Florida | Chadwick Willacy to be executed for burning Florida neighbor alive

A man convicted of the 1990 murder of his neighbor while burglarizing her home is scheduled to be the 6th person executed in Florida this year. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday, March 13, issued a death warrant for Chadwick Willacy, 58.

Willacy was in Marlys Sather's home when she arrived home from work unexpectedly. He struck her several times, tied her up, attempted to strangle her, and then set the house on fire after removing the smoke detectors and dousing her with gasoline, prosecutors said. Willacy's record to that point included some minor offenses in New York and Florida, mostly drug-related.

Willacy's execution has been set for April 21 and he has until April 2 to appeal. It follows 3 in March, including the execution of Michael L. King on Tuesday, March 17.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty have started a petition to ask DeSantis to commute his sentence to life without parole.

Willacy's execution is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 21, at Florida State Prison near Starke.

The crime

When Sather came home from lunch unexpectedly, she found Willacy, her 22-year-old next-door neighbor who had mowed her lawn, burglarizing her home.

Willacy bludgeoned her with a hammer and a squeegee, tied her wrists and ankles with wire and duct tape, and “choked and strangled her with a cord with a force so intense that a portion of her skull was dislodged," court documents said.

Prosecutors said Willacy took Sather's car keys and ATM PIN, drove her late husband's car to her bank, and took $200 from her bank account before coming to her house and taking “a significant amount of property.”

Willacy then stashed her car, jogged back, and went to great lengths to hide his crimes, prosecutors said. He disabled the smoke detectors, poured gasoline from the garage over Sather, placed a fan at her feet to provide oxygen for the fire, and set her on fire, court records said.

She was alive at the time, an autopsy showed. She had managed to pull free from her shoes before succumbing to the flames and smoke inhalation, court records said.

Willacy was found guilty of 1st-degree murder, burglary with an assault, robbery with a weapon, and arson in the 1st degree and was sentenced to death. His sentence was vacated in 1995, and a jury recommended a death sentence again, 11-1. Multiple appeals over the years. were denied.

DeSantis appears to be maintaining the same rapid pace he set for state executions last year, when Florida put 4 times the number of inmates to death as any other state in the country. The record-breaking 19 death warrants in 2025 more than doubled the previous modern era record for Florida executions in one year, which was eight in both 1984 and 2014.

The state has already executed 3 people this year:

Ronald Heath: Executed Feb. 10 for shooting, fatally stabbing, and robbing traveling salesman Michael Sheridan in the Gainesville woods in 1989.
Melvin Trotter: Executed on Feb. 24 for the brutal 1986 murder of Virgie Langford during a convenience store robbery in Palmetto.
Billy L. Kearse: Executed on March 3 for shooting Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish with his own service weapon during a 1991 traffic stop.

Who is the next person to be executed in Florida?

On Tuesday, March 17, Michael L. King is set to be put to death for the 2008 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee.

After that, former Central Florida police officer James A. Duckett is scheduled to be executed on March 31 for the 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee.

How many people are on Florida's death row?

As of March 13, there are 249 people on death row in Florida. The stats break down to 248 men (153 White, 84 Black, 11 other) and 1 Black woman.

From 1924 until May 1964, the state of Florida executed 196 people. There were no executions from May 1964 until May 1976.

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court struck down the death penalty, but it was reinstated in 1976. Florida has carried out 128 executions since then.

Source: floridatoday.com, Staff, March 16, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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