LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Day one of testimony has wrapped in a Lake County murder trial for a woman accused of killing a Mount Dora couple at random four years ago.
Prosecutors say Vickie Williams murdered Darryl and Sharon Getman in their senior living community on New Year’s Eve in 2022.
During the opening statement, attorneys sparred over Vickie Williams’ mental health.
Williams’ defense team indicated they would try for an insanity defense, seeking to prove that due to mental illness, Williams did not know what she was doing, that it was wrong, or that it had consequences.
In court on Monday, witnesses took the stand, including a medical examiner and law enforcement officers.
The prosecution presented video from just one day before the alleged murders, showing the moment officers found Vicki Williams inside a Hampton Inn and later trespassed her from the property.
Less than 24 hours later, investigators say she stabbed Darryl and Sharon Getman to death, then stole their Kia to get away.
“The evidence shows that this is a woman who was predisposed by genetics, poisoned by schizophrenia, and consumed by psychosis,” said Morris Dagoberto Carranza, Williams’ defense attorney.
The defense argued that before the murders, Williams spent the day wandering the neighborhood, hallucinating, and mumbling to herself.
Prosecutors painted a different picture, saying Williams had come to Orlando from Savannah, Georgia, claiming to be a victim of human trafficking.
When she arrived at a nonprofit that intended to help her, prosecutors say she wouldn’t conform to the house rules, so she fled without notifying staff and plotted a return to Georgia.
According to investigators, she visited several houses in and around the Getmans’ retirement community, the Waterman Village senior living community, before allegedly murdering the victims in their home.
Investigators said Williams had been knocking on doors and asking people if she could come inside their homes.
“With her new transportation, she didn’t head to some bizarre place with no logical, reasonable, or meaningful connection to her. She headed home to savannah,” said Thomas Wieczorek, with the state attorney’s office.
Prosecutors don’t deny that Williams is mentally ill but say the defense can’t meet their burden to prove she was insane at the time of the crime.
They alleged Williams is now motivated to exaggerate mental illness.
Trial resumes Tuesday at 8:30 am. Williams faces the death penalty if convicted.
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