Gloria Williams’ motion to have her 18-year prison sentence reduced for the kidnapping of Kamiyah Mobley has been denied by a Jacksonville Judge, reported The Florida Times-Union. Williams argued she had been making efforts to improve herself since the incident and Kamiyah has spoken out in her defense pleading for her to come home.
The Florida Times-Union’s reported, Williams had been wandering the halls of the UF Health Jacksonville hospital dressed in scrubs in 1998. She had befriended Shanara Mobley, who was 15 years old at the time, and went off to the maternity ward to take her baby. Williams took the baby to South Carolina and raised her as her own for 18 years. Investigators found Kamiyah Mobley in 2017 when she went to find her Social Security card.
Williams pled guilty to kidnapping and interference of custody attributing her actions to mental health, per The Florida Times-Union.
More on the case from The Florida Times-Union:
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 filed a motion Dec 6. asking her sentence be reduced to nine years. Mobley contributed a written letter to the motion in support of Williams, per The Florida Times-Union.
“I would like to make it very clear that she is my mother. She raised me and not only provided for my needs, but she loved me unconditionally,” Mobley wrote.
Duval County Circuit Court Judge Jeb Branham said in his response that her motion was not filed in a timely manner, reported The Florida Times-Union. Additionally, Branham said though Williams is making efforts to rehabilitate herself, the court would not find “a basis to undo the original sentencing judge’s decision.”