Norman Mearle Grim Jr., a former Santa Rosa County resident who was convicted of the brutal murder and sexual battery of his neighbor, has been scheduled for execution Oct. 28.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Grim’s death warrant last week, putting Florida on track for a modern record of 15 executions this year.
Grim, 65, landed on death row for the July 27, 1998, murder of Cynthia Campbell, an attorney who lived next door to Grim in East Milton.
“The murder itself was brutal and merciless,” the Office of the Attorney General wrote in a court filing making the case for Grim’s execution. “Grim sexually assaulted and beat and stabbed his next-door neighbor to death with a claw hammer and a knife.”
Grim killed Campbell in his home in the morning, and her body was recovered from Pensacola Bay later that afternoon wrapped in trash bags, bedding and tape.
Here’s what to know about the case.
Who is Norman Grim?
In arguing that the death penalty was justified in the case, the Office of the Attorney General wrote of Grim, “He has had some problems, but he enjoyed a largely normal childhood (albeit one that was marred by divorce), was able to work, and is of normal intelligence.”
Born in 1960, Grim joined the Navy after high school but was kicked out after getting into some undisclosed form of “trouble,” his family members said in depositions.
Afterward, he moved back in with his mother and stepfather and attended Pensacola Junior College (now Pensacola State College), but soon ran afoul of the law.
In 1983 he was sentenced for a string of criminal offenses in Escambia County including unarmed robbery, armed burglary, kidnapping and aggravated battery.
Florida Department of Corrections records indicate he was released from state prison in 1990.
According to his family’s depositions, after his release from state prison Grim moved to Texas to find work, but was incarcerated there after robbing a store. He spent more time in prison before being paroled, having his parole transferred to Florida and moving back home again.
After returning to the area, Grim reportedly worked in the fabrication department of a local manufacturing company for four years and was a “good, productive worker.”
He married in 1997 and moved to a home in Milton, but divorced soon after. Campbell was his neighbor at the new residence.
Norman Grim and the timeline of Cynthia Campbell’s murder
Around 5 a.m., July 27, 1998, law enforcement officers responded to Campbell’s residence in the 5200 block of Nimitz Road after receiving a report someone had broken her window, according to court records.
Both she and Grim were present when officers arrived, and Grim said he had initially noticed the broken window. Officers said Grim invited Campbell over to his place for coffee after she was done making her report to the police, and she accepted. Officers left around 5:51 a.m.
Around 7:20 a.m., an employee of Campbell’s law office stopped by to drop off some paperwork and found Campbell’s car was there, her front door was open, her lights were on, but Campbell was not at home. After calling for Campbell multiple times, she dropped off the paperwork and left.
When Campbell did not show up for work, another employee went by her home around 9 a.m., and found the car was there, her keys and dog were inside, but Campbell was still nowhere to be found.
Officers returned to the scene, questioned Grim and searched his home and saw “no signs of a struggle or bloodshed in the house.” Sometime after 11 a.m., with officers still investigating his property, Grim asked for permission to go retrieve his dogs, which had gotten loose.
With permission and with an officer following him, he left the scene in his vehicle. He did stop get the dogs from a nearby park, but instead of returning home he went to a nearby convenience store, then continued driving around Pensacola making numerous turns, eventually managing to lose the officer who was tailing him.
Around 1 p.m. a former coworker noticed Grim walking alongside his parked car on the Pensacola-side of the fishing pier near the Pensacola Bay Bridge. The trunk of the car and the doors were open.
Between 3-3:30 p.m., a man fishing on the pier hooked a human body wrapped in a sheet, plastic bag and masking tape. The body was later identified as Campbell’s.
Grim was arrested four days later in Garber, Oklahoma, after investigators got a tip he had relatives in the state.
DNA evidence connects Norman Grim to grisly murder
An autopsy revealed Campbell had suffered at least 18 blunt force injuries to the head, at least 11 stab wounds to the chest—seven of which penetrated her heart—and injuries consistent with sexual battery.
Her body had been wrapped in “layers of material,” including garbage bags, a floral sheet, a striped flat sheet, a striped fitted sheet, a piece of green carpet, masking tape and rope, according to court documents.
Investigators obtained a warrant to search Grim’s home after Campbell’s body was located.
They found two mops in the kitchen that were still damp and had suspected spots of blood. They also found several articles of clothing with suspected blood on them and a box of trash bags with “bloody fingerprints.” In a cooler partially hidden outside they found a bloody steak knife, a hammer, masking tape, a pair of eye glasses and other items.
DNA tests of blood found in the home, as well as in the trunk of Grim’s car, were a match for Campbell. Bedding, ropes and a rug in the home also matched up with the materials Campbell was wrapped in.
A two-count indictment was returned on Aug. 26, 1998, charging Grim with first-degree murder and sexual battery. The state filed its notice of intent to seek the death penalty on Oct. 5, 1998. The trial began in late October 2000, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty on both counts on Nov. 1, 2000.
A penalty hearing was conducted before the jury on Nov. 2, 2000. Grim presented no mitigating evidence, and the jury recommended death by a 12-0 vote.
Norman Grim had prior violent criminal history
Prior to Campbell’s murder, Grim had been convicted of multiple violent crimes, according to court documents.
A Pensacola police officer who had arrested Grim on Sept. 9, 1982, testified that a woman reported that, as she was walking to work, a man got out of his car and grabbed her. She fought with him as he tried to choke her; she broke loose and ran, but he chased her down and began choking her again.
The man pulled her into a car, telling her that if she did not stop screaming, hewould kill her. However, when she told him that her purse was still lying on the ground and that if he killed her it would be evidence, the man got out of the car to retrieve the purse. When he did, she drove off. The man was later identified as Grim.
In another incident occurring in the same area, a man standing in his own bathroom looked in his bathroom mirror and saw a man standing behind him. He chased the man out of the house and called the police. He then heard a scream from the house next door.
A woman living next door was awakened by her lights flickering on and off, and she saw a man with a knife walking towards her. She fought him off, getting cut in the chin in the process, but broke free and ran out of the room screaming. Her brother, who had been sleeping on the couch, awakened and chased the intruder out of the house.
In yet another incident, Grim accosted a 14-year-old girl as she walked to class and dragged her into a wooded area near her school. She screamed, attracting the attention of a security guard, who chased Grim away. The victim’s earrings had been torn from her ears, and she was cut on her hands and elbows during the attack.
When Grim was arrested for these offenses, he was in possession of two firearms and 35 rounds of ammunition stolen in a residential burglary.
Grim still was on parole for a conviction in Texas when he murdered Cynthia Campbell.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Norman Grim set for execution in ‘brutal,’ ‘merciless’ East Milton murder. Who is he?
Reporting by Kevin Robinson, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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