A preliminary hearing for the teenager accused of trying to steal a baby from a Clayton County hospital has been postponed until March 6.
Naquelle Sontieq Ballard, 19, had been scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning following her Jan. 4 arrest. She is being held in the Clayton County jail without bond.
Ballard must now undergo a mental evaluation, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Ballard was charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment after she allegedly posed as a hospital worker and took a newborn baby from a room at Southern Regional Medical Center. Ballard then allegedly put the infant in her purse and tried to leave the hospital, but an alarm system sounded and two maintenance workers were able to grab Ballard's purse, according to police and hospital officials.
Witnesses reported Ballard's tag number to police, who arrested her at her home. The 2-day-old girl, Khloe Alaniya McBride, was not injured, her family told the AJC.
After being taken into custody, Ballard told police she had lied to her boyfriend, telling him she had delivered their baby when she had really miscarried, according to a warrant affidavit. Ballard told police she had been planning to kidnap a baby for several months and that she planned to take the baby to her boyfriend's home and raise it as theirs, the affidavit states.
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