An impassioned plea from Gloria Williams to have her 18-year prison sentence reduced for kidnapping Kamiyah Mobley in 1998 has been dashed by a Duval County Circuit Court judge.
Despite assurances that she is working hard to improve herself four years into a prison sentence for stealing the hours-old infant from a Jacksonville maternity ward, the motion to cut her time in half was not filed in a timely manner, Judge Jeb Branham said.
His one-page response Tuesday also said he declined to address its merits.
“The court commends defendant for her efforts to rehabilitate herself and sympathizes with Ms. Mobley’s perspective,” Branham wrote. “However, even if the motion was filed on time, the court would not find a basis to undo the original sentencing judge’s decision.”
On July 10, 1998, Mobley was taken out of what was then called University Medical Center (now UF Health Jacksonville) by Williams. The South Carolina woman, dressed in medical scrubs, had befriended then-15-year-old Shanara Mobley after wandering the hospital’s halls, only to take her baby hours later.
As the frantic search for “Baby Kamiyah” continued, she and Williams disappeared for 18 years. Williams raised her as her own daughter Alexis Manigo in Walterboro, South Carolina. Then on Jan. 13, 2017, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office announced investigators had found Kamiyah after she had become suspicious trying to get her Social Security card for a job application and was finally told by Williams she had taken her at birth.
Thirteen months later, Williams pleaded guilty to kidnapping and interference of custody, a plea agreement giving her 18 years in prison.
Williams filed her own brief in 2019, arguing that the 18-year sentence was unreasonable and constituted cruel and unusual punishment. She wrote that she had suffered a devastating miscarriage and was experiencing postpartum depression as well as mental and emotional disturbance. But in late July 2019, Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal affirmed a lower court’s ruling and rejected her appeal.
Williams’ latest motion, filed December 6, asked the courts to cut her sentence to nine years. She wrote that she is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration on top of community service.
“From my arrival to the present, the amount of community service hours I have acquired is a testament to my sincere desire for self-betterment,” she said.
The motion also included a handwritten letter from Mobley, supporting Williams’ request.
“I would like to make it very clear that she is my mother,” Mobley wrote. “She raised me and not only provided for my needs, but she loved me unconditionally.”
Mobley’s letter goes on to say she is an independent, college-educated and deeply spiritual person “because of all my mom gave me.” She said she is fully aware of “how my mom became my mom” and is grateful to have met her birth parents. But while nothing justifies what happened in the past, she asked “the court’s grace and mercy, as I need my mother home.”
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