Cop Killer’s Execution Gets Postponed

If it wasn’t for appeals, convicted cop killer Robert Anthony Flor would be dead.

The 47-year-old former Bedminster resident and Falls Township native was set to be executed on Thursday, but his death was postponed due to court hearings he is still awaiting. 

Flor is next set to be in Bucks County courts in the coming weeks for a Post Conviction Relief Act hearing. In short, Flor will make the case that he was wrongfully convicted and/or sentenced.

Gov. Tom Corbett signed a warrant of execution for Flor in early October. The execution for Flor was set for December 4,

Flor shot Newtown Borough police officer Brian S. Gregg dead in 2005 while at St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown. Flor took the gun from Newtown patrolman James Warunek. Gregg, Warunek and hospital employee Joseph Epp were all shot. A large manhunt ensued after and Flor was found hiding in a car on the hospital grounds. Flor was transported to the hospital following his arrest for DUI and punching his girlfriend.

Flor, a Falls Township native, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in October 2006 and also entered pleas of nolo contendere to attempted murder in the shootings Warunek and Epp, as well as to robbery and all other remaining counts.

Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said Thursday afternoon that he was surprised when he heard the governor signed Flor’s warrant in early fall. Heckler said Flor still had court actions that Flor was set to have as part of the appeal process.

The 47 -year-old has been in Bucks County court numerous times since his 2006 guilty plea to try to fight his death sentence. Flor’s attorneys have sought to have his death sentence overturned because they say he is intellectually disabled. A Supreme Court ruling found that intellectually disabled people could not be executed.

When the fatal shooting happened, Flor was revealed to have had several run-ins with Falls and Middletown police.

Gregg, who was born in Bristol Borough and raised in Levittown, was just days shy of his two-year anniversary on the small Newtown police force. Prior to becoming a police officer, he was employed as a carpenter.

Flor is one of five people on death row for crimes committed in Bucks County. The others are: Frank Chester (1989), Robert Diamond (2009), Richard Laird (1989), and Alfonso Sanchez  (2008).

Bucks County prosecutors are currently seeking the death penalty against Bristol Township resident Marcel Johnson, who is accused of killing Ebony Talley and her 4-year-old daughter in 2013.