Annugetta Pettway

Annugetta Pettway, 2011.

Annugetta Pettway is an American woman who abducted a 20-day old infant girl from the Harlem Hospital Center in New York City on 5 August 1987. The baby was born Carlina Renae White but was raised under the name Nejdra "Netty" Nance by Pettway.

Pettway was reportedly motivated to kidnap someone else's child after having several miscarriages herself.

When Carlina White was an adult she recognised herself on a website for abducted children.

After the confirmation that Nejdra Nance was really Carlina White, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a search for Pettway. The statute of limitations for the state kidnapping law had expired in New York, but there is no statute of limitations for the federal law on kidnapping. An arrest warrant for Pettway was issued by the North Carolina Department of Correction on January 21, 2011, for violating her probation from a conviction for attempted embezzlement. Carlina White stated:

"I just hope that the officials be able to get her in their hands, so we can just hear her side of the story now."

Pettway turned herself in to the FBI office at Bridgeport on the morning of January 23, 2011. She had driven from North Carolina to Connecticut to arrange care for her biological son. Pettway told federal investigators that she kidnapped White after enduring several miscarriages because of the stress over whether "she would ever be able to be a parent." Pettway did not enter a plea at her arraignment at the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan, where she faced between 20 years and life in prison for kidnapping. On February 17, 2011, a federal grand jury indicted Pettway on the kidnapping charge.

On February 10, 2012, Pettway pleaded guilty to a federal kidnapping charge. As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors agreed to recommend to the judge a prison sentence of 10 to 12½ years. On July 30, 2012, Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Pettway, who was then 50 years old, to 12 years in prison. Her lawyers had asked for leniency, saying Pettway had been severely depressed after suffering from multiple miscarriages and stillbirths. However, the judge said she was selfish stating that they had:

"inflicted a parent's worst nightmare on a couple."

Carlina White's father said he thought the sentence was too lenient and that Pettway should've received the amount of time as she'd kept his daughter, 23 years.

During the hearing, Pettway apologized, saying:

"I would like to apologize to the family. It may be rejected, but I am deeply sorry for what I've done. If they don't accept it, it's understandable. I'm here to right my wrong."

Pettway served her sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution, Aliceville in Alabama until she was released on April 14, 2021.

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