrying out Grim’s sentence.
Grim, 65, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of a 1998 sexual battery and first-degree murder of his neighbor, Cynthia Campbell, CBS News reported.
Campbell, 41, was an attorney and was reported missing in July 1998 before a fisherman found her body in the waters near the Pensacola Bay Bridge.
An autopsy showed she died from 11 stab wounds in her chest and several blunt-force wounds to her head and face that likely were caused by a hammer.
Grim had invited Campbell to his home for coffee on the morning of July 27, 1998, after she reported a broken window at her home, according to USA Today.
A responding deputy found Grim outside her home, but he said he was investigating a barking dog, the Pensacola New Journal reported in 1998.
The deputy witnessed Grim repeatedly inviting Campbell to his home for coffee, which the deputy encouraged her to do.
After Campbell accepted and entered Grim’s home, he attacked her with a knife and a hammer, raped her and then killed her.
Court records show she suffered 18 blows and was stabbed 11 times, mostly in her heart.
Grim wrapped her body in sheets and a carpet, which he dumped in Pensacola Bay, and a fisherman found her body two hours later.
Police interviewed Grim after her body was discovered, but they had no probable cause to arrest him, and he fled the state.
A manhunt ensued over the next four days, and Grim was arrested at a relative’s home in Oklahoma.
DNA and other evidence directly tied Grim to the murder, resulting in his conviction and death sentence in December 2000.
Sixteen years before raping and killing Campbell, a jury convicted Grim of kidnapping a woman early in the morning, but she managed to escape and drove off in his vehicle.
That same day, he broke into two homes and injured a woman before being chased off by others, and then he unsuccessfully tried to kidnap a 14-year-old girl.
He eventually was caught, tried and served nine years in prison for those crimes.
Grim also was on parole for a subsequent burglary conviction when he raped and murdered Campbell.
Grim’s execution is the 41st in the nation so far this year and nearly doubles Florida’s prior record of eight executions in a year.
Florida is scheduled to execute Bryan Jennings on Nov. 13 for kidnapping, raping and murdering 6-year-old Becky Kunash.
Four other executions are scheduled before the year ends across the United States, which would raise the total number of executions to 46 for the year.
That number would be the most since 2010 but less than half the record 98 executions carried out in 1999.
