Woman could get life for taking infant

Amalia Tabata Pereira needed a baby, and fast.

She had convinced her husband that she had conceived and given birth while he was off pursuing his baseball career.

Now he was back in Bradenton demanding to see his child.

So she took one.

Pereira pleaded guilty Wednesday to kidnapping a 2-month-old girl from the baby's migrant worker parents in Plant City, convincing the parents they were about to be deported and had to turn over the infant.

She faces life imprisonment on that charge when she is sentenced Sept. 30.

Pereira also pleaded guilty to interference with child custody and impersonating a public officer. Because she has a criminal record, prosecutors are trying to double whatever sentence she will receive on those charges, boosting the maximum sentence from five to 10 years.

Pereira appeared to be crying when she told Circuit Judge Daniel H. Sleet she was guilty. Sleet had to ask her to repeat her plea because the first time her voice was so muted it was inaudible.

Pereira admitted to going to the Plant City Health Department on March 23, 2009, looking for a child. Prosecutors said she already had an infant car seat strapped into her vehicle.

Rosa Sirilo-Francisco had taken her 2-month-old daughter Sandra to the clinic for a check-up.

Pereira approached Sirilo-Francisco, telling her that she was a social worker with U.S. immigration and that Sirilo-Francisco and the child's father, Andres Cruz, were being deported to their native Mexico and had to surrender their baby.

The parents told News Channel 8 at the time they did not have proper documentation to be in the United States. Their immigration status could not be determined Wednesday.

The fearful mother balked, saying she had to talk with Cruz.

The two women drove to the farm where the father was working. Cruz demanded identification, but Pereira convinced him there wasn't time because agents were banging on the door of their home, ready to take the couple into custody.

The parents gave up the baby but realized hours later that the woman was a fraud and, with the help of a bilingual neighbor, reported the abduction to Plant City police. An Amber Alert was issued for the child's return.

Pereira turned herself in the next day after learning about the Amber Alert on television.

While police were searching for the child, Pereira was presenting him to her husband, Jose Nicholas Tabata, as his own.

Tabata, an outfielder who made his major league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates last month, told investigators he barely could contain himself when he finally got to hold his daughter.

The joy was short-lived. Authorities told him the child was not his and that his wife, 23 years his senior, had stolen the baby.

Tabata told officials he never suspected his wife faked a pregnancy. He said he took her to doctors when she visited his native Venezuela, where he played winter ball. He said she gained weight.

At first she told police the baby was given to her. The she told a detailed tale about adopting a baby from a person referred to her by a large Mexican lady she met at Walmart.

Tabata told authorities he was baffled.

He said his wife sent him pictures of the delivery, although all were taken below the waist. He also said she had a birth certificate. Investigators later found it was taken from a kit St. Joseph's hospital routinely gave new parents and was six months out of date.

The pair met at a Hillsborough Avenue club. At the time he was a prospect with the New York Yankees. He was traded to the Pirates in 2008.

Pereira has four children. She admitted to a gambling problem and stealing thousands of dollars from an employer in 1999. She burned company records trying to cover the theft and told police two men broke in to her Temple Terrace office and started the fire and stole the money. She helped police draw sketches of the suspects.

She was convicted of arson, grand theft and forgery in 2000 and sentenced to more than two years in prison. She was released in April 2003.