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A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she found him burglarizing her home during her lunch break from work is set to be executed Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
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 killing of Marlys Sather. Willacy was sentenced to death a year later upon a 9-3 jury recommendation after being convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery and arson.<\/p>\n
Court records indicate Sather had returned to her Palm Bay home for her lunch break in September 1990 and found Willacy burglarizing her home. He struck her in the head with a blunt object, fracturing her skull, and then bound her hands and ankles with wire and tape, according to investigators. <\/p>\n
Willacy attempted to strangle Sather with a telephone cord, and when that didn\u2019t work, he doused her in gasoline and set her on fire, records show. An autopsy determined that Sather had died from smoke inhalation, indicating she was still alive when she was set ablaze.<\/p>\n
Willacy also stole Sather\u2019s car and other items from her home, and used the woman\u2019s ATM card to steal cash, officials said. When Sather failed to return from her break, her employer caller her family. Her son-in-law went to check on her and found her body.<\/p>\n
The Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing in 1994 because the trial judge failed to allow defense attorneys a chance to rehabilitate a potential juror who indicated she could not recommend the death penalty. Willacy was resentenced to death in 1995 with an 11-1 recommendation by a new jury.<\/p>\n
This would be Florida\u2019s fifth execution in 2026 following a record 19 executions in the state last year.<\/a> Republican Gov. 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. <\/p>\n The Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Willacy last Wednesday. He had made claims based on the state’s refusal to grant public records requests about executions and lethal injection.<\/p>\n Willacy’s final appeals were pending before the U.S. Supreme Court as the execution date loomed.<\/p>\n