An 18-year-old Dothan mother has been charged with capital murder after police say she put her newborn baby in a dumpster with a trash compactor and lied about it.
On Thursday, August 24, Dothan Police began an investigation after being contacted by medical staff at Southeast Health about a woman and her family attempting to find a baby she claimed she had left at the hospital on August 13, 2023, with one of their employees in the hospital lobby.
According to Dothan Police, the 18-year-old mother, Jakayla Ashanti Williams, told employees she had given birth to a boy at her home in the 1100 Block of Tate Drive but dropped the baby off at the hospital because she did not want him and said that a baby costs too much money to care for. William’s family did not know she was pregnant or had given birth until Wednesday, August 23, police say.
Police say as the investigation continued, officers found out that Williams never took the newborn to Southeast Health, and when they presented this evidence to her during an interview, she admitted to investigators that she had taken the baby wrapped in a blanket, drove to the west side of the city, and placed him alive in a dumpster outside of an apartment complex. Police are unsure why Williams chose this specific spot as they say she had no connection with the apartment complex.
It is absolutely shocking. In twenty-seven years of law enforcement, I’ve never heard of anything so horrific as this. It shocks the mind. It shocks the soul. She knew obviously that she could take a child newborn to the hospital and drop it off and there is Alabama law where there are no questions asked
DOTHAN POLICE CHIEF WILLIAM BENNY
During a press conference held Thursday night, Chief William Benny revealed his officers went to the apartment complex and found the dumpster with a trash compactor attached to it, and after sifting through the contents at the Dothan City Landfill, found the remains of the newborn wrapped in a mattress protector inside a zipped-up duffel bag.
The newborn’s remains were sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery to confirm it was the missing baby.
Article by: Richard Everett
