Williams was sentenced to life without parole for the Mount Dora killings of Darryl and Sharon Getman.

A life-without-parole sentence after a jury recommendation is the court's judgment. It is not an open penalty-phase question anymore, and it is not a new accusation. On Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, a Lake County jury recommended life without parole for Vickie Lynn Williams, 53, and Judge Cary F. Rada sentenced her to life in the Florida Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole for two first-degree murders in the December 2022 stabbing deaths of Darryl and Sharon Getman at Lakeside at Waterman Village in Mount Dora. That term is the judgment.

Earlier this week, after roughly 30 minutes of deliberations, the same Lake County jury found Williams guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the New Year's Eve 2022 killings of Darryl Getman, 83, and Sharon Getman, 80, inside their Mount Dora retirement-community home. A guilty verdict ended the guilt phase. It was not yet the sentence.

On Friday, the second day of the penalty phase, the jury recommended life without parole. Upon hearing that recommendation, Judge Cary F. Rada imposed life without parole in the Florida Department of Corrections. A jury recommendation of life is advice the court accepted here. The life term is the judgment the court entered.

The Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office says investigators from the Mount Dora Police Department, FDLE, and the Lake County Sheriff's Office tied Williams to the scene with forensic evidence, and that after the killings she fled in the Getmans' green Kia Soul and took jewelry and paintings. She was arrested in Savannah, Georgia, on Jan. 2, 2023, and had been held without bond. Those are the facts as the State Attorney's Office and Florida outlets reported them. They are not a new trial.

At the penalty phase, the state argued aggravators including financial gain tied to the stolen vehicle and that the crime was especially heinous, and the defense presented mitigation including schizophrenia and other mental-illness evidence. The jury still recommended life. A life recommendation is not a finding that the state failed to prove guilt. Guilt was already decided.