After waiving her first appearance, an Atlanta woman accused of putting two of her three sons in an oven and turning it on is due in court for a preliminary hearing Monday.
Lamora Williams, 24, faces murder charges in connection with the violent Oct. 13 death of her boys, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Williams allegedly called a friend, then the boys’ father, Jameel Penn, who told police Williams showed him the crime scene on a video call. He didn’t know if what he saw was real, he told a 911 dispatcher.
When officials arrived at the Oakland City West End apartment on Howell Place, the boys, 2-year-old Ke’Younte Penn and 1-year-old Ja’Karter Williams, were dead.
They had “received burn marks on their bodies at some point,” according to Atlanta police. Investigators hauled an oven away.
The warrant states Williams killed the youngest of her four children “by placing them in an oven and turning it on.”
Friends and family members told the AJC they’d tried to get help for Williams’ because they believed she struggled with mental illness.
“We don’t think, we know she had mental health problems,” Williams’ sister, Tabitha Hollingsworth said.
Mother Brenda Williams tried to get help for her daughter from school officials when she was young and later through the Division of Family and Children Services, but no one diagnosed Williams with a disorder, Hollingsworth said.
“Teachers would say something was wrong, but the state said nothing was wrong,” Hollingsworth said. “This is something the state didn’t recognize. The whole state really failed us.”
Williams and Penn called 911 within one minute of each other about 11 p.m. Oct. 13.
Williams waited more than 2 minutes before sharing her apartment’s address with the dispatcher, focusing instead on whether she would be in trouble for being away at work, she said on the 911 call.
“This is so serious; I’m so scared,” Williams told the dispatcher. “I don’t want to get locked up because I was at work.”
She has been in jail without bond since her arrest.
Williams is scheduled to appear at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Fulton County Superior Court.
In other news:
About the Author
