RYDER MILLER - 1 Week (2009) - Waco TX

Prisscilla Mechell, 26, of West, who was convicted last week of aggravated kidnapping, injury to a child and abandoning a child in the abduction of a newborn who was later found alive in a trash dumpster, was sentenced to prison Monday. Jurors deliberated for two hours Monday morning before returning sentences of 23 years for aggravated kidnapping, 20 years for abandoning a child and 5 years for injury to a child.The sentences will be served concurrently. Mechell won’t be eligible for parole for more than 11 years. Jurors also fined her a total of $15,000. Mechell was accused of kidnapping 1-week-old Ryder Miller in September 2009 from his home in West while his mother napped. Mechell later left the boy in a trash dumpster near an abandoned convenience store about 10 miles from West on FM 933, where officers found him alive. Mechell told investigators she miscarried four weeks before to the abduction, but continued to tell her family she was pregnant and that she was due to deliver near the date of the kidnapping, according to an arrest affidavit released by police. Because of the deception, Mechell told investigators she felt she needed to find a baby and that on that Monday she was at the home of a friend who had a week-old boy. Mechell "indicated that she would rather that baby died than be caught with him," in an affidavit released by investigators. The boy's mother called 911 the morning of the kidnapping after she awakened from a nap to discover that the infant was gone. She told West police that Mechell, whom she said she had known for several months, was watching the baby while she napped at the home. While police were at the home, police said Mechell returned without the infant. According to the affidavit, Mechell admitted to investigators that she took Ryder Miller while the newborn's mother slept and drove to her home where she shaved the baby's head with a razor in order to change his appearance, according to the affidavit. Then later when she realized that authorities would believe she had the baby, she placed the boy on the floorboard of her car and drove off in search of somewhere to hide him. Later, after returning to the Miller home, she told authorities where she had left the newborn. When a McLennan County sheriff's deputy found the infant underneath debris in the dumpster, the boy was hot to the touch and red in color, the affidavit said. The deputy took the baby to his patrol unit to cool down and wait for an ambulance The affidavit said the boy and abrasions on both knees.