Woman sentenced to 7 to 20 years for kidnapping twin newborns from Michigan hotel

DETROIT — It's difficult for Jazlyn Morgan to leave her 1-year-old twins when she goes to school or work, or even for just a quick run to the store.

The boys were kidnapped from a Livonia hotel by an acquaintance of Morgan's and three others when they were just 14 days old, and she and her family were left frantic for 12 hours, wondering if the babies were OK.

Now, her boys are nearly 15 months old, she said. They're walking and are doing well. The woman who pleaded guilty to kidnapping them, meanwhile, was sentenced Tuesday in Wayne Circuit Court to seven to 20 years in prison.

Shantell Jones pleaded guilty Oct. 4 to one count of kidnapping. A second count of kidnapping, one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, two counts of unlawful imprisonment and three counts of larceny in a building were dismissed.

During her victim impact statement Tuesday, Morgan said having her sons taken is "every mother's worst nightmare." She said she wanted Jones to be sentenced to a longer period of time than seven to 20 years, as the impact of the kidnapping still lingers in her family.

"Everybody went through just a nightmare in that 12 hours," Morgan said. "It may not seem like a lot to you, but it was a lot to me. You opened a door of friendship, you took me at my most lowest moment in life. You used me, you betrayed me, you set me up."

Jones befriended Morgan during her pregnancy to offer help, Morgan testified at the preliminary examination last year, and stopped by the Livonia hotel where Morgan was staying with the newborns to drop off a gift card for her.

When Morgan left the room briefly to get a pop from a vending machine downstairs, Jones and four others — Curtis Slay, Davion Sherman Chandler and a 16-year-old girl — allegedly took the babies, their car seats and Morgan's phone and tablet from the hotel room.

Slay and Sherman Chandler were sentenced to three to 15 years in prison in May for unlawful imprisonment. The 16-year-old girl's juvenile case remains pending.

Jones' attorney, Arni Chambers, said Jones has accepted responsibility and pleaded guilty.

"I just want to say I apologize for my actions and I hope you follow what's already on paper," Jones told Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Anne Marie McCarthy before McCarthy sentenced her.

McCarthy said Jones' actions were "quite disturbing," and it was clear that she was the leader of the foursome.

"There's nothing worse, I believe, than having your children taken from you," McCarthy said. "This (sentence) is a gift. ... This shows some faith, this shows the prosecutor and others believe you can get better."

Jones told her then-girlfriend Nieja Petty the day of the kidnapping that she had given birth to the twins earlier that day, Petty testified last year at the preliminary examination. Petty said she questioned Jones about the kids really being hers, because they did not look like her. Jones had previously told Petty she was pregnant and had gone through in-vitro fertilization treatment, Petty said.

Petty saw an Amber Alert about missing twins when she woke up to go to the bathroom early the next morning. She and her sister confronted Jones about it, and Jones left the home with the babies, Petty said.

When Jones' mother, whose name is also Shantell Jones, found out her daughter had the babies, she demanded she give them back, the mother testified. She said she called her son and told him to get the babies and meet her and her husband at the Detroit Police Department's 9th Precinct so they could return them.

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