Mom accused of fatally throwing baby off roof awaits psychiatric evaluation
ST JAMES, Jamaica— Shamoya Green, the woman who allegedly threw her five-month-old daughter off the roof of their home in December 2023, leading to the child’s tragic death, is currently awaiting psychiatric treatment.
When the case was mentioned in the St James Parish Court on Thursday, presiding judge Natiesha Fairclough-Hylton issued an order after learning that Green, who was absent due to being at the Falmouth Public General Hospital in Trelawny for undisclosed injuries, is scheduled to be committed for psychiatric evaluation on July 3.
The judge had expressed concern that Green had not received an assessment following the incident, despite being under the care of the psychiatric unit at Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.
“If Miss Green is in the hospital for physical ailments, what is the difficulty in assessing her for her mental illness at the same time?” asked the judge on Thursday, expressing astonishment that this course of action had not been taken in Green’s case.
“The truth is, I only became aware that she is hospitalised this morning. I don’t know if the family is aware,” the court clerk said.
“When an individual goes to the hospital, I presume that if that individual suffers from a mental disorder, that is going to manifest itself at some point during the course of the hospitalisation. When it manifests itself, I think, that immediately the nurses there would alert the nurses or doctors who specialise in that ailment so that they can come and do an assessment. That is what I think; it might not necessarily be how it operates there,” Fairclough-Hylton said, while expressing surprise that such an avenue has not been taken in Green’s case.
The court clerk then indicated to the court that they are aware of the challenges faced by the department in scheduling appointment dates.
“What I’ll do, in the interim, I’ll set a date for us to make contact with the psychiatric department to advise them that she’s already hospitalised, so if they could make some allowances to see her, we would be grateful,” Fairclough-Hylton declared.
The judge then scheduled the case for May 16 so that contact could be made with the hospital to see if the accused could be seen by a psychiatric doctor at Falmouth hospital.
Allegations are that on December 6, 2023 about 5:35 pm, Green was at home with her common-law husband and other family members when she asked to have a conversation with her partner about their relationship. However, the man reportedly deferred the talks for later that evening.
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Green allegedly became enraged and left the room, taking her five-month-old daughter Destiny with her. She reportedly took Destiny to the roof on the third floor of the building and threw the child onto the concrete pit in the yard.
The police were alerted and Destiny was taken to the hospital, where she died while being treated.
READ: Mother allegedly throws baby girl to death during argument with spouse in St James