Dothan teen accused of putting baby in trash compactor denied youthful offender
DOTHAN, Ala (WDHN) — A Houston County Judge has ordered an 18-year-old Dothan woman whose baby died after police say she placed him in a dumpster with a trash compactor in the Alabama summer heat will go to trial as an adult.
Jakayla Williams, 18, is charged with one count of Capital Murder in the death of her baby boy. She was indicted on the charge on Wednesday, February 21, 2024.
Williams applied for youthful offender status at the end of March.
District Attorney Russ Goodman tells WDHN Judge Butch Binford denied her plea for youthful offender during a hearing Wednesday afternoon. This means Williams will be tried as an adult, and her court case will be public.
Goodman says his office is considering seeking the death penalty if Williams is convicted.
Williams was arrested in late August 2023 after Dothan Police Investigator said she threw her newborn baby in a dumpster with a trash compactor after secretly giving birth in her Dothan home.
Dothan Investigators were alerted to the case when staff at Southeast Health said that Williams and her mother were at the hospital looking for a baby.
According to Police, Williams initially told responding officers at the hospital that she had the baby at her home on August 13 before secretly giving him to a Southeast Health nurse; however, Williams’ description of the nurse was vague, so police pulled surveillance footage, and Williams was not seen at the hospital, contradicting the story she told investigators.
Officers pulled Williams back in for questioning, and after hours of interviewing, she told them what had happened to the baby.
Police say instead of taking her baby boy to the hospital, Williams took him to an apartment complex on the West side of Dothan and placed him in a dumpster with a trash compactor attached.
The baby’s remains were later found by officers wrapped in a mattress protector inside a zipped-up duffel bag at the Dothan dump.
Investigators say the baby was alive when put in the compactor, but during a preliminary hearing in late 2023, Williams’ defense team asked if there is evidence proving this.
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