A Georgia mother who claimed she found her toddler sons dead after leaving them with a caregiver has been sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 35 years for killing them by placing them inside an oven in 2017.
Lamora Williams, who maintained her innocence throughout the trial, was convicted Friday of murdering two-year-old Ke’Younte Penn and one-year-old Ja’Karter Williams in a case that shocked Atlanta. The 31-year-old initially told police she discovered her children dead beneath an overturned stove, but investigators found evidence pointing to deliberate homicide.
“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,” Williams told a 911 operator in October 2017. “I don’t want to get locked up because this is not my fault. I had just came home from work.”
The children’s father, Jameel Penn, received a video call from Williams showing the scene. “I just received a call from my child’s mother that…my…two dead babies, my sons are dead in an apartment,” Penn told emergency dispatchers. He later described the scene to WSB-TV as “like a real horror movie.”
Medical examiners determined the boys suffered “thermal changes” from “dry heat and prolonged exposure to heat,” contradicting Williams’ account. Police concluded she “knowingly and intentionally” killed the children by placing them in the oven and turning it on.
Family members claimed Williams struggled with mental health issues that went unaddressed. “This was something we saw that could possibly happen,” her sister Tabitha Hollingsworth told WSB-TV. “She’s had issues from a baby. Issues my mom tried to address with the state of Georgia.”
Williams’ mother, Brenda, had warned jail officials to place her daughter on suicide watch following her arrest. The case highlighted questions about mental health support and child protection services in Georgia.
