United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL CHILD KIDNAPPING CHARGE

LUBBOCK, Texas - Rayshaun Parson, 22, of Clovis, New Mexico, whose trial was to begin in federal court in Lubbock on Monday, pled guilty this afternoon to one count of kidnapping before U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper. Judge Cummings ordered a pre-sentence investigation with sentencing to be scheduled after that investigation is completed. Parson faces no less than 20 years in prison and up to life in prison, as well as a $250,000 fine and restitution.

Parson has been in custody since her arrest in March 2007 by federal agents on charges outlined in a federal criminal complaint. A federal grand jury in Lubbock returned an indictment later that month charging her with one count of kidnapping, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1201(a)(1) and (g)(1).

According to documents filed with the Court today, on March 9, 2007, Rayshaun Parson, who was then age 21, traveled to Lubbock from her home in Clovis, New Mexico. While in Lubbock, throughout the day, Parson visited the maternity wards at University Medical Center and Covenant Lakeside Hospital, observing the newborn babies.

At approximately 12:32 a.m. on March 10, 2007, Parson entered Covenant Lakeside Hospital, Lubbock, Texas, wearing medical scrubs. After taking baby Mychael, Parson twice attempted to leave the hospital using the elevator. On both occasions, however, because the baby had a security sensor on her leg, an alarm sounded and the elevator failed to operate. Parson then went to a vacant room and cut and removed the security sensor and identification band from the baby so that she could leave the hospital with the baby. When Parson left the hospital, she concealed the three-day-old infant under her coat. She placed the baby, who was suffering from jaundice, in her car and drove back to her home in Clovis, New Mexico, approximately 100 miles from Lubbock.

Parson admits that she understood the nature and consequences of her act in kidnapping the baby, the wrongfulness of her act, and that kidnapping a baby is against the law, in that she pulled the hood of her coat over her face when leaving the hospital with the baby, concealed the baby under her coat, and discarded incriminating evidence of the crime in a dumpster more than a block away from her residence upon arriving back in Clovis.

Parson was not related to the victim in any way, and did not know the victim or her family before traveling to Lubbock on March 9, 2007.

After an Amber Alert was issued, a lead was received by the Lubbock Police Department which resulted in the infant being located, the day after the kidnapping, by the Clovis Police Department at a residence in Clovis.

U.S. Attorney Roper commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Lubbock Police Department, and the Clovis, New Mexico Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven M. Sucsy and Dick Baker of the Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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