Scheduled Execution (08/18/26): William Silvia – Florida Death Row – Murder of Patricia Silvia 

Hello and welcome back to the death row and executions channel. My name is Paco Rivera and I do presentations on an execution happening soon, including a story on what got the death row inmate sentenced to death. You can also follow me on Facebook for updates  and more death row news.

 There will be a link to my Facebook in the description below. Also, check out my other channel here on YouTube called The Maximum Sentence,  where I cover a recent crime and conviction. There will also be a link for that. This past July 17th, Florida Governor Ronda Santis signed a 13th death warrant for this year for the 13th death row inmate scheduled to be put to death in that state.

 That warrant set an execution date for 61-year-old William Francis Sylvia Jr. who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2008 for the 2006 murder of his estranged wife Patricia Sylvia who was 39 years old and a mother of four children from her previous marriage. William, Sylvia, and Patricia were married in the year 2002 after she had divorced.

 But that marriage only lasted about four years, and they separated in 2006 when Patricia moved out and moved in with her parents, her mother Betty Woodard, and her stepfather Patrick Woodard, along with two of her children, whom were 16 and 13. It’s not clear in the reports why her two other children weren’t with her.

Patricia’s mother, Betty Woodard, would also become a victim in this case, but she survived. Patricia’s parents lived in the Castleberry area of Florida. Castleberry is located about 10 miles north of downtown Orlando in Semino County. For some reason, some reports indicate the crime occurred at the Woodard’s home in Winter Park, Florida, but that is not accurate.

 Maybe media chose to say Winter Park because that city is more wellknown. Castleberry and Winter Park are only a few miles apart. Soon after the separation of Sylvia and Patricia, Sylvia had gone to the Woodard’s home several times in the middle of the night trying to reconcile with his wife, but she wouldn’t speak to him and he was turned away every time.

Yeah. Yet another case of a man who refuses to move on with his life. At some point, William Sylvia was no longer allowed to live in the home where he was at, and he became homeless. He was sleeping in his pickup truck when he had a bit of money. He would rent a motel room for the night. On the morning of September 22nd of the year 2006, a Friday, William Sylvvia, at this time 41 years old, arrived at work and he was fired.

 No reason is given for that, but that’s probably the first thing to set him off that day. Soon after that, he rented a room at the Regency in Motel, and he also went to a gun store where he purchased a pumpaction 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun and ammunition. Later that evening at about 9:00 that night, he drove his pickup truck to the Woodard’s home again.

 He left the shotgun in the pickup truck and got out to approach the home. There was a cookout taking place in the carport area of the house, and family members and guests were scattered about inside and outside the home. At the house that day were Patricia and her two children, a son and a daughter, both minors.

 Also, both her mother Betty and stepfather Patrick Woodard were there along with two friends of the family. Beth Parker and Doug Caldwell. Patricia’s sister, Robin McIntyre, was also there. She also lived in the home. One other man there at the cookout event was Patrick’s brother, Jerome Woodard. All of these survivors would be key witnesses at William Sylvia’s trial.

There might have been some more people at that cookout that were not mentioned in the reports, but there was a whole lot of people there that night. When Sylvia arrived at the family’s home while they were having their cookout, he asked to speak to his aranged wife, Patricia. He was there to make one final attempt to reconcile with her.

 She did come out of the house for a brief period to speak to him, but soon turned around and went back inside the house. Witnesses would later testify that William Sylvia had shouted at Patricia as she was entering the house, “You will be sorry.” That’s when Sylvia returned to his truck, retrieved the shotgun, went into the house looking for Patricia, who was at this time in the kitchen, and shot her point blank.

Patricia’s daughter was also in the kitchen and witnessed the actual shooting. When others at the home heard shots ringing out, most of them ran for cover. One of the friends, Doug Caldwell, managed to get a hold of the children and ran into a bathroom to hide. William Sylvia went outside and encountered Patricia’s mother, Betty Woodard, and shot her in the eye.

 She survived but lost that eye. Patricia’s stepfather, Patrick, had been in a bedroom before the shooting began, and he went out to investigate. He found his step-daughter dead in the kitchen on the floor in front of the refrigerator and he saw Sylvia outside reloading the shotgun. Sylvia had a direct view of Patrick through the open door and he pointed the shotgun at him, but then turned around and got back into his pickup truck and drove away.

 All others on the property that night had escaped harm by running and ducking for cover and remaining in hiding. Patricia’s mother, Betty Woodard, was airlifted by helicopter to Orlando Regional Medical Center after having suffered massive facial and head trauma and blood loss. And as I said earlier, thankfully she did survive after losing her left eye and a top portion of her nose.

 It was determined that William Sylvia had fired seven shots with his shotgun. Two were straight up into the air. Why he did that only he knows. Early the following morning, now Saturday, September 23rd, 2006, police spotted Sylvia’s pickup truck and followed him into the parking lot of the Regency in Motel where he was staying.

 Police encountered Sylvia extremely intoxicated and he was arrested. When officers first approached Sylvia, they would say that he was laughing loudly. There was no evidence or testimony from anyone that Sylvia was drunk the night before when he committed his crime. Deputies found a pumpaction 12- gauge Mossberg shotgun and ammunition in his motel room.

 A receipt found in his pickup truck showed that he had purchased all of it the day before at a gun shop in Castlebury. A police officer testified that during the ride in his patrol unit following the arrest, William Sylvia told him that he killed his wife because she had spent all of their money and then started dating her ex-husband again.

 He would also later say that Patricia was having an affair with another man while they were together. It was determined that there was no truth to those claims and that it was all a product of severe paranoia and delusion. According to the reports, the case went to trial about two years later and a jury voted 11 to1 to recommend the death penalty for William Francis Sylvia.

 Unfortunately, I was unable to find any photos of Patricia Sylvia orbituary information. I hope her last name was changed at some point postmortem. Please go ahead and hit the subscribe button for more of these death row and upcoming execution stories so that you alerted when the next one comes out. You can also follow me on Facebook for updates and more.

 There will be a link to my Facebook in the description below. My name is Paco Rivera. Thank you for watching. Take care and bye for now.