Woman charged with fatally stabbing 4 of her children still at Mental Health Institute

July 11--Shanynthia Gardner, the 29-year old Memphis woman charged with killing four of her children, remains at the Memphis Mental Health Institute, Shelby County Sheriff's spokesman Earle Farrell said Monday.

Gardner's attorney, Craig Morton, and prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Eric Christensen, appeared in court Monday and said a mental evaluation will begin on her competency at the time of the killings she is charged with and her competency for the legal proceedings in court.

"We have to know what her mental state was," Christensen said outside the courtroom.

Deputies were called July 1 to the Greens at Irene apartments in southeast Shelby County where the four children were found dead with severe throat lacerations. Gardner was detained in the apartment with what looked like "superficial cuts to her neck and wrists," according to an affidavit. Another child, 7-year-old Dallen, fled the apartment.

The funeral for the slain children, Yahzi who was 22 weeks old; Sya, 3; Sahvi, 2; and Tallen; 4, was held Saturday where their father, Martin Gardner, urged people to remember how they lived.

"It was a happy home," he said. "We were happy. Our children were happy."

Morton on Monday said the mother is grieving and did not understand the consequences of her actions at the time.

"We hope that she gets the help that she needs," he said.

The case was reset for two weeks.

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