Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed the warrant for William Frances Silvia, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife at her mother’s Casselberry-area home in 2006.
Silvia, 61, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on Aug. 18, according to the warrant.
He joins James Aren Duckett, 68, and Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, who are scheduled to be executed on July 28. [The last time Florida executed two inmates on the same day was on May 12, 1964, when Sie Dawson and Emmett Blake were killed by electric chair. The state frequently scheduled double killings before the death penalty was abolished for a little over a decade, and at times executed three people on the same day, as on June 1, 1959, according to state prison records. The three pending executions will bring the total number of people executed on DeSantis’s watch to 40, or 30 percent of all executions since 1976.]
Duckett, a former Mascotte police officer convicted of the 1987 death of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee, is to be executed at noon on that date. The execution for Occhicone is set for 6 p.m.
Occhicone is set to become the oldest person put to death by the state in the modern execution era. He was convicted of killing his former girlfriend’s parents four decades ago in Pasco County.
DeSantis issued a new warrant for Duckett on Tuesday after the Florida Supreme Court stayed the execution pending additional DNA testing.
The window for Silvia’s execution is set from noon Aug. 18 to noon Aug. 25.
In 2008, Silvia was convicted of first-degree murder of Patricia Silvia and given a life sentence for the attempted first-degree murder of her mother, Betty Woodard.
According to court records, on Sept. 22, 2006, Silvia went to Woodard’s home where the family was having a cookout. After attempting to reconcile with Patricia Silvia, he retrieved a Mossberg Persuader 12 gauge shotgun from his truck and shot Woodard in the face and Patricia Silvia in the head.
Patricia Silvia died. Woodard, who was standing in front of her daughter, lost her left eye and the top portion of her nose.
Silvia purchased the shotgun about five hours before the shooting; video of the transaction showed him exhibiting “no bizarre, agitated, frenzied or panicked behavior,” according to the sentencing order. Silvia purchased four boxes of shells from another store.
At Woodard’s home, he fired one shot into the air, then six shots into the carport and house. He returned to his truck and drove away. He was arrested the next day.
Silvia reportedly told an officer driving him to jail that “my wife spent all my money. I placed the checking account in her name. She started re-dating her ex-husband. That is the reason I shot her.”
The jury voted 11-1 to recommend the death penalty.
The warrant for Silvia is the 13th DeSantis has signed this year after a modern era record 19 death row inmates were executed in 2025.
On Tuesday, Florida conducted its 10th execution of the year. Dennis Sochor, 74, was put to death for killing an 18-year-old woman he encountered at a New Year’s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago.
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive
Tom Thomas says
I am guessing you meant to say July 28th cause June 28th passed…
FlaglerLive says
Thank you for the correction.
Atwp says
I don’t understand, if the State knows a person is guilty of murder why take decades and waste our money keeping a murderer alive. I know the death penalty was abolished some time ago but it was reinstated. Don’t understand. A murderer murders a person the State keep the killer in prison for many decades and the family of the victim is grieving the death of their loved ones. They know the State is keeping the killer alive and to make the situation worse their tax dollars are being used to keep the killer alive. A sad situation. Sometimes in the past some States said the death penalty was too cruel, and humane. When the family member was killed I don’t think the killer thought about cruelty or being inhumane. Someone said, and now I believe it, the law is for the criminals and against the victims. I want to say somethings about the Jim Crowe Era, the Slave Era but I’ll leave that alone for another day. I believe the State is saying to killers just kill at will and we will keep most of you alive in prison, we can do little to nothing for the victims families. A very sad situation.
Glenn says
If something like this is going to take place in any state stop allowing it to drag on for many many years. That is what is wrong with our laws sometimes they don’t move fast enough.
Land of no turn signals says says
Nice,next!!!
R.S. says
The death penalty is no penalty at all: it’s a matter of tossing people on the trash heap. What makes us and the killer human is the ability to feel remorse, to forgive, and thereby to change and grow. It’s a crime against our common humanity to toss people on trash heaps. As a society, we have a right to keep ourselves safe from violence; however, locking people up until they have changed verifiably is the minimally justified way to go. Evidence shows that the non-violent society is achievable by stopping to execute anyone. State-sponsored killing simply affirms the principle that the biggest and strongest s. o. b. has the right to do whatever, which is why death-penalty states have a worse record on violent crime than non-death-penalty states. Penalties are to achieve behavior modification. Seeing death as a penalty requires a very, very warped mind. All evidence shows that deterrence does not effect anything. Killing is either done in the affect; or it is done with coldly rational deliberation. Acting in the affect does not consider any consequence; acting with deliberation presupposes a feeling of superiority so as not to be caught.