By CBS Miami Team
Updated on: April 21, 2026 / 6:54 PM EDT / CBS/AP
A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she returned from work to find him burglarizing her home was executed Tuesday evening.
Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, received a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. It was Florida’s fifth execution this year.
The curtain to the execution chamber went up at the scheduled 6:00 p.m. time, and the lethal injection began two minutes later after Willacy made a brief statement. He apologized to his family and friends, urged his “brothers on the row” to stay strong, and maintained his innocence, saying he would never kill his friend. “To the victim’s family, I hope this brings you peace. If it does, that’s good,” Willacy said. “But this is not right.”
Shortly after the injection began, a warden shook Willacy and called his name but received no response. His skin turned gray and a medic entered the chamber to examine him, declaring him dead.
Court records say Sather returned to her Palm Bay home during a lunch break in September 1990 and found Willacy burglarizing the house. Investigators say he struck her in the head with a blunt object, fracturing her skull, then bound her hands and ankles with wire and tape. Willacy allegedly attempted to strangle her with a telephone cord; when that failed, he doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. An autopsy found Sather died from smoke inhalation, indicating she was still alive when set ablaze.
Willacy also stole Sather’s car and other items and used her ATM card to withdraw cash, authorities said. When Sather did not return from her break, her employer called her family; her son-in-law checked on her and found her body.
The Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing in 1994 because the trial judge did not allow defense attorneys to rehabilitate a potential juror who said she could not recommend the death penalty. Willacy was resentenced to death in 1995 after a new jury gave an 11-1 recommendation.
Florida has carried out a string of executions recently. This was the state’s fifth execution in 2026, following a record 19 executions in 2025 under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis—more in a single year than any Florida governor since the death penalty’s reinstatement in 1976. The Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Willacy last Wednesday, including claims about the state’s refusal to grant public records requests related to executions and lethal injection. His final appeals were pending before the U.S. Supreme Court as the execution date approached.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the nation that year; Alabama, South Carolina and Texas each had five executions.
Another execution is scheduled in Florida later this month: James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is set to receive a lethal injection on April 30. He was convicted of beating and choking his 13-year-old niece to death in 1976.
All Florida executions use a three-drug protocol: a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug to stop the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.