A Florida man convicted of killing his neighbor by setting her on fire during a home burglary is scheduled to be executed Tuesday (April 21) at Florida State Prison near Starke. Chadwick Scott Willacy, now 58, will receive a three-drug lethal injection beginning at 6 p.m. after spending 36 years on death row for the 1990 murder of Marlys Sather in Palm Bay.
Sather, 56, returned home on her lunch break on September 5, 1990, and discovered Willacy burglarizing her home. Investigators say Willacy struck Sather with a blunt object, fracturing her skull, then bound her hands and ankles with wire and tape. He attempted to strangle her with a telephone cord, and when that failed, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. An autopsy determined Sather died from smoke inhalation, indicating she was alive when set ablaze.
Willacy also stole Sather’s car and ATM card, withdrawing $200 before returning to take more property. Sather’s employer called her family when she failed to return from lunch, and her son-in-law found her body. Willacy, who lived next door and sometimes did yard work for Sather, was arrested the next day after witnesses saw him driving her car and his girlfriend found Sather’s checkbook.
Willacy was convicted of first-degree murder, burglary with an assault, robbery with a weapon, and first-degree arson. He was initially sentenced to death in 1991 following a 9-3 jury recommendation. The Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing in 1994 due to a jury selection issue; he was resentenced to death in 1995 with an 11-1 jury vote, court records show.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed Willacy’s death warrant on March 13. Willacy’s final appeals were denied by the Florida Supreme Court last week, and his last federal appeal is pending as the execution approaches.
This execution will be the fifth in Florida this year, following a record-setting 19 executions in the state last year, the most since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Nationwide, a total of 47 people were executed in the United States last year, with Florida leading all states.
Another execution, for James Ernest Hitchcock, is scheduled in Florida for April 30.
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