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Woman Pleads Guilty To Kidnapping Newborn From Hospital In 1998, Raising Her For 18 Years
Gloria Williams raised Alexis Manigo (birth name Kamiyah Mobley) after kidnapping her from a hospital.
A woman who abducted a baby and raised her into adulthood has pleaded guilty for her actions. As CNN reported, 52-year-old Gloria Williams pleaded guilty to kidnapping and interference with custody.
Back in 1998, Williams allegedly posed as a hospital worker in Jacksonville, Florida, and nabbed an infant baby girl. The infant's biological mother, Shanara Mobley, told authorities that she thought the woman who entered her room was a nurse. When Mobley asked the woman to place the baby in a carrier, she left the room with the newborn.
The child (seen below) was renamed Alexis Manigo, and Williams raised her as her own daughter. Nearly two decades later, the child realized that Williams used fraudulent documents and wasn't her biological mother. She discovered her true identity when she applied for a job that required a birth certificate and social security information. Her given name at birth was Kamiyah Mobley.
Prosecutors are looking to sentence Williams for up to 22 years in prison on the kidnapping charge as well as up to five years on the interference charge per the negotiated plea deal, said David Chapman, a spokesman for the Florida state's attorney office. Despite this, the 19-year-old said earlier that she wants leniency.
"I am certain that she's going to get time, but I'm hoping not very, very long," Manigo said previously. "I think they should be lenient. She took care of me very well."
She also said that that she understands where Williams' actions came from and believes that she is sorry.
"Don't get me wrong, I do feel like it was wrong. But we talked about it and I can understand at the time what was going on," Manigo told the Daily Mail. "I sympathize with her. I'm not mad at her."
Since realizing her true parentage, Manigo has since forged a relationship with her birth parents, Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken, as well as her siblings. Still, her birth mother has not forgiven Williams.
"It's been harder for my mother to cope. We are working on our relationship," explained Manigo. "I don't like to define which one is my mother, I like to be respectful of both parties."
Sentencing is set for the first week of May.
[Photo: Florida State Attorney's Office, Facebook]
