An Atlanta mother will spend the rest of her life in prison after killing her toddlers by placing them inside an oven.
In October 2017, Lamora Williams called 911 to report she had found her two young boys dead in her home after leaving them with a caregiver. But, investigators and prosecutors found evidence that indicated she killed two-year-old Ke’Younte Penn and one-year-old Ja’Karter Williams.
She was convicted on several charges, including murder, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 35 years on Friday, Fox 5 Atlanta reports. Williams pleaded not guilty and has maintained her innocence.
The investigation began after Williams, then 24, first called the police seven years ago to report her children were dead.
"When I came in, the stove was laying on my son, on my youngest son’s head, and my other son was laid out on the floor with his brains laid out on the floor. I don’t know what to do. I just came home from work," Williams told the 911 operator, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
“Can you please help me?” she went on to ask the dispatcher, according to Law and Crime. “Like, can you please tell me, like, I don’t want to get locked up because this is not my fault. I had just came home from work.”
When officers arrived, they found the toddler and baby. They reported the children had burn marks.
A medical examiner disagreed that they were burns and said their heads were likely placed inside a tipped-over oven. The examiner’s autopsy report stated they suffered “thermal changes” from “dry heat and changes from prolonged exposure to heat,” Law and Crime reports.
“It would require an extensive amount of time to get to this degree,” the autopsy report reads.
However, prosecutors used the responding officers’s report in court instead as they argued Williams placed her children inside the oven, Law and Crime reports.
Around the same time Williams called the police, another 911 call came in – this time, from children’s father Jameel Penn.
“I just received a call from my child’s mother that…my…two dead babies, my sons are dead in an apartment,” Penn told the 911 operator, according to Law and Crime. “She video called me and I seen it. I really think they are dead.”
Penn later told local outlet WSB-TV the scene “was like a real horror movie.”
The Atlanta Police Department went on to arrest Williams, arguing she “knowingly and intentionally” killed the children “by placing them in an oven and turning it on.”
Williams maintained her innocence.
Williams’s mother, Brenda, said her daughter had struggled with mental health issues – and that she needed to be placed on suicide watch while in custody.
"I just came from the jail, I also let them know, to put her on suicide watch because she’s gonna kill herself," she told WSB-TV in 2017 soon after Williams’s arrest.
Williams’s sister Tabitha Hollingsworth told the same outlet the children’s deaths were preventable.
"This was something we saw that could possibly happen,” Hollingsworth said. “She’s had issues from a baby. Issues my mom tried to address with the state of Georgia.”
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
