George Pfeill
Facts of Crime: Sims was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of George Pfeill, a retired New York City police officer who was working as a volunteer Seminole County Deputy Sheriff. On December 29, 1977, Pfeil was in uniform and on his way home when he entered the pharmacy on State Road 434 to pick up a prescription. Inside, Sims and Curtis Baldree were robbing the store while accomplices B.B. Halsell and Clarence Eugene Robinson waited in a getaway car. Pfeil exchanged gunfire with Sims and was shot twice. He died a short time later. Sims, who was shot in the hip, was not arrested until June 1978, after an attempted armed robbery in California. Baldree and Halsell testified against Sims during his 1979 trial and said he bragged that he "killed a cop with one shot." Robinson, who was indicted in absentia for murder in the pharmacy shooting, remained at large until June 1983 when he surrendered after being charged with shooting two FBI agents in Volusia County.
Victim: George Pfeill
Time of Death: 7:10 a.m.
Manner of execution: Lethal Injection (first in Florida)
Last Meal: grouper, french fries, chef's salad, Boston cream pie and Coca-Cola, shared with guards and Anthony B. Bryan who was executed the next day.
Final Statement: "I'm not guilty of this charge of murder. I stand before my God."
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