MOUNT DORA, Fla. — Darryl Getman, 83, and his wife Sharon, 80, had been married for more than two decades when they opened their door on New Year’s Eve 2022 to a stranger who asked to use their shower and charge her phone.
Hours later, both were dead. A butcher knife was still buried in Darryl Getman’s abdomen. Sharon lay nearby in a pool of blood. Their green Kia Soul was gone.
The woman they let inside, Vickie Lynn Williams, now 54, is on trial in Lake County for two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Her lawyers say she should walk free because she was legally insane.
A Random Act of Kindness That Ended in Blood
Williams had been wandering the Waterman Village retirement community for hours. Security saw her. Cameras captured her. One resident was so unnerved he hit a panic alarm after she knocked on his door asking to shower. The Getmans let her in anyway.
Prosecutors say that between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., Williams grabbed kitchen knives and stabbed the couple repeatedly. Both had defensive wounds. A forensic pathologist testified they died from multiple stab wounds. Afterward, prosecutors say, Williams washed her clothes in the couple’s laundry room, took their car keys, and drove off. Surveillance video showed the Kia leaving the community at 2:02 a.m.
She was arrested three days later at an Amtrak station in Savannah, Georgia, still sitting in the stolen car. When a man she stayed with later testified, he said she told him she had “bought a new car” and rushed inside “like somebody was after her.”
The Insanity Defense
Williams’ public defenders argue she was in the grip of psychosis and schizophrenia. They say she believed the elderly couple planned to rape and kill her children and that she had to stop them. Jail mental-health staff have testified she is “severely mentally ill” and has shown delusional behavior behind bars.
Prosecutors concede Williams has mental-health problems. They say that does not mean she did not know what she was doing. They point to her actions after the killings: washing her clothes, stealing the car, driving hundreds of miles, lying about where she got it, and denying she had even been in Florida during a two-hour interrogation. They also note her documented psychosis symptoms were not recorded until months after her arrest.
Williams has a criminal record stretching back decades that includes assault and robbery. The judge has already rejected a defense motion to throw out the first-degree murder charges.
Family Speaks
This week the couple’s children took the stand. Their daughter Brittany identified her mother’s stolen jewelry. Their son Anthony said the last time he saw his parents was Christmas, just days before they were killed. They had recently moved to Waterman Village, excited to spend their retirement near friends.
The trial, delayed for years by competency hearings, continues. If the jury rejects the insanity claim and convicts Williams of first-degree murder, she faces a possible death sentence.
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