Posted on 03/13/2007 5:05:59 AM PDT by atomic conspiracy
Rayshaun Parson, the woman who authorities said abducted a baby from a Lubbock hospital and then fled to New Mexico, is expected to appear in federal court this morning.
The 21-year-old is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate in Lubbock at 9 a.m., where she faces a kidnapping charge. A court document states she has confessed to the crime.
She also faces a state kidnapping charge.
On Monday, the parents of 5-day-old Mychael Darthard-Dawodu spoke with reporters for the first time since police say Parson stole the infant from Covenant Lakeside Hospital.
Parson
"We're just happy to have her back," the baby's grandfather, Darrell Darthard, told reporters crowded inside a room at the hospital during a brief press conference. "It's not that we're not grateful, we just want some privacy with the family and to spend some time with her."
Both state and federal authorities spent much of the day Monday coordinating Parson's return from New Mexico after she waived extradition during a Clovis court hearing.
Investigators said Parson was supposed to return to Lubbock on Monday evening and stay overnight at the Lubbock County Jail. She had not been booked into the jail late Monday night.
Lubbock police said Parson posed as a nurse Friday night and visited the mother's hospital room several times leading up to the abduction early Saturday morning.
Parson told the mother she was taking the baby for some tests, according to a criminal complaint that accuses Parson of kidnapping. She then fled the hospital, but not before a hospital surveillance camera spotted her leaving the building and witnesses saw her climbing into a red Dodge pickup.
The kidnapping set off a manhunt in Texas and New Mexico before Clovis police found the baby and arrested her about 24 hours later.
A federal kidnapping charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a possible $250,000 fine.
Officials with the Assistant U.S. Attorney's Office in Lubbock said that Parson will likely be prosecuted on the federal charge first.
The state charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Associated Press Curry County Sheriff's Department officers David Cube, left, and Waldo Casarez escort Rayshaun Parson to Magistrate's Court in Clovis, N.M., on Monday. Parson, 21, who faces a charge of kidnapping, agreed Monday to be extradited to Lubbock, where she is accused of taking a newborn baby. Police found 4-day-old Mychael Darthard-Dawodu on Sunday in Clovis, a day after she was taken from Covenant Lakeside Hospital.
Steve Sucsy, a federal prosecutor in Lubbock, declined to discuss the details of the case. He said it was unlikely that Parson would be prosecuted on both state and federal charges.
Clovis police investigators, working from an anonymous tip provided to the Lubbock Police Department, arrested Parson early Sunday morning. Police found Mychael in a house with an unidentified woman.
The caller told police that a woman known as Rayshaun "told people she was pregnant, but never really was, and who was now in possession of a baby," according to court documents.
Rayshaun took the infant to her boyfriend and told him the child was his, the tipster said.
The abduction brought national attention to Lubbock, but the family had declined to speak publicly about their ordeal until Monday. The news conference organized on their behalf lasted less than five minutes, and the family did not sit for questions.
Twenty-year old Caisha Darthard, Mychael's mother, sat in a wheelchair and held the newborn wrapped in a purple blanket. She did not speak, but sat with a stoic face alongside about a dozen family members.
"Thank you, God, basically for everything he did, and Amber Alert and Covenant Hospital," the baby's father, Michael Dawodu, said before leaving the room.
Saturday's kidnapping is the second abduction of an infant in Lubbock in less than a year.
Lubbock police arrested 33-year-old Stephanie L. Jones nine months ago on suspicion of kidnapping a newborn.
According to police reports, Jones also posed as a hospital employee and visited the mother and infant at University Medical Center and after they left the hospital. Jones took the baby from the family home on June 5.
Investigators recovered the infant a day later underneath a carport near UMC.
A grand jury indicted Jones in June on charges of kidnapping and abandoning a child.
Her case is still pending.
To comment on this story:
jason.womack@lubbockonline.com 766-8707
"Curry County Sheriff's Department officers David Cube, left, and Waldo Casarez escort Rayshaun Parson to Magistrate's Court in Clovis, N.M., on Monday."
(Photo: Associated Press)
"Michael "Mike" Anuoluwapo Dawodu reaches for a microphone at a news conference Monday, as Mychael Darthard-Dawodu is held by her mother Caisha LaShae Darthard."
(Photo: Joe Don Buckner / AJ Staff)
I know. I'm pathetic this way. But please, please MARRY THE MAMA! That would give this little girl more protection than anything that hospital security can provide.
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