After sitting through a two-day sentencing hearing for the woman who kidnapped her as a newborn, the attorney for the 19-year-old raised as Alexis Manigo said the young woman has legally changed her name back to the name given to her at birth: Kamiyah Mobley.
The attorney said she has obtained a new Social Security card and is in the process of getting a driver's license under her new name. He said Mobley begins a job Monday in South Carolina, where she grew up.
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Mobley sat in the back row during the hearing for Gloria Williams, not wanting to choose sides between her birth family and the family that raised her.
"Kamiyah wanted to say something, but at the same time, it's tough for her to say something in court," her attorney, Justin Bamberg, said as they were leaving the Duval County Courthouse on Friday. "That's why you didn't hear from her in the sentencing hearing. She's in the middle of two families. Both sets of people love her very much."
Mobley said she lives a “hybrid existence” and will respond to either name. Her lawyer said she will continue to live between two worlds and two families.
"Any sentence is going to be difficult for her," Bamberg said of Mobley. "We've heard criticism over the last few months about, well, 'I don't understand how could you love her still. How could you still call her mom?' You've got to keep in mind, it's not like she was 10 years old and woke up one day and was with a stranger. She got taken at eight hours old. The only mother she knew for 18, 19 years is Gloria Williams. She loves Gloria. She loves who she knew as her grandmother and grandfather. She's now grown to love her biological family and develop a relationship with all them."