US Woman Sentenced to Life for Killing Sons by “Placing Them in Oven”.
Lamora Williams, a 24-year-old mother from Atlanta, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of her two young sons.
Williams was convicted on 14 counts and received an additional 35 years on top of her life sentence.
As far back as October 2017 Williams made a frantic call to emergency services, claiming she had returned home to find her sons, Ja’Karter Penn, aged 1, and Ke’Yaunte Penn, aged 2, dead.
During the 911 call, Williams described the horrifying scene: “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.”
Pleading for help, she added, “Can you please help me? 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.”
Around the same time, the children’s father, Jameel Penn, also contacted emergency services after receiving a video call from Williams.
“I just received a call from my child’s mother that…my…two dead babies, my sons are dead in an apartment. She video-called me, and I seen it. I really think they are dead,” he reported.
Police officers responding to the scene found the children with severe burn marks. Initial reports suggested that the toddlers’ injuries were due to the stove, but the medical examiner later confirmed that their heads were placed inside a tipped-over oven, leading to “thermal changes” from prolonged exposure to heat. The autopsy report indicated, “It would require an extensive amount of time to get to this degree.”
Williams’ arrest warrant stated that between midnight on October 12, 2017, and 11 pm the following day, she “knowingly and intentionally” placed her sons in the oven and turned it on.
Despite her conviction, Williams continued to maintain her innocence and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Her mother, Brenda Williams, revealed that Lamora had a history of mental health struggles and expressed concerns for her well-being, calling for her to be placed on suicide watch while in custody.
