On Tuesday, as millions of voters turn out for the state primary, Florida is scheduled to execute William Silvia, convicted of the 2006 shooting murder of his wife, Patricia.
After months of attempting to reconcile with her, living in his truck and different motel rooms, and becoming increasingly dependent on alcohol, prosecutors said Silvia bought a shotgun and ammunition, drove to his estranged wife’s mother’s house in Seminole County, and shot her mother, Betty Woodard, at point-blank range before shooting and killing Patricia. Woodard lost her left eye and the top portion of her nose.
Barring a successful appeal, Silvia, 61, will become the 13th person put to death in Florida this year, following a record-breaking 19 executions in 2025. The Florida Supreme Court denied his appeal on Aug. 12, partly because Silvia waived postconviction proceedings and discharged his attorneys in 2012.
An appeal and a request for a stay of execution are currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
As they have for each scheduled execution, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty have started a petition asking DeSantis to commute the death sentence for Silvia, who uses a wheelchair, to life imprisonment. The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops has also called on DeSantis to show mercy.
When will William Silvia be executed?
Silvia is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, at Florida State Prison in Raiford, about 40 miles west of Jacksonville.
Who did William Silvia kill? How did Patricia Silva die?
William Frances Silvia, Jr. married Patricia Silva in 2002, but by the summer of 2006 she had separated from him and taken her two minor children from a previous marriage to live with her mother and stepfather, Betty and Patrick Woodard, in Winter Park.
Silvia attempted to reconcile with her multiple times, prosecutors said, often showing up at the Woodards’ home in the middle of the night. He also became homeless soon after the breakup, living in his truck and in various motels.
Two things happened on the day of the shooting, prosecutors said: he was fired from his job, and he later bought a 12-gauge Mossberg Persuader shotgun from one store and four boxes of shells from another. Surveillance video showed him calmly selecting the weapon, prosecutors said.
On Sept. 22, 2026, at around 9:20 p.m., the Woodard family was having a cookout in their Winter Park home. Silvia showed up to talk briefly with Patricia, then turned and walked away, court records show. Patricia and her mother went into the house. Patricia’s 15-year-old daughter, Rachel, later said she overheard him saying she would be sorry.
Silvia reportedly went to his truck, got the shotgun, came back, and fired two shots into the air. Guests and family members leaped for cover.
Inside, Betty Woodard told her husband she thought she heard firecrackers. She opened the door to the carport and was immediately shot in the face. Prosecutors said Silvia then shot Patricia in the head, killing her.
Patrick Woodard entered the kitchen to see Patricia lying on the floor and his wife bleeding outside. He told prosecutors he saw Silvia spot him and point a shotgun at him, and he slammed shut the solid carport door.
Patricia Silvia’s 12-year-old son, Ross, saw his mother fall. Her daughter Rachel was in the carport and remembered Silvia aiming at her and someone shoving her to the ground out of the way. There were multiple other people at the gathering. After firing five shots at the carport and house, Silvia got in his truck and drove off.
Silvia was arrested the next day and told police he was angry “because she spent all of their money and then started dating her ex-husband.”
He was convicted of the first-degree murder of Patricia Silvia and the attempted murder of Betty Woodard, who survived the shooting with massive facial and head trauma. The jury recommended a death sentence by a vote of 11 to 1.
Silvia’s Florida death sentence appeals
The Florida Supreme Court affirmed Silvia’s sentence on direct appeal. In 2012, he waived his right to postconviction appeals, even though that would make him eligible for a death warrant immediately.
His sentence was vacated in 2017 after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Hurst v. Florida ruled that capital sentences “must be found unanimously by the jury.” The Florida Supreme Court reinstated his sentence in 2018 after the state appealed. An appeal a year later for medical records was denied. He became eligible again for postconviction counsel in 2022.
The Florida Supreme Court denied his 2026 appeal to his death warrant, which made similar demands to the previous dozen people executed in the state: records from the Florida Department of Corrections about its lethal injection protocol, and information on whether there was a shortage of etomidate, the first of the three drugs administered in the execution.
Records released in 2025 seemed to show the state used expired, insufficient, and even incorrect drugs to execute inmates, a potential violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, but subsequent attempts by death row inmate counsel to demand more records have all been denied.
Silvia also sought internal communications showing how DeSantis chose him to be the next person executed, as at the time, his attorney was simultaneously litigating another death warrant in state and federal courts for Dominick Occhicone. Silvia’s attorney argued that this violated his right to counsel, as well as his Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The Florida Supreme Court denied his appeal.
Occhicone was later executed on July 28.
C. A. Bridges is a journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida’s service journalism Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: William Silvia set for Florida execution Tuesday for 2006 wife murder
Reporting by C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida | USA TODAY Network
