Mother accused of killing her child collapses in court during epileptic episode
Published:Thursday | October 16, 2025 | 12:13 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Unexpected drama unfolded in the St James Circuit Court yesterday when Shamoya Green, the St James woman who reportedly threw her infant daughter off the roof of their home in 2023, collapsed in an epileptic episode in the prisoner’s dock during her fitness to plea hearing.
Green’s medical episode, which prompted immediate intervention from court officers and other onlookers, happened moments before the seven-member jury in the hearing could retire to deliberate on the defendant’s mental capacity to stand trial for the alleged murder of her five-month-old daughter, Destiny Brown.
The court took a brief recess to allow Green time to recover, following which the jury took 10 minutes to deliberate and then handed in a verdict, which stated that Green was unfit to plea due to disability of the mind.
“How are you feeling?” High Court Justice Andrea Pettigrew-Collins asked Green, in a compassionate tone, following her epileptic episode.
“My body feels weak,” Green replied, in an equally soft tone.
“She is to be taken to the doctor ... . I know that with some persons, they sometimes just come right around, but if she is not feeling well, then she is to be taken to the doctor immediately,” Pettigrew-Collins instructed.
The matter will be heard again on November 30, at which time Pettigrew-Collins will issue her own ruling in light of the jury’s verdict about Green’s unfitness for trial.
Green, who has been diagnosed as having psychosis and a seizure disorder, had collapsed during an epileptic seizure on a previous occasion, when her case was before the St James Parish Court on March 6, 2024. On that day, just before she collapsed, she told Parish Court Judge Kaysha Grant-Pryce that her children, including the deceased Destiny, were calling for her, despite them not being physically present.
Additionally, the day before Wednesday’s dramatic incident, psychiatrists Dr Myo Kyaw Oo and Dr Joni-Gaye McLeary told the St James Circuit Court that based on their assessments of Green’s condition between May 2024 and September 2025, they were of the view that she would not be able to understand court proceedings or give instructions to her legal team.
The court was also told that Green’s mental state is worsened by her seizures, which she has reportedly had since childhood, and that her psychosis includes incidents of holding conversations with unseen people.
According to reports, on December 6, 2023, Green became upset after her common-law husband refused to talk with her about their relationship. She allegedly took baby Destiny to the roof of their three-storey home and threw the child onto a concrete pit in the yard.
The police were alerted and Destiny was taken to the hospital, where she died while being treated.