Psychiatric evaluation ordered for mom whose kids perished in blaze

A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered for the St James woman who was charged in connection with the death of her two sons who perished in a fire last Friday.

Shantel Brown, 28, was charged with four counts of negligence.

Brown, who appeared in court without legal representation, was remanded into custody and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. She is to return to court November 19. She is facing charges resulting from the deaths of her two sons, 8-year-old Javanchi Lauderdale Palmer, and one-year-old Tyler McLeod, and the injuring of her two daughters, 6-year-old Corey-Ann Palmer and Tyler's twin sister, Tailer.

The police have reported that last week Friday, a team of officers on patrol in Norwood saw Brown and a group of persons on the road. The lawmen instructed them to go home but, when the officers drove back to the same location, Brown and her friends had returned to the streets.

Minutes later, a woman raised an alarm that Brown's house on Ban Lane was on fire.

It was then discovered that Brown had left all four children alone inside the house.

When the fire was extinguished, firemen discovered the charred remains of 8-year-old Javanchi Palmer on a bed and the remains of his younger brother Tyler McLeod underneath the bed.

Six-year-old Cory-Ann barely managed to run from the blazing house while dragging her one-year-old sister with her.

-H. B