‘She thought she was doing the right thing’: Mentally ill mom drowns her two baby girls in a plastic tub

A Savannah, Georgia, mother who was found guilty but mentally ill of drowning her two youngest daughters will spend the rest of her life in prison.

The Savannah Morning News reported that Chatham County Superior Court Judge James Bass Jr. sentenced Jokeera Viola Morgan, 28, Friday to two consecutive life sentences for the malice murders of her two children. The mother of four will serve her time in a state facility where she’ll undergo mental health treatment.

Morgan was found guilty of drowning 8-month-old Savannah West and 18-month-old Zyra Morgan—one by one—in her home on October 6, 2015. The jury rejected parts of the defense argument that she was mentally ill when she killed the children and the verdict hinged on whether she knew right from wrong at the time, the local paper wrote.

Assistant public defender Todd Martin noted that his client had been admitted to a hospital and was taking medication to treat mental health issues. It was revealed in court that authorities had removed her two oldest children from her custody before the 2015 murders.

“When she killed her children she didn’t know right from wrong. She thought she was doing the right thing,” the defense attorney told a jury.

The paper also reported that Morgan had called a 911 operator and explained how she undressed one child, put her in the plastic tub full of water, and submerged her until she stopped breathing. She discarded the first baby’s body in the hallway before grabbing her second daughter and repeating the process.

According to WTOC, Savannah-Chatham police detective testified that Morgan told police that she killed her babies because she “felt she couldn’t take care of them.”

[Featured Image: Chatham County Sheriff’s Office]