Travis Edward Paschal Wood, 36, received a life sentence plus 15 years for murdering his wife, Shawnda Nicole Wood, 32, in their Waldorf, Maryland home on December 9, 2022. The killing stemmed from a dispute after he urinated on the floor outside the bathroom following a night of drinking at a hookah lounge. Their three daughters, aged 11, 9, and 8, were asleep in the house during the shooting.​
Incident Timeline
The couple dined out with their children before dropping them off and heading to the lounge, returning around 2 a.m.; Shawnda then told Travis to leave by the weekend. While she slept, he shot her once in the back of the head with his registered firearm, confirmed by his DNA on the gun. That morning, he took the girls to his mother’s house—instructing them not to wake their mother—confessed the killing there, returned home briefly, then requested a welfare check at the Charles County Sheriff’s Office.​
Sentencing Impact
Charles County Circuit Court Judge H. James West imposed the sentence on January 8, 2026, calling the act cold-blooded with extreme violence and callousness, devastating two families permanently. Assistant State’s Attorney John Stackhouse highlighted the irreversible trauma to the daughters, robbed of their mother’s presence for milestones like school events and graduations. Wood showed no immediate remorse beyond the post-murder sequence.
