18-year sentence for theft of baby

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A woman who kidnapped a newborn from a Florida hospital two decades ago and raised the child as her own was sentenced Friday to 18 years for kidnapping. 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 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 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 before announcing the sentence. Aho said many people had suffered, including Williams.

Williams raised Mobley — who grew up as Alexis Manigo — in 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.