INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis teen accused of plotting to kidnap a baby after faking her own pregnancy was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison.
Prosecutors say that Desarai Kemp hatched a plan to steal the baby after befriending the child's mother.
Only 18 at the time of her arrest, Kemp had already been arrested several times. But nothing compared to the plot she executed on December 5, 2014.
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For months, the teen convinced friends and family she was pregnant. The teen told police that she kidnapped a friend's one-year-old son after she suffered a miscarriage months earlier and wanted a child of her own to keep.
Kemp rekindled a school friendship of Juanita Gibson, telling Gibson that she was also pregnant. Prosecutors say it was all part of a plan.
On December 5, 2014, Kemp stayed overnight at Gibson's apartment. When everyone was asleep, she soaked towels with lighter fluid and fled with Gibson's baby in a stolen car. Police found Kemp with the unharmed infant hours later.
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Kemp pleated guilty to avoid a trial.
"We live with so much pain, especially me because that's my sister. I was with her almost every day. We was like this and it hurts our family to see her go through this," Dahsiar Kemp said.
In sentencing Kemp, the judge said the 19-year-old suffers from substantial mental health problems and has a lengthy criminal history, but that this was a planned crime by a deeply disturbed woman to convince everyone around her that she was pregnant with the intention of a befriending a new mother, only to steal her baby.
The judge said he's allowing Kemp's attorney to file for modified sentencing next March, so that she can do the remainder of her time in community corrections and get the mental health treatment that she needs.
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