Murder of Patricia Silvia

On September 22, 2006 in Winter Park, Florida, United States, Patricia Silvia, 39, was shot and killed by her former husband William Frances Silvia Jr., 41, who additionally shot and severely wounded Patricia's mother, Betty Woodard.

William Silvia is scheduled to be executed by the state of Florida on August 18, 2026.

Crime

Patricia and William Silvia had married in 2002 but separated in July 2006 after he accused Patricia of having [...] with her two older sons. According to court records, William had become homeless shortly after the breakup, living in his truck and moving between rented motel rooms. In the months preceding the [...], William visited his former wife often, arriving unannounced during the late night at the home of her mother, Betty Woodard. After separating from William, Patricia had moved with her teenage children (one daughter and one son) to her mother's and stepfather's home in Winter Park, Florida.

On September 22, 2006, increasingly unstable and dependent on alcohol, William purchased a Mossberg 500 Persuader shotgun. That same day he had been fired from his job and later told police that he was angry that Patricia had allegedly spent all their money and was dating her ex-husband. In the evening of September 22, 2006, William arrived at Patricia's home, where the family was hosting a meal in their carport area. After maintaining a verbal exchange over their long-standing feuds, Patricia walked back inside, and William went to his truck to fetch the shotgun.

Patricia's daughter testified to the authorities that she heard William threaten her mother when the conversation ended, telling Patricia that she was "going to be sorry." William subsequently took the weapon and fired two shots into the air as he went back to the house. As Patricia's relatives sought shelter, William confronted her and her mother, Betty Woodard, who had positioned herself in front of Patricia. William shot Betty at point-blank range, seriously wounding her before shooting and [...] Patricia.

William was arrested the following day and charged with one count of first-degree [...] and another of attempted first-degree [...].

Trial and conviction

William Frances Silvia Jr. (born March 25, 1965) was tried and convicted of both counts of [...] and attempted [...] on June 6, 2008. The jury subsequently recommended the death penalty in an 11–1 vote, and Silvia was sentenced to death on January 28, 2009. He also received a sentence of life in prison for the attempted [...] of Betty Woodard.

He was born in Washington, D.C., and lived with his parents in College Park, Georgia, before moving and settling in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Silvia's father was abusive towards his mother and himself when he tried to defend her from the abuse. He had some run-ins with the police in his youth, including an attempted robbery of a bank along with his younger brother John, spending time at a mental hospital as a result. In 1999, Silvia's mother was killed by a drunken driver, and two years later, his brother John died from a drug overdose. According to defense psychologist Deborah Day, Silvia has a history of mental illness in the family, with his sister suffering from bipolar disorder and having been committed multiple times. Silvia himself attended sessions with a psychiatrist during his first marriage and was put on medications for six months.

Day added that Silvia suffers from a history of substance abuse and that his paternal grandfather committed [...] while his paternal uncle suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his service in the Vietnam War. In the persecutions that Doctor Day narrated to the court, she said that Silvia had the belief that he was being spied on and that Patricia had [...] with her two older sons. When he confronted her and his two stepsons, they got upset, and Patricia left him as a result.

Silvia appealed his death sentence, but the Supreme Court of Florida upheld the sentence in April 2011. Following the Hurst v. Florida ruling, Silvia had his sentence briefly vacated in 2017 on the account that death sentences required unanimous recommendations by the jury. The circuit court granted Silvia a new penalty trial, but the state's supreme court reversed the ruling, stating that Silvia had waived his postconviction appeals in 2013, precluding the Hurst case ruling as a factor to consider.

On July 17, 2026, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Silvia's death warrant, with a court setting his execution by lethal injection for August 18, 2026. If executed, Silvia will become the 13th inmate put to death by Florida in the year. He is currently housed on death row at Florida State Prison.

Silvia's attorneys filed a last appeal to the Supreme Court of Florida, which ultimately denied the request to issue a stay of execution and rejected Silvia's final appeal.

On August 17, 2026, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a letter to Governor DeSantis asking him to spare Silvia's life and to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole. Michael Sheedy, the executive director of the Tallahassee-based religious conference, cited Evangelium Vitae, a 1995 encyclical by Pope John Paul II, to support the Catholic Church{{'s}} position against capital punishment and state that the decision of taking a life is reserved to God.

See also

• Capital punishment in Florida
• List of people scheduled to be executed in the United States