Sentences handed down in 2 Escambia County murder cases

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (WALA) - Defendants in two murder trials in Florida’s Escambia County received their sentences in court actions on Tuesday, according to the state attorney’s office.

State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden announced that Circuit Court Judge Linda Nobles sentenced James Edward Hicks to serve life in prison for the second-degree murder of Terri Jo Williams.

An Escambia County jury found James Hicks guilty of killing his roommate, 65-year-old Terri Jo Williams, and then staging the scene to make it appear as if she had drowned herself in a small garden pond in the front yard, according to Madden’s office.

The state attorney also announced that Circuit Court Judge John Simon sentenced Charles Tyree Moore III, to serve 50 years in state prison for the second-degree murder of Durrell Dupree Palmer.

An Escambia County jury found Moore guilty as charged on May 17. The homicide occurred at a Circle K convenience store in Cantonment in 2022. At the time of the homicide, the two men were engaged in a heated conversation over an argument that had begun on social media. Moore pulled a handgun from his waistband and shot Palmer four times in the torso at close range, prosecutors said.