Filed: Jul. 29, 2019
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL STATE OF FLORIDA _ No. 1D18-2898 _ GLORIA B. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. _ On appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County. Marianne Aho, Judge. July 29, 2019 PER CURIAM. In 1998, Gloria Williams stole a newborn infant from a Jacksonville hospital and fled to South Carolina, where she raised the child for some eighteen years. After her eventual apprehension, Williams entered a negotiated plea to kidnapping and interference with custody. Un
Summary: FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL STATE OF FLORIDA _ No. 1D18-2898 _ GLORIA B. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. _ On appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County. Marianne Aho, Judge. July 29, 2019 PER CURIAM. In 1998, Gloria Williams stole a newborn infant from a Jacksonville hospital and fled to South Carolina, where she raised the child for some eighteen years. After her eventual apprehension, Williams entered a negotiated plea to kidnapping and interference with custody. Und..
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FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
_____________________________
No. 1D18-2898
_____________________________
GLORIA B. WILLIAMS,
Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
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On appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County.
Marianne Aho, Judge.
July 29, 2019
PER CURIAM.
In 1998, Gloria Williams stole a newborn infant from a
Jacksonville hospital and fled to South Carolina, where she raised
the child for some eighteen years. After her eventual
apprehension, Williams entered a negotiated plea to kidnapping
and interference with custody. Under the terms of the agreement,
she would be sentenced to between zero and twenty-two years for
the kidnapping, and between zero and five years (concurrent) as to
the interference with custody. The State agreed that it would
request that the federal government not pursue any additional
charges. After a sentencing hearing, the court imposed a sentence
of eighteen years. This is Williams’s direct appeal.
Williams’s counsel has filed a brief pursuant to Anders v.
California,
386 U.S. 738 (1967), concluding that there is no
arguable issue for appeal. In this circumstance, we must complete
a full and independent review of the record, see In re Anders Briefs,
581 So. 2d 149, 151 (Fla. 1991), and having done so, we too
conclude there is no arguable issue for reversal. We reject as
meritless the arguments Williams made in her pro se brief—that
the eighteen-year sentence was unreasonable in light of mitigating
factors and that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The
sentence was lawful.
AFFIRMED.
ROWE, KELSEY, and M.K. THOMAS, JJ., concur.
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Not final until disposition of any timely and
authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
9.331.
_____________________________
Andy Thomas, Public Defender, Steven L. Seliger, Assistant Public
Defender, and Megan Long, Assistant Public Defender,
Tallahassee; Gloria B. Williams, pro se, for Appellant.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.
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