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DNA In Mask Leads To Arrest In Home-Invasion Homicide

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By LISA A. DAVIS

ldavis@tampatrib.com

Published: January 13, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - Roberta Wido said Monday she always knew the man who gunned down her 82-year-old husband before her eyes in their Timber Oaks home last summer would be caught.

"I knew they would get him," she said hours after a public announcement of the arrest was made. "I have confidence in the sheriff and his men and his women."

A 26-year-old North Carolina man has been charged with killing Joseph Wido in one of Pasco County's most high-profile cases last year, Sheriff Bob White announced during a news conference Monday afternoon.

"We've been waiting on this day for a little while," he said.

Francis Sicola of Yadkinville, N.C., was looking for prescription drugs when he broke in to the couple's home at 10519 Quimby Drive about 2 a.m. on Aug. 28, White said.
Wido and his wife, 79, were awakened by the intruder in their bedroom. Wido, a Bronze Star recipient, tried to protect his wife, she said.

"I can take you on," Wido told the intruder, his wife said.

Sicola killed Joseph Wido with a single shot and tied up Roberta Wido, leaving her on the floor beside her dead husband where she stayed for 10 hours before a neighbor found her, White said.

After the shooting, Sicola continued searching the home for prescription drugs but didn't find anything strong enough, White said.

"He did take money and jewelry, though, as a consolation prize," the sheriff said.

Detectives think Sicola hit four other houses in a matter of hours, including one in Bear Creek, not far from Timber Oaks, where he apparently left a black knit mask.

The mask was the key to Sicola's arrest, White said.

DNA from the mask was tested at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab and pointed to Sicola, who had lived in Pasco and been arrested as a juvenile on several burglary charges.

Pasco detectives found witnesses who told them Sicola bragged that he was the one who killed Wido.

On Friday night, which would have been Joseph Wido's 83rd birthday, Pasco detectives, with the help of the Yadkin County Sheriff's Office, questioned Sicola at his home in North Carolina and arrested him on a charge of first-degree murder. He is in custody there and awaiting extradition, which could take weeks.

Roberta Wido said when she got the word Saturday about Sicola's arrest, one thing went through her mind: "Thank God he's caught."

Now, she hopes justice is served.

"I'm a Christian. I don't wish him any more ill will than he deserves," she said.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.

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