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| Photo(Will Dickey/The Florida Times-Union via AP, Pool) |
She will also serve five years concurrently on a charge of custody interference.
Gloria Williams was sentenced for the kidnapping of Kamiyah Mobley from a hospital in Jacksonville in July 1998.
The 52-year-old Williams testified at her trial that she wore scrubs to look like a nurse and put the infant in a bag and secreted her out of the hospital. She said she was in an abusive relationship at the time and suffering from depression.
On Friday, Williams stood next to her attorneys wearing an orange jumpsuit as the judge read the sentence. She looked down as if in prayer and did not visibly react to the judge's words.
"There are no winners and no losers in this case," Judge Marianne Aho said just before announcing the sentence. Aho said many people had suffered in the case, including Williams.
"The family in this case suffered not knowing what happened to their child for approximately 18 years."
Williams got credit for 511 days she's already served, and has 30 days to appeal the sentencing.
Williams raised Mobley - who grew up as Alexis Manigo - in Walterboro, South Carolina, until her arrest in 2017. She didn't tell the girl of her true identity until the girl discovered she couldn't get a driver's license because she didn't have a valid birth certificate or Social Security card.
After finding out her true identity, Mobley told a friend about it. Eventually, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received an anonymous tip about Kamiyah's whereabouts, and authorities were alerted and Williams arrested.
Since learning her identity, Kamiyah has legally changed her name from Alexis and reconnected with her birth parents Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken, according to news reports.
Kamiyah has spent time with her biological parents but still supports the only mother she knew. She has professed sadness that Williams faces years in a prison cell, and had pleaded for a shorter sentence. She showed up in tears at Williams' first hearing.
Kamiyah did not attend Friday's sentencing hearing, according to news reports.
Williams testified at her trial earlier this year that when she stole the newborn Kamiyah Mobley in 1998, she had lost custody of her two other children and was in an abusive relationship that led her to miscarry about a month before. After the loss of her pregnancy, she drove to Jacksonville from South Carolina.
She had testified that she had no plans to kidnap a child.
from associated press
*OMG.....what is wrong is wrong but i feel so so sorry for this woman!!!
No matter how you ran it caught up with you. Sorry ma'am.
ReplyDeleteChai
ReplyDeleteIts such a sad story, I hope the charges are reduced and the girls birth parents allows the lady have lil contact with the girl
ReplyDeleteThe "girl" is an adult. She can do whatever she wants. This is america
DeleteParents kwa. She's an adult.
DeleteShe’s not only an adult but a mother herself as she already has a child or even kids. Her and her biological parents are not exactly seeing eye to eye because of money. She wanted the money because she heard there was a trust fund or something (monetary) created for her when they were looking for her as a baby. The parents spent it when they ran into hard times and needed money years later. They both divorced due to the emotional pressure/trauma of not knowing what happened to their child, blaming each other, fighting and snapping at one another. They separated and had other families. Now the girl is mad at them for spending “her” money. And they’re disappointed that it looks like she only came back because of the money and not to really to reunite with them. Plus she’s still openly supporting the woman who kidnapped and raised her but she’s only demanding money from the parents who went through so much after she got kidnapped as a baby. The whole thing is just so sad. That woman just distabilized the family till date and she’s still getting support from her victim (can’t really blame the girl though, that’s the only mother she ever knew). Just sad
DeleteI feel sorry for her especially as she raised the girl with love. But the truth is she stole a baby and put the parents through 18yrs of turmoil. She should serve her time I beg. A thief is a thief!!!
ReplyDeleteDepression is terrible. Losing once child isn't easy. I feel sorry for her and the mobley parents. 18yrs is too much
ReplyDeleteThis is pure wickedness.
ReplyDeleteImagine what the real parents must have gone through for 18 years. Haba!
Feel sorry for the woman or the parents that tgfy stole their baby for years.
ReplyDeleteShe deserves it. You dont make other people suffer because of your misfortune. You can Imagine what the birth parents have gone tru for 18 yrs, its better to know your child is dead then missing for so long. it can kill anyone
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteOmg. For the sake of the young lady I hope they make her sentence shorter. Na wa
ReplyDeleteEheya..
ReplyDeleteChai!!.
ReplyDeleteThey should please reduce the sentence. Madam but you no try at all.
Thank God you raise the girl like your own.
If you set a trap for a woman, just put marriage or children in it
ReplyDeleteand it will catch big time.
Thank God she raise the baby as her own.. Women can do anything to have a child
ReplyDeleteShe already had kids
DeleteThe woman committed a crime and she should be punished. She actually raised the girl very well. Mere looking at the father of the girl shows that the girl may not have had a good life she.hadif raised by her biological parents. It is really a sad story and I pray yhatGod will not make anybody barren and mothers will not pass through this nasty experience.
ReplyDeleteShe wasn’t even barren. She already had kids. Just had a miscarriage due to domestic abuse on her third pregnancy
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