In a Charles County courtroom on January 8, 2026, a judge handed down a life prison sentence plus 15 years to 36-year-old Travis Edward Paschal Wood for fatally shooting his wife, 32-year-old Shawnda Nicole Wood, while she slept in their Waldorf home. The sentence follows his October 2025 conviction for first-degree murder and use of a firearm in a violent crime.
The tragedy began in the early morning hours of December 9, 2022, at the family’s residence on Tawny Drive in the suburban neighborhood of Waldorf, Maryland. The couple and their three young daughters had spent the previous night eating, shopping and later enjoying drinks at a hookah lounge, according to prosecutors. Wood returned home around 2 a.m., reportedly urinated outside the bathroom and sparked a disagreement with Shawnda. She told him he needed to move out of the family home by the coming weekend.
As the household slept, Wood retrieved his registered firearm and walked into his wife’s bedroom. While Shawnda lay asleep, he shot her once in the back of the head, ending her life. It was a killing that prosecutors said was deliberate and carried out in the coldest of blood.
Around 8:30 a.m. the next morning, Wood woke his three daughters, ages 11, 9 and 8, and told them they were going to their grandmother’s house. He instructed the children not to wake their mother or enter her bedroom. He drove them to his mother’s home, then returned to the family house, where he stayed for several hours before going back to his mother’s and confessing to her that he had killed Shawnda.
After that, Wood walked into the Charles County Sheriff’s Office District Three Station in Waldorf with a female cousin and asked investigators for a welfare check on his home and requested a lawyer. Deputies entered the unlocked residence and found Shawnda’s body in bed with a single gunshot wound to the back of her head. A silver and black handgun later tested showed Wood’s DNA.
At trial in October 2025, a Charles County jury heard how the moments before the shooting — involving alcohol, conflict and a threat of separation — ended with the loss of a mother and wife. During sentencing, Assistant State’s Attorney John Stackhouse described the profound impact on the Wood family, particularly the three daughters who lost their mother and were forced from their home, school and neighborhood.
Judge H. James West said the violence was extreme and the callousness that followed was rarely seen, emphasizing the permanent damage done to two families. With the life plus 15-year sentence, Wood will spend the rest of his life in prison.
