Carlina White to back Ann Pettway, the woman accused of kidnapping her as an infant
(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Carlina White, who was kidnapped as an infant from a New York City hospital in 1987, is planning to testify for Ann Pettway, her alleged "fake mom" who reportedly abused her and is charged with her kidnapping, a report says.
It is one more improbable twist in an improbable case.
White has agreed to testify on behalf of Pettway and appeal for leniency if she is convicted, a public defender told the New York Post.
White's birth parents, Carl Tyson and Joy White, attended a hearing but left the Manhattan federal courthouse without commenting, the paper says.
White, who was raised in Bridgeport, Conn. as Nejdra Nance, told the Department of Children and Families back when she was 16 that the woman raising her, Pettway, had informed her that her drug-addicted mother had given her to Pettway as a baby in 1987, Commissioner Joette Katz told reporters.
Pettway later surrendered and was charged with kidnapping White, who is now 23 and reunited with her biological family. Pettway has confessed to taking White from Harlem Hospital as a baby in August 1987, the FBI says.
White was 19 days old when her parents took her to the hospital with a high fever late on Aug. 4, 1987. Her parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, said a woman who looked like a nurse had comforted them. The couple left the hospital to rest, but their baby was missing when they returned the next day.
A trial date still has not been set.