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East Atlanta woman gets life and more for murdering ex-lover

Defense attorneys argued the deadly shooting was self-defense.

By Joshua Sharpe

Oct 5, 2017

Victoria Rickman was sentenced to life without parole, plus five years, in DeKalb County court Thursday for killing her ex-lover.

A jury convicted the East Atlanta woman of murder last month, finding she made up a story about William James Carter Jr. raping her so she could get away with killing him. She did it with at least 10 gunshots to his back in September 2013.

The gun belonged to a Cobb County Sheriff's deputy who was a friend of Rickman.

Judge J. P. Boulee handed down the sentence.

Prosecutors argued Rickman wanted to kill Carter after he refused to drop a battery charge against her.

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“If you want to know what malice murder looks like, this is what it looks like,” prosecutor Sheila Ross told the jury.

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