Alabama mom Jakayla Williams, 21, who threw her newborn in a dumpster to save money, gets life without parole

An Alabama mother will spend the rest of her life in prison after leaving her newborn to die in a dumpster, prosecutors said.

Jakayla Ashanti Williams, 21, lives in Dothan, Alabama.

Houston County Circuit Judge Henry D. Binford ordered Williams to serve life in a state correctional facility without the possibility of parole, court records show.

Judge Binford handed down the sentence during a court hearing on Monday, September 14.

Prosecutors had shared plans to pursue the death penalty in the capital murder case. However, Williams accepted an eleventh-hour deal to avoid execution just moments before jury selection was scheduled to begin, according to WKRG.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, she pleaded guilty to one count of capital murder, court records show.

The incident took place in August 2023, when Williams was 18 years old, police said.

Williams secretly gave birth to the baby at her home in Dothan, according to Law & Crime.

After the delivery, she told her family that she had surrendered the child to a “redheaded” employee at Southeast Health Medical Center, according to court documents.

Days after the birth, Williams went to the hospital with a family member and claimed she wanted to get the baby back. However, it became clear that she had lied, and hospital staff contacted police.

Williams then gave responding officers a vague description of the employee she claimed had taken her baby, police said.

Investigators subsequently reviewed surveillance footage from the hospital, police said.

Investigators examined the video for evidence of the mother’s visit. However, the footage showed no evidence of Williams being at the hospital after the birth, and nobody resembling the employee appeared, police said.

Police spoke to Williams again, and she admitted to leaving the baby in a dumpster at an apartment complex near her home, investigators said.

The newborn had been left inside the apartment dumpster. But the container’s contents had already been transported to the Dothan landfill, where investigators found the baby’s remains, police said.

The baby had been wrapped in a mattress protector and placed inside a zipped duffel bag, police said.

Williams explained to authorities that she did not want to be a mother at 18 and believed it “cost too much money” to have a child.

During a hearing later in 2023, Williams’ defense said there was a possibility the child was not alive when the defendant put him in the dumpster.

The defense attorney also argued that Williams was young, had no criminal record and needed mental health treatment, court records show.

Williams’ attorneys pursued a mental health defense in the following years, reportedly arguing that her age and emotional condition should be considered in the case.

“I’m shocked this is the case they chose to seek the death penalty,” Williams’ defense attorney, Aimee Cobb, told WTVY.

The 21-year-old defendant will serve the remainder of her life in prison without parole.