Vickie Williams received life in prison after jurors rejected her insanity defense and later chose life over execution.

TAVARES, Fla. — A Florida woman convicted of killing an elderly married couple inside their Mount Dora retirement-community home will spend the rest of her life in prison after the same jury that found her guilty declined to recommend the death penalty.

Judge Cary F. Rada sentenced 53-year-old Vickie Lynn Williams to life in the Florida Department of Corrections after jurors chose life rather than death in the killings of Darryl Getman, 83, and Sharon Getman, 80. Williams had been convicted days earlier of two counts of first-degree murder and theft in a case that began with the couple’s deaths on New Year’s Eve 2022 and ended nearly four years later with a penalty proceeding focused on whether her severe mental illness should spare her from execution.

The sentencing resolved the central question left open after the guilty verdict. Prosecutors had asked jurors to impose the most severe punishment available, emphasizing the violence of the killings and the ages of the victims. Defense lawyers countered that Williams’ mental illness, including evidence concerning schizophrenia and psychosis, weighed against a death sentence. After hearing additional testimony and arguments during the penalty phase, jurors recommended life imprisonment. Rada imposed the sentence following that recommendation, bringing the trial-level proceedings to a close.

The verdict itself had come quickly. After more than a week of testimony, jurors deliberated for roughly 30 minutes before finding Williams guilty. The defense did not center its case on a claim that someone else killed the Getmans. Instead, lawyers argued Williams was legally insane when the couple died and could not properly understand the wrongfulness of what she was doing. Prosecutors acknowledged that Williams had serious mental-health problems but argued that her conduct before and after the killings showed she understood her actions and their consequences.

That dispute placed Williams’ state of mind at the center of the guilt phase. A defense psychiatrist testified that Williams suffered from severe schizophrenia, while the defense described beliefs it said reflected psychosis at the time of the homicides. Prosecutors pointed jurors toward evidence of Williams’ interactions with other people before the killings and her actions afterward. They argued that efforts to clean up, taking property and leaving Florida in the Getmans’ vehicle showed purposeful conduct inconsistent with a finding that she did not know her actions were wrong.

The prosecution also built its case around physical evidence, surveillance footage and property connected to the couple. The Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office said forensic analysts tied Williams to the crime scene. At trial, jurors heard evidence that her DNA was found on knives recovered from the home and on other items there. Prosecutors also presented evidence involving jewelry, paintings and the Getmans’ green Kia Soul, all of which became part of the effort to reconstruct what happened inside the home and where Williams went afterward.

The investigation began after Darryl and Sharon Getman were found dead at the Lakeside at Waterman Village retirement community in Mount Dora on Dec. 31, 2022. Police said Williams had been seen in the community before the killings and had approached residents while seeking help, including asking to use a shower and charge a phone. Surveillance evidence later showed the Getmans’ vehicle leaving the complex. Investigators found the couple had been stabbed and that their car was gone, immediately linking the homicide investigation with a search for the missing Kia.

The car became a key part of the investigation. Sharon Getman’s cellphone had been left in the vehicle, allowing detectives to follow its movement using cellphone information and license-plate-reader data. Authorities traced the Kia north into Georgia. Williams was arrested in Savannah on Jan. 2, 2023, and remained in custody as the case moved toward trial. Prosecutors said she had also taken jewelry and paintings from the Getmans’ home. At trial, the couple’s daughter identified property recovered during the investigation, including her mother’s wedding ring.

Testimony about Williams’ behavior after leaving Florida also became part of the state’s case. Fuller Blue, a man Williams knew in Savannah, testified that she arrived at his apartment after the killings and spoke about having a new car. According to courtroom reporting, Blue recalled Williams laughing while saying that things were OK and that she had bought herself a new vehicle. Prosecutors used that testimony along with forensic and surveillance evidence to challenge the defense argument about Williams’ mental state. The account was one piece of a broader circumstantial case rather than the sole basis for the convictions.

The penalty phase shifted attention from whether Williams was legally responsible to what punishment she should receive. Jurors heard from the Getmans’ adult children about the continuing effect of their parents’ deaths. Brittany Getman described how the loss had changed ordinary life and diminished the family’s sense of joy. Anthony Getman told jurors that he still sends messages to his parents’ old phone numbers on birthdays and holidays as a way of maintaining a connection. Their testimony gave jurors a picture of the consequences beyond the physical evidence presented during the guilt phase.

Prosecutors framed the case as one in which the brutality of the crimes and the vulnerability of the victims justified capital punishment. The defense returned to Williams’ psychiatric history and argued that untreated severe mental illness should weigh heavily against execution. The jury ultimately rejected the state’s request for death, choosing a punishment that ensures Williams will remain imprisoned for life. The sentencing therefore produced a different result from what prosecutors had sought even though the jury had accepted their argument that Williams was criminally responsible for the killings.

The outcome also superseded the uncertainty that existed immediately after the guilty verdict, when Williams still faced either life imprisonment or death. State Attorney Bill Gladson said after sentencing that the case had held Williams responsible for the deaths of Darryl and Sharon Getman and credited Mount Dora police, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Savannah police for their work. The prosecution said Assistant State Attorneys Thomas Wieczorek and Nicholas Camuccio handled the case, supported by investigators, forensic analysts and other staff.

After the jury’s penalty recommendation and Rada’s sentence, the question of whether Williams would be executed was settled in favor of life imprisonment. The judgment followed a case that moved from a retirement-community homicide scene, through a multistate search for the victims’ stolen car, to a trial dominated by forensic evidence and competing arguments about mental illness. Williams remains convicted of the murders of Darryl and Sharon Getman and faces life in prison rather than the death penalty prosecutors sought.

Author note: Last updated November 7, 2026.