Jakayla Williams pleaded guilty to capital murder just as jury selection was set to begin in Houston County.
DOTHAN, Ala. — Jakayla Ashanti Williams was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to capital murder in the 2023 death of her newborn son, ending a case that had been set for a death-penalty trial.
Williams entered the plea Monday, Sept. 14, as lawyers and the court were preparing to begin jury selection in Houston County. Houston County Circuit Judge Henry D. Binford imposed the life-without-parole sentence under the agreement. Local reports said prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty if the case went to trial and ended in a capital murder conviction. The plea removed that possibility and resolved the charge without a jury hearing evidence. District Attorney Russ Goodman said a possible agreement had been discussed late the previous week, but prosecutors did not know until Monday whether Williams would accept it.
The case began in August 2023, when Williams was 18. Dothan police said she gave birth to a boy at her home on Aug. 13 and later told relatives that she had taken the newborn to Southeast Health Medical Center and left him with an employee. Her family did not know about the pregnancy or birth until Aug. 23, according to the Police Department. The next day, relatives accompanied Williams to the hospital because they were trying to locate the child. Medical staff then contacted police after the family asked about the newborn.
Investigators reviewed surveillance footage and said they found no evidence that Williams had brought the newborn to the hospital as she had described. Police said that, when questioned again, Williams admitted leaving the baby in a dumpster at an apartment complex on the west side of Dothan. Officers located a dumpster with an attached trash compactor and searched its contents at the city landfill. They recovered the infant’s remains inside a mattress protector that had been placed in a zipped duffel bag. Police said Williams told investigators the baby was alive when she put him in the dumpster.
In the department’s 2023 account, Williams said she did not want the child and that raising a baby “cost too much money.” The statement became one of the most widely reported details in the case, but the defense disputed a key part of the prosecution’s account during early court proceedings. Defense attorney Clay Wadsworth questioned whether the state could prove the child was alive when he was placed in the dumpster. A full autopsy report was not publicly released in the early stages of the case, and the defense sought to challenge the state’s account of the infant’s condition.
At a November 2023 preliminary hearing, a judge sent the case to a grand jury. Reporting at the time differed over whether prosecutors had already decided to seek the death penalty. Goodman told WTVY that such a decision had not yet been made and called reports to the contrary premature. A Houston County grand jury later indicted Williams on a capital murder charge in early 2024. Her lawyers then entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, and the case remained pending while the defense developed its mental-health case.
As trial approached in 2026, the punishment issue was no longer unsettled. Goodman had said his office would seek the death penalty if Williams were convicted of capital murder. Defense attorneys Aimee Cobb and Wadsworth argued that capital punishment was too harsh and said Williams’ youth at the time of the offense and her emotional condition should be considered in mitigation. Court preparations included last-minute subpoenas and a prosecution request for jurors to visit the apartment complex dumpster site. Jury selection was scheduled for Sept. 14.
The trial never began. Williams accepted the agreement as the judge was preparing to qualify prospective jurors and pleaded guilty to capital murder. The deal guaranteed a sentence of life without the possibility of parole and removed the possibility of execution. Because the case was resolved by plea, jurors did not hear the prosecution’s evidence or the defense’s planned mental-health case. The sentence brought the nearly three-year prosecution to a close at the point when both sides had been preparing to present their cases in court.
The case also became part of a broader local discussion about safe surrender options for newborns. Dothan officials voted in October 2023 to bring a Safe Haven Baby Box to the city. Local reporting said the Dothan Fire Department had already been exploring the idea before Williams’ arrest, but the case reinforced officials’ interest in expanding anonymous surrender options. By September 2026, Dothan had at least three active baby boxes, while Alabama had 24 statewide.
Williams’ guilty plea ended the scheduled capital murder trial and left the life-without-parole sentence in place. She is to serve the sentence in an Alabama state correctional facility with no possibility of parole.
Author note: Last updated September 16, 2026.