Prosecutors say Vickie Williams understood her actions, while defense lawyers say severe psychosis controlled her behavior when two retirees were killed.
TAVARES, Fla. — The murder trial of Vickie Williams opened with two sharply different accounts of her mental state when Darryl and Sharon Getman were killed inside their Mount Dora retirement-community home on New Year’s Eve 2022.
Williams is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and grand theft in the deaths of Darryl Getman, 83, and Sharon Getman, 80. Prosecutors told jurors that Williams killed the couple and fled in their green Kia Soul, while the defense asked jurors to find her not guilty by reason of insanity. Both sides acknowledge that Williams has a history of serious mental illness, but they disagree over the central question facing the jury: whether she understood what she was doing and that it was wrong when the killings occurred.
Defense attorneys told jurors that Williams was suffering from schizophrenia and severe psychosis as she wandered through the Mount Dora area before the killings. They said her mental condition had deteriorated to the point that she was experiencing delusions and could not properly understand reality. Attorney Morris Dagoberto Carranza described Williams as overwhelmed by schizophrenia and psychosis. The defense indicated it intends to argue that her illness prevented her from understanding the nature or consequences of her actions.
Prosecutors disputed that conclusion. They told the jury that Williams’ behavior before and after the killings showed purposeful decision-making. The state pointed to her interactions with people before she reached Waterman Village and to her departure from Florida in the Getmans’ vehicle after the couple died. Prosecutors argued that traveling back toward Savannah, Georgia, where Williams lived, was a logical act that suggested she understood her circumstances rather than acting without awareness of reality.
The dispute over Williams’ mental state follows years of competency proceedings that delayed the criminal case. A judge found Williams incompetent to proceed in May 2024 after mental-health evaluations and a court hearing. Later that year, another evaluation concluded that treatment had restored her ability to understand the proceedings and assist her attorneys. A judge subsequently ruled that she was competent to stand trial.
Competency to stand trial and an insanity defense address different periods in a criminal case. The earlier competency proceedings focused on whether Williams was able to understand the court process and work with her lawyers as the case moved forward. Her defense at trial focuses instead on her mental condition at the time Darryl and Sharon Getman were killed. The jury will weigh that issue along with the physical evidence and witness testimony presented by prosecutors.
The state began laying out a timeline that placed Williams in the area shortly before the deaths. Prosecutors said Williams had traveled from Georgia to Central Florida after being connected with a nonprofit program. Testimony and earlier investigative records indicate she later had several encounters with residents, security personnel and police as she moved around the Mount Dora area. Security personnel had previously removed her from the Waterman Village property, investigators said.
Witnesses testified that Williams was seen around the retirement community before the Getmans were found dead. Authorities have said she approached at least one residence and asked to enter before leaving when security was alerted. Prosecutors contend she later entered the Getmans’ home, killed the couple and left in their vehicle. The defense does not base its case on a claim that Williams had no mental-health problems; instead, it argues those problems were so severe that they changed her legal responsibility for what happened.
The first day of testimony also included law enforcement officers, residents, security personnel and a medical examiner. The medical examiner testified that both Getmans died from multiple stab wounds. Jurors also began hearing about evidence collected during the investigation, including material prosecutors say connects Williams to the couple’s home and the vehicle that was later recovered in Georgia.
Williams was located in Savannah after the Getmans’ Kia was found there. Investigators have said she denied being the woman shown in surveillance images and denied knowing the Getmans. Earlier court records and police reports said forensic evidence linked her to the couple’s residence. A Lake County grand jury indicted her in January 2023 on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of grand theft.
The State Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty if Williams is convicted of first-degree murder. That raises the stakes of the competing arguments about her mental condition, but the jury must first decide the charges and consider the insanity defense based on the evidence presented during the trial.
Testimony is continuing in Lake County as prosecutors present additional witnesses and evidence. Williams is presumed innocent unless and until the state proves the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, and jurors have not yet reached a verdict on either the criminal charges or the defense’s insanity claim.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 15, 2026.