Norman Grim, who in 1998 ruthlessly killed attorney Cynthia Campbell by beating and stabbing her during the commission of a sexual assault, was executed Oct. 28.
Grim previously waived any effort to fight his death sentence and became the 15th person in Florida to be put to death this year.
Other than a smattering of protesters outside Florida State Prison in Raiford—which is typical of state executions—Grim’s death penalty was carried out with little fuss or complication.
During a press conference outside the prison before the execution, Florida Department of Corrections Director of Communications Ted Veerman said Grim got up at 6 a.m. and had been “compliant” throughout the day.
He ate a last meal of fried pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, Brussels sprouts, a chocolate milk shake, banana cream pie and a soda, according to Veerman.
Once in the execution chamber, Grim was asked if he had any last words and simply replied, “No sir.” He was officially pronounced deceased at 6:14 p.m. EST.
Why was Norman Grim executed?
Grim and Campbell who were next door neighbors, were together at Campbell’s residence in the 5200 block of Nimitz Road in the early morning hours of July 27, 1998, when law enforcement officers, summoned to investigate a broken window complaint, arrived on the scene.
Grim claimed to have discovered the possible act of vandalism.
Officers took note of the fact that Grim had offered for Campbell to join him at his house after police completed their work and she had accepted. Investigators left the scene around 5:51 a.m.
At around 7:20 a.m., an employee of Campbell’s law office stopped by to drop off some paperwork and discovered she was not at home despite her car being there, her front door open and her lights on. After calling for Campbell multiple times, the associate 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 her car still there, her keys and dog inside but Campbell still nowhere to be found.
Officers returned to the scene, questioned Grim and conducted a search his home. They reported finding “no signs of a struggle or bloodshed in the house.”
With officers still on scene around 11 a.m. Grim requested to go out to retrieve his dogs, who had left the residence during the commotion. An officer attempted to follow Grim, but Grim managed to elude the surveillance effort.
Around 1 p.m. a former coworker saw 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 of his car 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.
When authorities recovered Campbell’s body, they found it wrapped in “layers of material,” that included garbage bags, a floral sheet, a striped flat sheet, a striped fitted sheet, a piece of green carpet, court documents said. Masking tape and rope had been used to bind the assorted coverings.
An autopsy would later reveal Campbell had been struck at least 18 times in the head and suffered at least 11 stab wounds to the chest, seven of which penetrated her heart.
Grim was arrested four days after the body was found in Garber, Oklahoma, by investigators acting on a tip that he had family in the state.
The autopsy conducted on Campbell also revealed injuries consistent with sexual battery.
Prior to the 1998 homicide Grim, with a long history of criminal activity, had been implicated in three failed violent assaults on women in the Pensacola area, including one on a 14-year-old girl walking to school who was rescued by a security guard.
Upon discovery of the body, investigators obtained a warrant to search Grim’s home.
They found two still damp, blood smeared mops in the kitchen and located several bloodied articles of clothing. A box of trash bags bore “bloody fingerprints.”
A poorly hidden cooler located outside the home contained 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.
On Aug. 26, 1998, an indictment was handed down 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. He was put on trial in October of 2000, and a jury returned a verdict of guilty on charges of first degree murder and sexual assault Nov. 1, 2000.
A penalty hearing was conducted before the same jury the day after the verdict was reached. Members recommended death by a 12-0 vote.
Barring some unforeseen circumstance, Grim will be put to death by lethal injection at 6 p.m., Oct. 28, at the Florida State Prison in Raiford.
Grim was sentenced to death in 2000 by unanimous jury vote. Prosecutors seeking his execution had argued he “sexually assaulted and beat and stabbed his next-door neighbor to death with a claw hammer and a knife.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant in late September and, at an Oct. 1 hearing in Santa Rosa County, Grim, now 65, waived all efforts to halt imposition of the sentence.
DeSantis, who this year has broken all previous records for death warrants signed, has laid the groundwork for two more men to be executed this year. Brian Jennings, convicted of kidnapping, rape and murder, will be executed Nov. 13 and Richard Barry Randolph, convicted of rape and murder, on Nov. 20.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Norman Grim, convicted of brutal East Milton murder, put to death
Reporting by Tom McLaughlin, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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