A 21-year-old Alabama woman will spend the rest of her life in prison for killing her newborn son and dumping his body in a compactor-equipped trash bin, closing out a case that once had prosecutors pursuing capital punishment.
Houston County Circuit Judge Henry D. Binford on Monday sentenced Jakayla Ashanti Williams to life without the possibility of parole in a state correctional facility.
The sentence came after Williams took a last-minute plea deal to escape a potential death sentence, pleading guilty to one count of capital murder just before jury selection was set to begin, according to WKRG.
Williams — then 18 — secretly gave birth to the baby at her home in Dothan, Alabama, roughly 200 miles southeast of Birmingham, in August 2023. She initially told relatives she had handed the child over to a “red-headed” employee at Southeast Health Medical Center.
Her account soon fell apart.
Days after the birth, Williams went to the hospital with a family member, claiming she wanted to get the baby back. Hospital staff alerted police, and investigators pulled surveillance footage after Williams gave a vague description of the supposed employee. The footage showed no employee matching her description — and no sign that Williams had even been at the hospital after the birth.
When police questioned her again, Williams admitted she had left the newborn in a dumpster at an apartment complex near her home. Investigators later recovered the baby’s remains at the Dothan landfill after the dumpster’s contents were hauled there; the infant had been wrapped in a mattress protector and sealed inside a zipped duffel bag.
Williams told investigators she didn’t want to be a mother at 18 and that a baby “cost too much money,” police said at the time.
Prosecutors charged her with capital murder and later said they would seek the death penalty. At a 2023 hearing, her defense disputed the state’s claim that the baby was alive when Williams placed him in the dumpster, with attorney Clay Wadsworth pointing to her youth, lack of a criminal record, and need for mental-health treatment.
The case dragged on for years as Williams’ legal team pursued a mental-health defense. In the run-up to trial, her attorneys reportedly argued her age and emotional state should weigh as mitigating factors.
“I’m shocked this is the case they chose to seek the death penalty,” said defense attorney Aimee Cobb.
The case also spurred Dothan officials to approve a Safe Haven Baby Box in October 2023, letting mothers surrender newborns safely and anonymously under state law. The city now has at least three active boxes, part of 24 statewide.