A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she found him burglarizing her house during her lunch break from work is scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening.
Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 murder of Marlyse Sather. Willacy was sentenced to death a year later on a 9-3 jury recommendation after being found guilty of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery and arson.
Court records indicate that Sather returned to her Palm Bay home for her lunch break in September 1990 and found Willacy burglarizing her home. He hit her in the head with a sharp object, fracturing her skull, then bound her hands and ankles with wire and tape, according to investigators.
Willacy tried to strangle Sather with a telephone cord, and when that didn’t work, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire, records show. An autopsy concluded that Sather died of smoke inhalation, indicating that she was still alive when she was set on fire.
Willacy also stole Sather’s car and other items from her home, and used the woman’s ATM card to steal money, officials said. When Sather failed to return from her vacation, her employer contacted her family. Her brother-in-law went to check on her and found her body.
The Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentence in 1994 because the trial judge failed to allow defense attorneys the opportunity to rehabilitate a potential juror who indicated she could not recommend the death penalty. Willacy was re-sentenced to death in 1995 with an 11-1 recommendation by a new jury.
This will be Florida’s fifth execution in 2026 after A.J There were 19 executions recorded in the state last year Republican Governor Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected Willacy’s appeals last Wednesday. He had made his claims based on the state’s refusal to grant public records requests related to executions and lethal injection.
Willacy’s final appeals were pending before the U.S. Supreme Court as the execution date approached.
A total of 47 people They were executed in the United States in 2025. Florida was the pioneer in a long line of death orders signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.
Another execution is scheduled to be carried out in Florida later this month. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on April 30. He was convicted of beating and strangling his 13-year-old niece to death.
All executions in Florida are carried out by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.