The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday, September 22, 2021, again upheld the death sentence of Robert Anthony Flor, convicted of killing Newtown Borough Police Officer Brian Gregg in 2005.
On Sept. 29. 2005, Flor was taken into custody for suspected drunk driving and was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital for blood-alcohol testing. There, Flor took a police officer’s weapon and started firing, killing Gregg, and wounding officer James Warunek and hospital employee Joseph Epp.
Credit: Bucks Co DA’s Office
Gregg was 46 years old and had been a full-time officer for the borough for nearly a year after previously working there as a part-time officer. Flor pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and nolo contendre to 39 other counts, including attempted murder, aggravated assault, and robbery. A jury unanimously voted to impose the death penalty in 2006 for the first-degree murder of Officer Gregg.
That sentence was affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2010.
Flor then filed a petition under the Post Conviction Relief Act. His primary claim was that he is intellectually disabled and therefore legally ineligible for the death penalty. After numerous hearings over the course of several years, Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Alan M. Rubenstein rejected Flor’s claim of intellectual disability and denied his petition in 2018.
Flor, 54, appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and today, a majority of the Court affirmed Judge Rubenstein’s decision and agreed that Flor was not intellectually disabled.
“Robert Flor was convicted of killing police officer Brian Gregg, shooting police officer James Warunek, and shooting hospital employee Joseph Epp in 2006 and has been trying to get off of death row ever since,” District Attorney Matt Weintraub said. “All he offers are excuses. We will meet him at every attempt he makes to evade his death sentence, which he earned.”
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