Gloria Williams, the woman who kidnapped a newborn baby from a Florida hospital in 1998 and raised her as her own has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Kamiyah Mobley was only hours old when Williams snatched her from a Jacksonville hospital and raised her as Alexis Manigo in South Carolina.
Kamiyah, now 20, learned the truth about her real identity when she tried to apply for a driver’s license and was informed Alexis Manigo didn’t exist.
Kamiyah was reunited with her birth parents and paternal grandmother following Williams’ arrest in 2016.
“I can love my grandbaby as my own now,” paternal grandmother Velma Aiken told the Post and Courier outside the courtroom. She said she crossed paths with the kidnapper who was leaving the hospital with baby Kamiyah in 1998.
“I remain focused on mending my family,” Kamiyah’s father Craig Aiken told the Courier.
But Kamiyah, who attended every day of Williams trial, remains loyal to the only mother she knew. Kamiyah pleaded with Florida Circuit Judge Marianne Aho for leniency.
Judge Aho sentenced Williams to a year in prison for every year Kamiyah was missing.
In addition the 18 year sentence, Williams receives credit for 511 days she’s served since her arrest. She will also serve five years concurrently for custody interference.
