New fitness-to-plea report ordered for woman accused of killing her baby
Published:Thursday | November 14, 2024 | 12:06 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Shamoya Green, the St James woman charged with the December 2023 murder of her five-month-old infant daughter, who was thrown from the roof of a three-storey building, was ordered to get an updated fitness-to-plea report when she appeared in the St James Circuit Court yesterday.
Green, who was previously declared unfit to plea to the murder of her daughter, Destiny Brown, had a blank expression on her face during what was her first in-person appearance in the Circuit Court, where she appeared before High Court Justice Bertram Morrison, who made the order for the updated report. She is to return to court on January 24 next year.
The order was made after lead prosecutor Kimberley Dell-Williams pointed out that Green’s two previous reports, which outlined her unfitness to enter a plea due to having mental challenges, were prepared in June and July of this year.
“When the matter was committed to the Circuit Court, I noticed that there were some fitness-to-plea reports on the back of the file, but they are dated from June and July [2024], and they are indicating that she is not fit to plea. One of the reports is from a regular psychiatrist and one is from a forensic psychiatrist,” said Dell-Williams. “We need another report.”
The issue of Green’s mental state was a major concern when she appeared in the St James Parish Court before her case was committed to the Circuit Court on September 30.
During her first parish court appearance on March 6, Green displayed hallucinatory behaviour and had an epileptic seizure, an incident that required the intervention of court officers and other bystanders.
During a later court sitting on April 3, parish court judge Natiesha Fairclough-Hylton expressed concern about a preliminary psychiatric report, which stated that Green had suicidal tendencies, including trying to kill herself on the day of her daughter’s death.
The findings of Green’s completed psychiatric assessment were eventually revealed to the court on September 4, where it was disclosed that up to that time, Green was suffering from a seizure disorder with resulting psychosis and that her condition had not improved in the previous months.
The allegations against Green are that on December 6, 2023, about 5:35 p.m., Green was at her Barrett Hall home in Lilliput, St James, with her common-law husband and other family when she tried to engage her spouse in a conversation about their relationship. However, he refused to entertain the conversation.
Green reportedly became enraged and took her daughter to the roof of the third floor of the family’s house and threw her onto a concrete pit in the yard. The police were alerted, and the child was taken to the hospital, where she died while being treated.