JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In June 2018, Gloria Williams was sentenced to 18 years in prison -- the same length of time she kept Kamiyah Mobley from her biological parents. Now she wants a chance at a different sentence, and the Duval County Court has reopened her case.
Williams was convicted of taking Mobley, who she named Alexis Manigo, from University Medical Center (now UF Health) in Jacksonville. At the time, she was working as a nurse. She befriended Mobley's mother at the hospital, who was 15 at the time.
Eight hours after the baby was born, Williams kidnapped her.
Williams pleaded guilty to the crime in 2018. She asked once to have her sentenced shortened, a plea that Mobley supported, writing to the court, "I need my mother home." However, this plea was denied.
A new motion submitted by Williams on Dec. 11 requests that her guilty plea be revoked.
“What she doing now is trying to continue to bring a damage into our life," Mobley's biological father, Craig Aiken, said.
Aiken said he's tired of hearing about Williams.
"That's part of her job, she gonna try to do whatever she can to get out. And my job is to do whatever I can to keep her in," Aiken said.
Williams claims in the motion that her counsel was ineffective and did not meet expectations set by the Florida bar. The motion lists five grounds on which Williams believes her counsel failed, and concludes that the "cumulative effect of counsel and court error deems (Williams') conviction unfair and deprived defendant of her right to due process of the law."
The filing says Williams' counsel: 1) failed to investigate and present her mental health as a defense, 2) failed to investigate and present her mental health issues during the penalty phase, 3) did not assist the court in deciding whether William was competent to be tried, 4) failed to properly prepare a defense and left Williams no option but to take the plea, and 5) failed to ask for a change of venue.
The document says that Williams told her counsel she was diagnosed with depression, social anxiety disorder, PTSD and pseudocyesis, a disorder where a woman feels like and believes she is pregnant when she is not. She says her counsel was also aware that she was prescribed medication, and though her counsel sought an opinion from a mental health expert, they did not present that evidence or try to argue she shouldn't go to trial.
Later in the filing, Williams' pseudocyesis is described as part of her motivation for the kidnapping. The document claims she may have believed a "lie" that the baby was hers.
The filing also says that Williams' counsel "mispresented" the length of the sentence she may be given if she entered a guilty plea.
Williams claims that a change of venue also may have improved her odds in this case because the case was too well known in Jacksonville. The filing describes how the case was in newspapers and also on television. The filing says it would have been impossible to find a jury who didn't know about the case.
Aiken said he hasn't talked to his daughter about Williams' most recent filing.
“Kamiyah has nothing to do with what Gloria got going on. Like, I'm not going to punish my daughter for what Gloria doing," Aiken said.
No court dates have been set for Williams at this time, and there has been no response to her plea.
First Coast News left a phone message for Williams' attorney and did not hear back.
