Three years after Jakayla Williams was arrested, a dispute over her competency could reopen the Alabama prosecution resolved by her guilty plea.
DOTHAN, Ala. — The case began not with the discovery of a body but with relatives walking into a hospital looking for a baby they believed had been safely surrendered there. That search ultimately led police to a landfill, Jakayla Ashanti Williams to a capital murder charge and, three years later, to a guilty plea that is now in jeopardy.
Williams, now 21, is serving life in prison without parole after pleading guilty Sept. 14 to capital murder in the death of her newborn son. The agreement was reached moments before jury selection was to begin and spared her from a possible death sentence. But the case is active again. Williams first filed a handwritten request to withdraw the plea, and newly appointed lawyers have since alleged that the trial court failed to make a required ruling on her competency before accepting it. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 10.
The chain of events began Aug. 24, 2023, when staff at Southeast Health contacted Dothan police. Williams had arrived with relatives and was trying to recover an infant she claimed she had left at the hospital on Aug. 13, according to the police department. Williams said she had given birth at her residence in the 1100 block of Tate Drive and, within hours, delivered the child to an employee in the hospital lobby. Her family had only learned on Aug. 23 that she had been pregnant and had given birth.
The relatives’ concern drove the visit to the hospital, but investigators quickly found a problem with the story. Police said they established that Williams had not gone to Southeast Health on the day she claimed. Law enforcement questioned her formally, and authorities said she initially continued to give the same account. Once investigators confronted her with evidence that the hospital surrender had not happened, police said Williams changed her story and disclosed where she had actually taken her son.
Williams told investigators she had wrapped the newborn in a blanket and put him into a dumpster at an apartment complex on the west side of Dothan, police said. According to the department, she said the child was alive when she placed him there. The dumpster had a trash compactor attached. Officers seized it and took it to the Dothan landfill, where police searched through the contents. They reported finding a newborn’s remains wrapped in a mattress protector and enclosed in a zipped duffel bag.
Police said Williams had no connection to the apartment complex and that investigators did not know why she chose it. Authorities charged her with one count of capital murder. Williams was 18. Police also said she had explained that she did not want the child and believed a baby would cost too much money. That statement became one of the most widely reported details of the case, but the prosecution involved broader questions about whether the infant was alive when abandoned, Williams’ mental condition and the punishment she could face if convicted.
Those disputes surfaced early. Her defense challenged the state’s assertion that the newborn was alive when placed in the dumpster. Attorneys also pointed to Williams’ youth, her lack of a criminal history and concerns about her mental health. A mental-health defense became part of the yearslong pretrial proceedings. By 2026, prosecutors were preparing to seek the death penalty while defense lawyers argued that executing Williams would be an excessive punishment in light of her age at the time of the offense and her emotional condition.
The expected trial never started. On Sept. 14, as the court prepared to begin selecting jurors, Williams accepted a deal and pleaded guilty to capital murder. Houston County Circuit Judge Henry D. “Butch” Binford sentenced her to life imprisonment without parole. District Attorney Russ Goodman said prosecutors had discussed the possibility of a plea late the previous week but did not know until that morning whether Williams would accept it. The agreement guaranteed a conviction while taking execution off the table.
The reaction outside court showed that the resolution was not universally accepted. Goodman said afterward that although prosecutors were pleased to secure the conviction, the case gave no one reason to celebrate. At the same time, Andre Kincey, a member of Williams’ family, told WTVY that he believed her lawyers had pressured her into pleading guilty. Williams had told Binford during the court proceeding that she was entering her plea freely. Her defense attorneys at the time, Aimee Cobb and Clay Wadsworth, did not comment after the agreement was entered.
Williams soon made the dispute formal. Days after sentencing, she submitted a handwritten motion alleging that her attorneys had coerced her. Binford appointed new counsel. Attorneys Manish Patel and Christopher Sledge then raised a different and potentially broader issue: They contend the court never made a ruling that Williams was competent to stand trial after competency had been placed in question. They also allege that Binford did not advise her of a right to appeal. Neither allegation has yet been accepted by the court as grounds for undoing the conviction.
The competency issue shifts the focus away from whether Williams now regrets the bargain and toward whether the legal requirements for accepting the plea were satisfied. WTVY reported that legal experts speaking on background said the argument may have merit and could lead to another trial. A successful challenge, however, would not necessarily improve Williams’ ultimate position. If the plea were withdrawn, prosecutors could again pursue the capital case, and a conviction after trial could expose her to the death penalty that the September deal removed.
The case has also remained linked in Dothan to the availability of lawful newborn surrender. Alabama had expanded its Safe Haven law to allow baby boxes, and Dothan officials approved bringing the devices to city property after Williams’ arrest, although the fire department had been working on the proposal beforehand. The Dothan Fire Department now lists Safe Haven Baby Boxes at three stations. The temperature-controlled boxes alert first responders when an infant is placed inside, providing a contactless way to surrender an unharmed newborn safely.
That civic response cannot answer the legal questions now before the court, which concern what happened in the proceedings against Williams rather than what alternatives were available in 2023. Her plea has not been vacated, and the allegations made by her new attorneys remain unresolved. For now, she is still a person convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life without parole.
The Nov. 10 hearing will determine what happens next. Binford is expected to consider Williams’ attempt to withdraw the guilty plea and the claimed competency and appeal-related errors. If the challenge fails, the September conviction remains the final resolution. If the court grants relief, a prosecution that appeared finished could return to trial preparation more than three years after the newborn’s death.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.