Chadwick Willacy is scheduled to be executed by the State of Florida for a murder that took place in 1990
According to court documents Chadwick Willacy would break into the home of his neighbor Marlys Sather in Palms Beach Florida.
When Marlys Sather discovered Chadwick Willacy inside of her home he would attack the woman and killed her
Chadwick Willacy would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Chadwick Willacy was executed on April 21 2026
Chadwick Willacy Execution News
The retired Palm Bay detective who solved the horrific 1990 murder of a widow beaten with a hammer and set on fire by a young next-door neighbor says he does not plan on attending the newly set execution date.
On March 13, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant for Chadwick Willacy, who has spent 36 years on death row for the murder of Marlys Sather, 56. Willacy, now 58 and held at Florida State Prison in Raiford, is set to be executed by lethal injection April 21.
“I will not be attending; (Willacy) is not worthy of my time,” said Jorge Santiago, recalling the first homicide case he worked solo after joining the Palm Bay Police Department.
“I remember what that day was like … it was a brutal scene, and I just couldn’t believe it.”
Prosecutors said on Sept. 5, 1990, Sather, who worked at Harris and had obtained a top government clearance for her work, arrived home unexpectedly during the lunch hour to sell her car. Willacy, who frequently mowed her lawn, had already broken into her home, where he surprised her.
“He hit her several times and thought he had to kill her because she’s his next-door neighbor and could identify him,” Santiago said. “He had tried to get some money from her the day before, an advancement for cutting her grass.”
Chadwick Willacy bludgeoned Sather with a hammer and a squeegee, tied her wrists and ankles with wire and duct tape and “choked and strangled her with a cord with a force so intense that a portion of her skull was dislodged,” court documents said.
He then took her car, with a “For Sale” sign still in the window, and drove to the bank with her debit card, Santiago said.
Prosecutors said Willacy took $200 from Sather’s bank account before going back to her house and taking “a significant amount of property.”
Prosecutors: Suspect went to great lengths to hide his crimes
Willacy then stashed her car, jogged back, and went to great lengths to hide his crimes, prosecutors said. He disabled the smoke detectors, poured gasoline from the garage over Sather, placed a fan at her feet to provide oxygen for the fire, and set her on fire, court records said.
She was alive at the time, an autopsy showed. She had managed to pull free from her shoes before succumbing to the flames and smoke inhalation, court records said.
Santiago questioned Willacy, who lived at home with his parents, the next day.
When told that neighbors said he had been seen arguing with Sather, Willacy said: “Damn neighbors, it’s none of their business,” and denied the charges, Santiago said. A witness spotted Willacy driving in Sather’s car shortly after the homicide, Santiago said, and Willacy’s girlfriend located Sather’s checkbook and called police, he said.
“He said he ‘didn’t do nothing to that woman.’ When he was arrested, he didn’t make a sound. He didn’t say, ‘I didn’t do it,’ nothing,” Santiago recalled.
Willacy was found guilty of first-degree murder, burglary with an assault, robbery with a weapon, and arson in the first degree and was sentenced to death. His sentence was vacated in 1995, and a jury recommended a death sentence again, 11-1. Multiple appeals over the years were denied.
DeSantis’ move to sign the death warrant has prompted the advocacy group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty to put out a petition to spare Willacy’s life.
“The murder of Marlys Sather was a horrific crime, and we continue to acknowledge the profound loss her family has endured. But carrying out this execution now will not bring healing, safety, or justice,” the group said.
“Instead, it risks compounding trauma for victims’ families, corrections staff, courts, and the broader community, while perpetuating a cycle of state-sanctioned violence.”
Nineteen executions were carried out in Florida in 2025. Since January, three state prisoners have been executed, Florida Department of Corrections records show.
Execution date set for man convicted in 1990 murder of Palm Bay widow
Chadwick Willacy Execution
Chadwick Willacy was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison in Starke for the 1990 murder of his Palm Bay neighbor who found him burglarizing her home.
Willacy, 58, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. by the state Department of Corrections.
The announcement came several hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his latest application to stay the scheduled execution.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied Willacy’s motions for a delay and a rehearing as his legal team requested public records on Florida’s lethal injection protocol and later questioned if the death warrant was signed in response to the public records request.
Willacy was convicted in the death of Marlys Mae Sather.
Sather, 56, found her next-door neighbor Willacy burglarizing her home when she returned unexpectedly from work around lunchtime on Sept. 5, 1990, according to court documents.
Willacy struck Sather in the head several times with a blunt object, then bound her hands and ankles before attempting to strangle her with a telephone cord. Willacy later doused Sather in gasoline, disabled the smoke detectors in the home, and placed a fan at her feet to provide oxygen to the ensuing fire.
Sather’s body was discovered by her son-in-law after receiving a call from her employer that she hadn’t returned from her lunch break.
The cause of death was recorded as smoke inhalation, indicating Sather was alive when she was set on fire.
Sather’s checkbook was found at Willacy’s house. Her late husband’s car and an ATM card were stolen. Photos taken by an ATM showed Willacy attempting to make withdrawals with the stolen car in the background
Chadwick Willacy was found guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree premeditated murder, burglary with an assault, robbery with a firearm, and first-degree arson in December 1991. The jury recommended the death sentence in a 9-3 vote.
In 1994, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the convictions but reversed his death sentence and remanded the case to the trial court for a new penalty phase.
One year later, a jury recommended the death penalty with an 11-1 majority.
During his sentencing, Chadwick Willacy asked the court to consider that he had no “significant” history of prior criminal activity, and his age, 22 at the time.
The execution was the fifth carried out this year by the state and the first since the Florida Supreme Court issued a rare stay in the scheduled March 31 execution of James Duckett over DNA testing.
The warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis for Duckett’s execution expired on April 7.
Duckett, 68, a former Mascotte police officer, has been convicted in the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in 1987.
There are nearly 250 inmates on Florida’s death row.
The state is next scheduled to execute James Ernest Hitchcock, 69, for the 1976 rape and murder of his step-niece Cynthia Driggers in her bedroom in Orange County.
DeSantis has signed seven death warrants this year after a modern era record of 19 in 2025.
Chadwick Willacy executed for killing Palm Bay neighbor Marlys Sathe
