Monday, February 3, 1986/The Battalion/Page 7
Kidnapping
Woman charged with abducting infant
Associated Press
AUSTIN — A woman charged
with kidnapping a 4-day-old baby
from a mother at Brackenridge Hos
pital had faked a pregnancy so well
for nine months that many of her
friends were fooled, police said.
Police Sgt. Earnest Session said a
woman, dressed in white clothes to
resemble a nurse, took the baby girl
from the arms of her mother,
Wanda Glover, as she was feeding
her Friday morning.
The woman told Glover the child
had to return to the nursery for
blood tests.
Stephanie Jackson, 32, was being
held on an investigative charge of
kidnapping, a third-degree felony,
police said.
Jackson, who was in the city jail
Sunday in lieu of $15,000 bond, had
been telling acquaintances and her
husband that she was pregnant, Ses
sion said Saturday.
“She 1 tad people convinced,” he
said, adding that the woman is mar
ried and has two teen-age children
and a younger child.
Investigators have not deter
mined why the child was abducted
or why Jackson pretended to be pre
gnant.
“Tve talked to the woman, and I
still don’t know why she did it,” Ses
sion said.
Police arrested two other people
in connection with the abduction but
released them after determining
they were not involved, Session said.
Jackson was arrested at her home
at about 5:30 p.m. Friday after po-
“As soon as she walked
out the door I knew some
thing was wrong. Almost
instantly. ”
Wanda Glover, mother of
kidnapped infant.
lice received a tip that she had the
baby, Session said.
The child, Kendra Glover, was re
turned to the hospital. Her identity
was confirmed by a comparison of
her footprints with ones made pre
viously at the hospital.
Glover said Saturday she was sur
prised the child was recovered so
quickly and that she thought “it
would take two or three days.”
Glover, 19, said she was feeding
the child at 10 a.m. Friday when a
woman entered the room and told
her the baby had to be returned to
the nursery for blood tests.
“As soon as she walked out the
door I knew something was wrong,”
Glover said. “Almost instantly.”
She said she noticed the woman
wasn’t wearing a nametag but didn’t
really pay attention to it until the
woman had left.
The young mother, who also has a
3-year-old child, called nurses who
told her they did not take her baby.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” she
said. “I just sat here and thought a
lot. I couldn’t do anything but cry.”
The suspect left the hospital and
walked to the nearby home of a
friend, where she changed clothes
and then walked to her own house.
Session said.
The kidnapping was similar to the
May 1984 abduction of an infant
from the Brackenridge maternity
ward. That baby was recovered un
harmed 36 hours after the kidnap-
ping.
Hospital officials say they do not
have immediate plans to increase se
curity and that the hospital’s security
system is similar to other hospitals.
Interpreters’ training questioned in trial
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — A defense attorney in the mur
der iriul of a deaf man has raised the question of
whether interpreters provided by authorities were
trained well enough to guarantee that his client knew
what was going on.
Billy Gene Capers, 21, who is deaf, is on trial on a
murder charge in the Aug. 24, 1984 slaying of Ginger
Phillips, 20, a classmate at a school for the hearing im
paired.
Defense attorney Donald Mach said the state failed to
orovide competent interpreters in various stages of the
egal process.
After the state rested its case Friday, Mach attempted
to quash a confession that Capers gave police during
questioning, on grounds it was uncertain whether Cap
ers understood liis rights and the implications of the
police questioning.
State District Judge Mike Machado allowed the
statements to be entered into evidence.
Lucille Koehl, chairman of the board of evaluators
for interpreters for the Texas Commission for the
Deaf, testified that Capers and other hearing-impaired
people “are not getting equal treatment and the rights
guaranteed them by the Constitution.”
Mach will start presenting his case Monday. The trial,
which started Tuesday, has moved slowly because of the
necessity of having interpreters translate testimony into
sign language, then explain the sign language to attor
neys and the jury.
Willie Ray Jackson, 21, also charged with Phillips’
slaying, is awaiting trial pending a psychiatric examina
tion for mental competency and sanity at the time of the
killing.
The defendants and the victim were schoolmates at
the Southwest Center for the Hearing Impaired of the
Methodist Mission Home. Phillips’ nude body was
found in an abandoned home three days after she wan
dered from the nearby school with the defendants and
other schoolmates.
When Capers gave police a statement in which he
confessed participation in the murder, investigators
employed psychotherapist Susan Starnes as interpreter.
Starnes testified Friday that she was certified in Octo
ber 1984 by the Texas Commission for the Deaf as a
Level III interpreter for the hearing impaired.
When she interpreted for Capers during police ques
tioning she was just a Level I interpreter, she said, al
though she had already taken the test for Level III cer
tification.
After the jury was excused until Monday, Koehl testi
fied that her agency recommends that, certified Level
IV and V American Sign Language interpreters be
used in legal proceedings.
Although the Texas Commission for the Deaf recom
mends that Level IV and V interpreters be used by the
courts and police investigators, state law stipulates only
that an interpreter be “qualified.”
Appeals courts will have to decide what a qualified
interpreter is and whether Capers’ constitutional rights
were protected, Machado ruled.
Softball Officials
Flexible Hours! Good Pay!
First Meeting Monday, February 3
6:00 p.m.
Rm. 164 Read Bldg.
For mor© Informcition Contact th© IM-
REC Sports Office, RM. 159 READ
Halley’s Comet 1986
The event of a lifetime! Commemorate it with a T-shirt! Quality
navy blue (night sky) t-shirts have a il-color design on the back
with "Official Observer" logo on pocket. Fleecy navy sweatshirts
have 4-color design on the front.
QTY SIZE
STYLE
AMT
TOTAL
T-shirt $ 7.50 (ea.)
Sweatshirt $15.00 (ea.)
Sub-total
Sizes: S,M,L,XL Postage
Total
$ 1.50
Send check or money order to
Lodestar Graphics, 1412 Vine St., Lansing, .MT.
Orders shipped in 3 days or less.
It's a
once in a
lifetime offer!
MSQ12
Order
now!
WANTA JOB NEXT SUMMER?
FUN, VALUABLE EXPERIENCE AND GOOD PAY
CAMP LONGHORN'S LOOKING
To Our '85 Counselors
Come for a visit
Reward for Prospects
Now offering
Choice of terms
First-June 7-June 28
Second-June 28-July 19
Third-July 19-Aug. 9
Fourth-Aug. 9-Aug. 23
FOR VISIT AND INTERVIEW
See Camp Staff at-Rudder Tower-Room 704 A/B
Tuesday, Feb. 4TH 10 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
CAMP LONGHORN
BOYS CAMP, GIRLS CAMP, RANCH CAMP
Burnet, Texas, 78611 512-793-2811
Presents
Dr. Joseph
LoPiccofo
ON
LOVE &SEX
80’s
th,
FEBRUARY 5,1986
8:00 RM.
RUDDER AUD.
$1.00 ADM.
the
place
to
see
and
be
seen
to advertise call 845-2611
at eas