{"id":344099,"date":"2026-07-18T01:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T01:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/344099\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T01:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T01:04:15","slug":"desantis-signs-death-warrant-for-florida-man-who-fatally-shot-his-estranged-wife-at-her-mothers-home-in-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/344099\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis signs death warrant for Florida man who fatally shot his estranged wife at her mother\u2019s home in 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"

FLORIDA \u2013 Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed the warrant for William Frances Silvia, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife at her mother\u2019s Casselberry-area home in 2006, according to our partners at the News Service of Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Silvia, 61, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on Aug. 18, according to the warrant.<\/p>\n

He joins James Aren Duckett, 68, and Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, who are scheduled to be executed on July 28.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s parents four decades ago in Pasco County.<\/p>\n

DeSantis issued a new warrant for Duckett on Tuesday after the Florida Supreme Court stayed the execution pending additional DNA testing.<\/p>\n

The window for Silvia\u2019s execution is set from noon Aug. 18 to noon Aug. 25.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

According to court records, on Sept. 22, 2006, Silvia went to Woodard\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Patricia Silvia died. Woodard, who was standing in front of her daughter, lost her left eye and the top portion of her nose.<\/p>\n

Silvia purchased the shotgun about five hours before the shooting; video of the transaction showed him exhibiting \u201cno bizarre, agitated, frenzied or panicked behavior,\u201d according to the sentencing order. Silvia purchased four boxes of shells from another store.<\/p>\n

At Woodard\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Silvia reportedly told an officer driving him to jail that \u201cmy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury voted 11-1 to recommend the death penalty. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLORIDA \u2013 Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed the warrant for William Frances Silvia, who was convicted of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13152,2683,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-344099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-death-warrant","tag-desantis","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}