Jury selection is expected to begin Tuesday in the Lake County trial of Vickie Williams, the woman accused of stabbing Darryl and Sharon Getman to death inside their senior living facility apartment in Mount Dora nearly four years ago. Williams faces two counts of first-degree murder and could face the death penalty if convicted, a case that has wound through Florida's courts since the couple's bodies were discovered in their apartment entryway in December 2022.
According to WKMG, investigators say Williams visited the Getmans' apartment the night before their bodies were discovered, at one point asking to use their shower and to charge her cellphone. Mount Dora police found 83-year-old Darryl Getman and 80-year-old Sharon Getman dead inside their apartment at the senior living facility, and the couple's car was missing the morning their bodies were discovered. Reports described severe injuries and defensive wounds, with a butcher-style knife found embedded in Darryl Getman's abdomen, according to FOX 35 Orlando.
Per investigators, detectives traced Sharon Getman's cellphone and used cellphone pings and license plate readers to follow the trail of evidence. Sharon Getman's cellphone had been left inside the missing vehicle, and the investigative trail eventually led detectives to Savannah, Georgia, where Williams was arrested in January 2023. When Savannah police took her into custody, she was driving the Getmans' missing vehicle, according to Boston 25 News. Reports did not specify how Williams obtained the vehicle.
A Trail of Erratic Behavior Before the Killings
The station's report also details how surveillance footage of a woman walking through the retirement community on the night in question was shown to Williams' mother and son, who both positively identified her to law enforcement, helping support probable cause for her arrest.
Court records reviewed by WFTV show that before targeting the Getmans, Williams had been escorted off the gated property by security around 3 p.m. that day but returned that night and knocked on another resident's door asking to shower, prompting that resident to hit an emergency panic button. That tenant later reported that Williams fled after stealing automobile and mailbox keys. The account also discusses events before Williams entered the community.
Security Gaps at a Gated Retirement Community
Mount Dora Police Chief Michael Gibson said in January 2023 that Williams likely re-entered the gated Lakeside at Waterman Village retirement community by exploiting gaps in perimeter fencing after security had already escorted her off the property, according to CBS News. Waterman Village added police presence following the killings. The investigation also examined Williams's background, though it remains unclear what, if any, bearing that information had on the case.
A Lake County grand jury formally indicted Williams on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of grand theft of a motor vehicle following evidence analysis by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Orlando crime lab, according to the Office of the State Attorney for Florida's Fifth Judicial Circuit.
More Than Three Years Before Trial
The case took more than three years to reach trial.
Now that jury selection is underway, the case's potential penalty is also at issue.
In a separate case, a 2024 Florida Supreme Court opinion involving Everett Glenn Miller noted that the jury unanimously recommended death sentences for each murder. — Supreme Court of Florida
