What did Jakayla Williams do? Alabama teen mom charged with capital murder over newborn's death

Jakayla Williams, an 18-year-old from Alabama, has been charged with one count of capital murder for the death of her newborn child. Williams allegedly gave birth on August 13, 2023, at her private residence and thereafter discarded the infant at a local dumpster. When her family discovered that she had been pregnant and had given birth, they wanted to recover the child.

Jakayla Williams reportedly told her family that she had taken the newborn to the Southeast Health Medical Center. She then arrived at the Center with a family member, claiming to have given her newborn to an employee.

The Center contacted the authorities, who began their investigation and found the remains of the newborn wrapped in a blanket inside a dumpster at an apartment complex. Jakalya Williams has been taken into custody and may face the death penalty.

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Jakayla Williams has admitted to placing her newborn in a dumpster

As per the Dothan Police Department, officers found Jakayla Williams’ lifeless newborn in an area landfill, where the remains of the child were found in a load of trash. Upon questioning, Williams admitted that she did not want to keep her child, claiming that she was 18 and that having a child was too expensive. In a statement put out by the police, they revealed:

"When presented with the fact we had proven she never took the newborn child to the hospital as she claimed, she told investigators she had taken the newborn child and wrapped him in a blanket and placed it into a trash dumpster at an apartment complex on the west side of town."

In a press conference on Thursday, August, 24, 2023, Will Benny, Chief of Dothan Police, expressed utter horror at the act that had been committed by Jakayla Williams:

“It is absolutely shocking. In all my years of law enforcement, I’ve never heard of anything so horrific as this…It shocks the mind. It shocks the soul. I don’t even really know what else to say about it.”

Jakayla Williams was caught because of the fact that she claimed to have given her child to a medical staff at the Southeast Health Medical Center. When she made the same claim at the Center, it was clear that the child had not been given at the Center.

The Center claims that had the child actually been given, they would have taken it without question. Employees at the Center contacted authorities for an investigation and were able to prove that Jakalya Williams never took her newborn to the Center. She is currently being held at the Dothan City Jail without bail.