UPDATE: Gloria Williams will testify at 10:30 a.m. Friday. First Coast News will livestream her testimony on our website and Facebook page.
For the first time since the discovery of "baby" Kamiyah Mobley in January 2017, the world will hear from the woman who kidnapped her from her mother's hospital room in 1998.
Gloria Williams is expected to testify at her sentencing hearing Friday morning, and attempt to provide justification -- or perhaps just an explanation -- for her actions. She faces up to 22 years for kidnapping and 5 years for interfering with child custody -- sentences that would be served concurrently. Williams' family is hoping for much less prison time, however. Her parents, husband and two adult sons pleaded with Judge Marianne Aho Thursday for leniency.
Kamiyah Mobley, the girl raised as Alexis Manigo, will not testify on behalf of Williams, however. Yesterday, Williams' attorneys gave the judge 4 or 5 TV interviews with the girl, "in lieu of testimony." The fact that Kamiayah will not testify came as a surprise to many observers, since the girl has been largely supportive of the woman who raised her. Her refusal to testify is not considered helpful to Williams' case.
Ultiamtely, it is up to Judge Aho to decide Gloria Williams fate, but if the biological parents of Kamiyah Mobley had their way, her punishment would be severe.
“I would say death,” biological mom Shanara Mobley told the court when asked what sentence she would like to see Williams face, eliciting gasps from the courtroom.
Father Craig Aiken was more circumspect. “This is the part that she makes it hard for me, because my daughter doesn’t want to see her get time,” he said. Addressing Williams directly, he added, “But you got to pay for this.”
Williams pleaded guilty to kidnapping and interference with child custody. She faces a maximum prison sentence of 22 years based on those pleadings, but she could get much less if Circuit Judge Marianne Aho chooses.
Both parents testified Thursday that the agony of a stolen infant was aggravated by the judgment of the Jacksonville community. The former couple testified they were viewed as suspects by police, neighbors – even one another – after the newborn infant was stolen from Shanara Mobley’s hospital room in 1998. Aiken’s grandmother said Shanara “turned on me” at one point, wondering if she’d helped orchestrate the abduction.
It was a dramatic day of testimony. Shanara Mobley broke down almost immediately, and at one point shouted out to her daughter at the rear of the courtroom, “I am your mother, Kamiyah! I am your mother.”
She testified that she missed all the important milestones with her first child, including her first steps and prom. She told the judge she celebrated the girl’s birthday each year, with a cake she kept frozen for 18 years. “I was hoping she would come back and I could show it to her,” she said.
She said she always believed the girl was alive; she could sense it. “I always thought about my baby every day, every day, every day," she said.
The sentencing hearing is expected to last through Friday. Williams is expected to testify on Friday around 10:30 a.m.
First Coast News will be live streaming the court hearing.