Black Teen Mom Told Family She Dropped Newborn at Hospital. Then Infant's Body Was Found in Dumpster

In August, an Alabama police department received a call from a local 
hospital, saying a teenager was trying to reclaim her newborn son.

Jakayla Ashanti Williams, then 18, claimed that within hours of her August 
13 home birth, she had left her infant in the care of a hospital employee, 
the Dothan Police Department said in a press release at the time.

But there were no records of Williams leaving the baby at the hospital, 
which under the state’s Safe Haven Law allow for mothers to leave their 
uninjured children without fearing legal implications.

And, according to police, authorities determined quickly that Williams had 
never gone to the hospital but had instead allegedly left her infant for 
dead in a dumpster outside a local apartment complex.

Almost a year later, Jakayla Ashanti Williams, now 19, has pleaded not 
guilty of capital murder by reason of mental disease or defect, AL.com 
reports.

PEOPLE contacted the Circuit Criminal clerk’s office, which confirmed an 
earlier not guilty plea but did not have a record of the reason. 

Under state law, the insanity plea claims that as a result of “severe mental 
disease or defect,” she “was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or 
wrongfulness” of killing her child. 

To be found not guilty under such a claim, the teen’s lawyers must “prove by 
clear and convincing evidence” that she was suffering from the mental 
impairment “at the time of the offense” and that she was either “unable to 
appreciate the nature and quality” of her acts or “unable to appreciate the 
wrongfulness” of them, according to the law.

PEOPLE called and emailed Williams’ two defense lawyers for comment on the 
case and her mental health. Clay Wadsworth and Aimee Cobb Smith did not 
respond in time for publication.

The teenager allegedly said around the time of the investigation she did not 
want a child and caring for the baby would be too expensive, according to 
police.

Williams’s family did not know the teenager was pregnant, per police, but 
had learned that she had given birth the day before they took the teen to 
Southeast Health Medical Center looking for the child August 24.

During a police interview that day, Williams eventually admitted that after 
giving birth eleven days earlier, she had not taken her son to the hospital 
but had instead put her baby – wrapped in a blanket – in the dumpster, 
police allege. She allegedly claimed the baby was alive when she threw him 
away.

Investigators “sifted through the contents” of the dumpster, finding the 
remains of a newborn “wrapped in a mattress protector that was in a zipped-
up duffel bag,” per police, who noted that after recovering the infant’s 
remains on August 24, they were sent to a forensics lab to confirm his 
identity.

Williams was arrested at 4:21 p.m. August 24 and booked on the capital 
murder charge into Houston County Jail, where she is held without bond, per 
her online inmate roster.

“This is a horrible case that was very difficult to work and had an impact 
on the mental health of everyone involved including her family and the 
officers that worked it,” Police Chief Wiliam Benny tells PEOPLE. 

Referencing the state’s “no questions asked” Safe Haven Law, Benny said the 
infant’s death could have easily been prevented.

“She could have dropped the baby off at the hospital like she claimed to 
have done with no legal implications,” Benny said, adding that since the 
case, “Baby Boxes” — which alert firefighters when a baby has been dropped 
off — have additionally been placed outside the Central Fire Station.

If convicted of capital murder in Alabama, the teenager faces up to the 
death penalty.

If found not guilty per her insanity plea, AL.com reports that the court 
would then determine if she should be sent to a mental health facility.

Williams is still awaiting trial and a new court date has not yet been set.

https://people.com/teen-mom-told-family-dropped-newborn-hospital-baby-
found-dumpster-8658100