The Brief
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- Lamora Williams was sentenced to life without parole plus 35 years after being convicted on 14 charges, including the murder of her two sons.
- The conviction relates to a 2017 incident where Williams claimed to find her sons dead with burn marks; prosecutors argued she killed them by placing them in an oven.
- Williams made inconsistent claims about the whereabouts of a caregiver, while evidence showed she might have killed the children between Thursday night and Friday morning.
- The children’s father received a video call from Williams showing the deceased boys, supporting the argument that Williams was responsible.
- The jury found Williams guilty of various charges, despite her mother stating she had a history of mental illness and may have “snapped” after a breakup.
ATLANTA – An Atlanta mother accused of killing her two young sons by putting them in an oven has been convicted on 14 charges, including murder. Lamora Williams, 24, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole plus 35 years.
The case stems from an October 2017 incident when Williams called 911 shortly before midnight and told the operator she had come home to find her children dead. Officers arrived to discover the bodies of Ja’Karter Penn, 1, and Ke’Yaunte Penn, 2, with severe burn marks.
“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 said in a chilling 911 call.
Williams initially claimed she had left her three children with a caregiver from noon until late that evening, returning to find the boys dead and the caregiver gone. However, prosecutors argued that Williams put Ja’Karter and Ke’Yaunte in the oven sometime between late Thursday night and early Friday morning.
During the same timeframe, Jameel Penn, the boys’ father, made a frantic call to 911 from his workplace. He told dispatchers Williams had video-called him, showing the lifeless bodies of their children.
“She video called me and showed me this, and I seen [sic] it,” Penn said. “I think they are really dead.”
Prosecutors presented evidence that contradicted Williams’ claims, and the jury found her guilty on two counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree, two counts of concealing the death of another, one count of cruelty to children in the second degree, and one count of giving a false statement.
