MOUNT DORA, Fla. — After six days of testimony, both the state and the defense have rested their case in the trial of a woman accused of killing a Mount Dora couple 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 opening statements, attorneys sparred over Vickie Williams’ mental health. That remained the focus on Monday in a battle of the experts.
Williams’ defense team argued that Williams was legally insane at the time of the murders.
Throughout the trial, they have relied on the insanity defense and Williams’ mental health history to try to prove that, due to mental illness, she did not know what she was doing, that it was wrong, or that it had consequences.
In court on Monday, witnesses for both sides paid close attention to Williams’ actions before and after the murders.
The defense argued that before the murders, Williams spent the day wandering the neighborhood, hallucinating, and mumbling to herself.
Psychiatrist Dr. Bhushan Agharkar said he evaluated Williams three times after the murders. He stated Williams was severely psychotic and diagnosed her with schizophrenia.
“She had been hearing voices for a long time. She had been hearing spirits. Seeing dead people on the streets,” said Agharkar, “She did believe that her urine and feces had special powers. She used it like holy water, sprinkling it on things. She did believe she had powers from God.”
Agharkar said Williams was not medicated at the time of the murders. He stated that after two evaluations, she was found not competent to proceed with trial, but once she was sent to a hospital for treatment, her behavior shifted radically, after she was medicated. She was eventually found to be competent.
Agharkar testified that Williams was “ horrified” when she learned she had murdered Sharon and Daryl Getman. “She couldn’t believe she had done this,” said Agharkar.
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 the home and plotted a return to Georgia.
According to investigators, she visited several homes 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.
They also argued that her behavior prior to and after the shooting indicated that she was thinking rationally.
According to prosecutors, after stabbing the victims to death, Williams tried to use Clorox to clean up, showered, purchased a wig, stole the victims’ jewelry, and stole the victims’ car to head back to Savannah.
“Stealing a vehicle and fleeing the state speaks to the consciousness of guilt,” said psychologist Dr. Jason Demery.
Demery also testified about body camera video captured by Mount Dora Police about 24 hours before the murders in which Williams was trespassed from the Hampton Inn.
Demery testified that several times during that interaction, Williams likely knew she shouldn’t have been on the property and fabricated the truth to “thwart responsibility.”
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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