Carlina White today. Inset: White as an infant in 1987.
NEW YORK -- A woman who was snatched from a New York hospital as a newborn in 1987 was planning to back the "fake mom" who reportedly abused her and was charged with her kidnapping, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
Carlina White, 23, was reunited with her real parents in January but agreed to testify on behalf of Ann Pettway and appeal for leniency if Pettway was convicted, defense lawyer Robert Baum said.
"I believe after meeting with her and speaking for a long time that she will be supportive in every way," Baum said Monday, after a brief court conference in the case.
White, who was raised Njedra Nance, was taken from the hospital when she was just 19 days old and raised in Bridgeport, Conn. Pettway claims that she was given the baby by a drug-addicted woman.
White's birth parents, Carl Tyson and Joy White, attended the hearing but left the Manhattan federal courthouse without commenting.
Judge Kevin Castel put off setting a trial date after Baum said he needed more time to review documents turned over by prosecutors last week.
Outside court, Baum said he was trying to identify a woman who was seen hanging around the hospital in a nurse's outfit at the time White disappeared.
He noted that authorities suspected White's kidnapper had medical training because of the way her IV tube was disconnected, adding that Pettway had no such experience.
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