Psychiatric Testing Ordered For Boston Woman Charged In Her Uncle’s Death

A Boston woman charged with fatally shooting her uncle was ordered Monday to undergo a mental health evaluation.

Yvonne Lewis, 36, faces murder and other charges in the weekend shooting of Clive Francis.

Lewis appeared Monday in West Roxbury Municipal Court, where a judge ordered her to return on Nov. 16 following completion of the psychiatric evaluation.

Police responding to reports of gunfire on Saturday found Francis, 49, at a home in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. He died at a hospital.

Police say Lewis fled the scene in an SUV and was found about five hours later in Peabody.

Family members say the two were very close, but the relationship had become strained as Lewis struggled with personal issues.

In court Monday, a prosecutor said that when Lewis began acting erratically, relatives called Francis, believing he would calm her down. Later, when a family member went upstairs to check on Francis, he was found mortally wounded. Prosecutors say Lewis shot Francis in the head.

Kay Francis, Clive Francis' sister and Lewis' aunt, said her niece was once an ambitious, intelligent woman but that had drug troubles.

"This is not who she was," she told The Boston Globe.