Prosecutors want additional punishment for a Bradenton woman should she be convicted of taking a 2-month-old girl from a migrant family by posing as an immigration official.
Hillsborough County Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Gabbard filed notice today that her office would seek a sentencing enhancement for Amalia Tabata Pereira, 43, as a habitual violent felony offender.
Gabbard filed the notice at an arraignment hearing where Pereira pleaded not guilty to charges of false imprisonment, interference with parental custody and impersonating a public official.
Pereira faces a minimum of 67 months in prison on those charges.
Prosecutors said last week that they plan to file kidnapping charges against Pereira, increasing the potential sentence to life imprisonment.
Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Daniel Sleet set a July 13 status conference in the case.
Pereira is accused of taking the baby from her mother, Rosa Sirilo-Francisco, at the Plant City Health Department in March.
Pereira asked the mother to hand over the baby, saying she would help Sirilo-Francisco and the child's father to avoid deportation to Mexico.
Pereira, 43, turned herself in to Manatee County deputies more than 24 hours after the baby was taken.
Pereira spent two years and nine months in prison after being convicted of arson, grand theft and forgery.
She is the wife of Pittsburgh Pirates minor leaguer Jose Tabata.
Tabata said Pereira falsified a pregnancy and the birth of a girl, indicating he thought the abducted child was his.
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