A Georgia woman has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murdering her two young sons, ages 2 and 1, in a horrific act of violence that shocked the Atlanta community.
Lamora Williams, 26, was found guilty of 14 charges, including murder, felony murder, and child cruelty, in the deaths of her children, Ke-Yaunte Penn and Ja’Karter Penn, in October 2017. The prosecution revealed that Williams “knowingly and intentionally” killed her sons by placing them in an oven and turning it on.
Williams was said to have suffered from a long history of mental illness. Pictured is a tribute left for the boys after they were murdered in October 2017The tragic incident occurred in Williams’ Atlanta apartment. She initially contacted 911 to report that she had discovered her children dead upon returning home from work. According to a police arrest warrant, Williams claimed to have found the stove on Ja’Karter’s head, with Ke-Yaunte’s body laid out on the floor. Investigators soon revealed that both children had suffered severe burns consistent with prolonged exposure to heat. A third child, a 3-year-old boy, was found unharmed in the apartment.
Williams, who was 24 at the time, told authorities that the children had been in the care of a third party when the incident occurred. However, further investigation contradicted her story, determining that the boys had been placed in the oven the night before the 911 call.
Lamora Williams, pictured, will spend the rest of her life in prison after she ‘knowingly and intentionally’ killed her two toddler sons by ‘placing them in an oven and turning it on. After a trial, a jury convicted Williams of the murders and other charges, including aggravated assault and providing false statements. Following the conviction, Williams was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, in addition to 35 extra years for other charges.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by Law & Crime, Williams killed her children sometime between midnight on October 12, 2017, and the evening of October 13. The coroner’s report indicated that the children’s burns appeared to be caused by dry heat, suggesting they were subjected to intense heat for an extended period.
Despite maintaining her innocence, Williams’ defence was unsuccessful, and the jury sided with the prosecution’s version of events. A forensic pathologist’s report revealed that the children’s injuries were consistent with prolonged exposure to heat, further supporting the police investigation.
Williams had a history of mental health struggles, which worsened after the death of her father when she was 19, and she had been raising four children as a single mother. Her family, including her mother, has suggested that Williams’ mental state deteriorated following a breakup with the children’s father, Jameel Penn.
In a chilling 911 call, Williams’ mother described the grim discovery. “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,” she told the dispatcher.
The children’s father, Jameel Penn, also recounted the moment he received a video call from Williams showing the lifeless bodies of his sons. He immediately contacted authorities after realising the severity of the situation. “I just received a call from my child’s mother that my … two of my … two dead babies; my sons are dead in an apartment,” Penn told a 911 dispatcher. He described the scene as “like a real horror movie.”
Police launched their investigation into Williams, then 24, after she called 911 to report that she had come home from work and found the children dead in her Atlanta apartment. Pictured is two-year-old Ke-Yaunte. Although the coroner’s report stated that the children’s heads were found trapped in the tipped-over oven, it contradicted police claims that they were burned alive. Despite this, the jury found Williams guilty, and she was sentenced to life imprisonment for her heinous crimes.