Two women in East Texas have been
convicted of kidnapping after a jury agreed they abducted a boy when he was
eight months old and help him for eight years.
Gloria Walker faces life in prison,
while daughter Krystle Tanner could spend 20 years behind bars, because they
grabbed Miguel Morin in 2004, although both women testified the child's mother
actually sold the baby to them at the time.
But prosecutors convinced jury members
that Tanner and Walked hid Miguel from authorities over the last eight years,
while also denying him basic medical care and keeping him out of school.
Tanner babysat Miguel and snatched him
from his Houston apartment prior to his first birthday. She and her mother then
renamed him Jaquan.
"If Ms. Walker and Ms. Tanner had a
right to little Miguel, why wasn't he in school?" San Augustine County
District Attorney Kevin Dutton argued, countering the defendents' claims.
"Why didn't you get the rest of his
immunizations? Why didn't you take him to the dentist? They knew they didn't
have that right. They knew they couldn't put that baby out in the public
eye."
Walker told the jury she was suffering
from health problems and had little contact with the boy, but Tanner contradicted
this testimony and said Walker lived with the child for extended periods of
time.
Miguel has been informed of the true
identity of his parents and siblings and has been having weekly joint therapy
sessions with the family since he was found.
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