A federal judge sentenced a woman who pleaded guilty to kidnapping twin 5-month-old boys from Columbus in December 2022 to more than 23 years in prison.
Nalah Jackson, 26, who had been homeless, stole an idling car on Dec. 19, 2022 , from outside a restaurant in the Short North. Twins Kason and Ky'Air Thomas, who were 5 months old at the time , were in the backseat while their mother had gone into the restaurant to pick up an order she was delivering.
Jackson previously pleaded guilty in February to two counts of kidnapping in U.S. District Court in Columbus. As part of that plea, federal prosecutors and Jackson's attorneys had recommended a 20-year prison sentence for Jackson.
However, U.S. District Judge Michael Watson rejected that plea offer, resulting in a new plea agreement with an agreed-upon sentencing range of between 20 and 25 years. Watson ultimately sentenced Jackson to 23 years and four months in federal prison.
Related: Nalah Jackson Homeless woman pleads guilty to 2022 kidnapping of infant twins from Columbus
Before Jackson was sentenced, she offered up what she said was her version of events.
"I looked in the front, but I didn't look in the back seat," Jackson said of stealing the idling car. "If I would have seen those babies in the back seat, I wouldn't have taken that car."
Authorities issued an Amber Alert for the twins after the car was stolen. The following morning, a passerby found Ky'Air in his car seat in a parking lot outside Dayton International Airport. The U.S. Attorney's office said Jackson went into the airport, and when she came out, she couldn't find the car she stole. She even tried to hire a rideshare driver to find the car.
On Tuesday, Jackson said she had tried to take the twin boys to the airport in a luggage rack but got scared when she saw airport police officers. Jackson also said she had put clothes on the twin boys and strapped them into their car seats after realizing they were in the back.
Jackson did not say Tuesday she would have returned the stolen vehicle. She said she had taken a "large dose" of methamphetamine, a drug she didn't frequently use.
"I was high. I was high out of my mind," Jackson said. "If I wasn't high, I would've pulled over and put them in a safe place."
Jackson eventually found the car in the airport's parking lot, took Ky'Air out and left him in the car seat between two other parked vehicles. She then sped to Indianapolis, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
Once in Indianapolis, Jackson left the car in a restaurant parking lot with Kason still in the back seat. The U.S. Attorney's office said Jackson began selling merchandise outside a gas station and met a woman who offered her a ride and her cellphone number. The woman later determined Jackson was the woman being sought in the Amber Alert and created a plan with her cousin to meet up with Jackson and try to find 5-month-old Kason.
Two days later, on Dec. 22, 2022, the two women met with Jackson. The women contacted Indianapolis police, who were able to catch up to the three women. Jackson gave police a fake name and fake ID, court records say.
A few hours later and more than two and a half days after being reported missing, the women found Kason in the vehicle's back seat in the restaurant parking lot and alerted Indianapolis police officers at another nearby location. Police retrieved the boy from inside the cold, parked car shortly before a snowstorm was to hit Indianapolis.
The U.S. Attorney's office said Kason was treated for dehydration and some heart abnormalities likely caused by the dehydration, but aside from sitting in his excrement for that time, he was uninjured.
On Jan. 28, 2023, Ky'Air died unexpectedly . His death was ruled a sudden unexplained infant death by the Franklin County Coroner's office and determined to be unrelated to the kidnapping.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors said Kason has a seizure disorder, but it's unclear if that's a side effect of being left in the cold.
When Watson asked what happened, Jackson described the situation as an "out-of-body experience."
"Your out-of-body experience led to a nightmare for this family," Watson said.
"I'm not no monster," Jackson replied. "I know what I did was wrong, what I put that mom through."
Watson called Jackson's words and explanation for what happened a "cold comfort" to the boys' family. He said in arriving at the sentence Tuesday, he took into account Jackson's complex mental health issues and the difficult childhood she had.
As part of her sentence, Jackson will be required to register as a sex offender. She will be on supervised release for five years when she is released from prison.
bbruner@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Woman who kidnapped 5-month-old twins prompting Amber Alert sentenced to federal prison
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