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 June 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
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