Mother accused of stabbing her children to death has 2019 trial date
A 2019 date for a jury trial has been set for the Shelby County mother accused of stabbing to death four of her five children in 2016, although her attorney has said they may ask the court for a bench trial.
Two experts have determined that Shanynthia Gardner suffered from a mental illness or defect when on July 1, 2016, she killed 6-month-old Yahzi, 3year-old Sya, 2-year-old Sahvi and 4year-old Tallen.
Witnesses said her then-7-year-old son, Dallen, ran from the apartment on Southern Hill Drive in southeast Shelby County, yelling that his mother had stabbed his sister.
On Thursday, attorneys told Criminal Court Judge Jim Lammey that they had agreed to Aug. 26, 2019, for a jury trial. A status report on the case is scheduled for Dec. 12.
After the hearing, defense attorney Craig Morton said there is also the possibility that Gardner could have a bench trial.
“When you have a bench trial, it’s going to be a faster process and the judge decides on pretty much all the issues, rather than the jury. In a technical case like this, that may be a good thing,” Morton said. “You’ve got lay witnesses on the jury that may not understand or see the entire picture on the expert proof in the case. And it may very well be to Ms. Gardner’s interest to have a bench trial in this case.”
He would like to see Gardner eventually sent to a mental health facility where she can be properly be cared for.
“If that were the determination, then I think all the medical experts would agree that she needs to be treated in a hospital. I don’t think that any kind of release in the near future is in the cards, regardless of the outcome of the trial,” he said. “And I think everybody realizes that. It will be up to the doctors to be determined what happens after that.
And if it is found after the trial that she needs to be committed, he feels strongly that Judge Lammey would monitor her treatment and her term of commitment to the extent that he’s able.
In February, a report from psychiatrist Phillip Resnick found after assessing Gardner, that she suffered from severe mental illness. Resnick is the same expert who evaluated Andrea Yates in the 2001 drowning of her five children in Houston.
And in 2017, an examiner with West Tennessee Forensic Services found that Gardner suffered from severe mental disease or defect.
That expert also determined she was capable of consulting with her attorney and could understand the court proceedings but was mentally ill at the time of the killings.
“The medical examiner for the state came back and found Ms. Gardner to suffer from a mental defect that rendered her ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct at the time of the event in question,” Morton said in February. “In other words she met the definition of being not guilty by reason of insanity.”
Members of Gardner’s family were in court on Thursday for the brief hearing, but did not agree to be interviewed.
The family, Morton said, is struggling and heartbroken.
“Everybody’s crushed by it. I think everybody understands what happened. And it’s going to be our position that it was something that was not in her control and certainly wasn’t her intent,” he said.
Being detained in jail, which is not equipped for people with mental illness, has been difficult for Gardner, Morton said.
“She loved those children,” he said. “That’s what all the proof that I’ve accumulated shows, without a doubt.”