Shanara Mobley, mother of Kamiyah Mobley, cries before the sentencing hearing for Gloria Williams. Photo / AP
Shanara Mobley, mother of Kamiyah Mobley, cries before the sentencing hearing for Gloria Williams. Photo / AP
The biological mom of a girl who was snatched at birth broke down during the hearing of her daughter's kidnapper, screaming, "I am your mother!"
Shanara Mobley, mother of Kamiyah Mobley, gave an emotional testimony on Thursday, where she described the torment of having her newborn baby stolen just hoursafter she gave birth, the Daily Mail reported.
"Thinking about suicide every day, people watching me all day every day, no one was leaving me unattended," she said of the months following Kamiyah's abduction, as she wiped away tears.
Williams, right, is accused of snatching Mobley, now 19, left, from a Florida hospital in 1998 when she was just eight hours old. Photo / via Facebook
She said that even now, 20 years later, she still feels the loss of her daughter deeply and even called for the death penalty for kidnapper Gloria Williams.
"I always thought about my baby every day, every day, every day. I would catch myself in my car crying, in bed crying, taking a bath crying, doing something with her siblings and crying," said Mobley, who said she suffered from depression since Kamiyah was stolen.
Mobley said she had suffered fresh pain after seeing her daughter refer to her abductor Gloria Williams as mum and seeing Williams' number in her phone as "mommy".
"It doesn't heal now, I am still hurting. When you're reaching out to my child - I am your mother, Kamiyah," she shouted into the courtroom. "I am your mother!"
Kamiyah was just eight hours old on July 10, 1998, when Williams posed as a nurse and entered Mobley's hospital room at what is now known as UF Health-Jacksonville, claiming that Kamiyah had a fever and needed to be checked.
Williams then disappeared with the child in her arms, not to be seen again for the next 18 years.
Kamiyah Mobley, who was raised with the name Alexis Kelly Manigo, sits in the courtroom before the sentencing hearing of Gloria Williams. Photo / AP
The deception began to unravel when Mobley applied for a restaurant job two years before Williams was arrested, according to court documents.
When she demanded her social security number, Williams supposedly broke down and confessed to the abduction.
Kamiyah said she quietly pieced together the majority of her backstory by herself from Google. She once called her biological mother but hung up when she heard her voice.
The teen first met her biological parents when Mobley and Aiken, who had separated after the abduction, raced to see her following Williams' arrest.
Kamiyah has spent the last 12 months forging new ties with her biological parents, Mobley, 36, and Craig Aiken, 42, as well as getting to know the numerous siblings she never realised she had.
She has already formed an 'incredible bond' with her biological father and has been staying at his home for weeks at a time. The teen celebrated Christmas with Aiken, his wife Shannon and her eight half-siblings.
Gloria Williams enters the courtroom for a sentencing hearing at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida. Photo / AP
But her defense of Williams has made it harder for the teen to rebuild her relationship with her biological mother. Shanara Mobley wrote on Facebook last year: "The tears won't stop. I see my baby girl wanting this lady in her life and not me.
"It's been harder for my mother to cope. We are working on our relationship. I don't like to define which one is my mother, I like to be respectful of both parties," the teen said.
"I don't like to take away from either one of their duties or what they did. I don't want to pick sides."
During her court testimony on Thursday, Mobley said that she was just 16 when her daughter was born in 1998.
Despite her young age, she says she saw her pregnancy as a blessing - the chance to stop her partying lifestyle and settle down.
The day Kamiyah was born was the happiest - and the saddest - of her life.
"She was so beautiful. I just couldn't wait to take her home, to dress her up and show her off," she said of her newborn.
But she never got the chance to hold her baby as it was at that point Williams, dressed as a nurse, came into the room and took Kamiyah away, telling the new mom she needed to take her temperature.
Shanara Mobley, the birth mother, told the judge Williams should get death. Photo / AP
Mobley said she never questioned Williams who seemed nice and trustworthy. It wasn't until she realised that Kamiyah was never supposed to have been removed from the room did she panic.
She said she crawled along the floor, "I'm screaming and I'm hollering and cussing.
"She preyed on a child because I was young, she preyed on a child and took my child," said Mobley.
The years went by slowly for Mobley, who would still mark her daughter's birthday every year, buying a cake which she would keep in the freezer in case Kamiyah ever came home.
She never gave up hope that her daughter was alive.
After finally being reunited with Kamiyah for the first time last year, Mobley says she is hoping to make up for lost time.
"I missed the first walk, the first word, graduating, prom, I missed all that, but I always try to look at it like life is a positive to a negative. When she get pregnant, I get to be the grandma, when she graduates college I get to be there. The future has so much to offer us now."
