Northern California mom accused of drowning her sons charged with murder, child abuse
Prosecutors on Monday filed murder charges against a Northern California mother accused of drowning her two sons in a bathtub full of water at their home.
Courtney Roxanne Williams, 25, has been formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her two children, 5-month-old Holden Williams and his 2-and-a-half-year-old brother Ronin Williams, according to the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office.
The mother also faces two counts of child abuse resulting in death, prosecutors said. If convicted as charged, Williams could face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Williams remained in custody at the Yuba County Jail, and she was scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon in Yuba Superior Court, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The reported drowning occurred Thursday at the home in the 6100 block of Sunshine Avenue in Linda. Williams’ husband called 911 after discovering she had drowned their two young boys in a bathtub, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department has said.
The boys’ father had returned home from work that day, when his wife, Williams, allegedly told him that she had hurt the children, sheriff’s officials said. The father searched the home and found his sons unresponsive in the bathtub full of water.
Sheriff’s officials said deputies arrived at the home, found the boys in a bathroom and immediately began performing CPR. Despite attempts to save their lives, the two children were pronounced dead at the scene.
Linda is a town of about 22,000 people, east of Marysville and about 40 miles north of Sacramento.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 1:41 PM.
