Woman pleads guilty in kidnapping of migrant workers' baby

A woman accused of taking an infant from a migrant worker after posing as an immigration official pleaded guilty this morning to kidnapping charges.

Amalia Tabata-Pereira faces life imprisonment for taking the 2-month-old girl from her parents March 23, 2009.

Circuit Judge Daniel H. Sleet set her sentencing for Sept. 30.

Tabata-Pereira also pleaded guilty to interference with child custody and impersonating a public officer. Prosecutors are hoping to double whatever sentence she received on those charges, claiming she is a habitual violent offender. If granted, it would boost each sentence from five to 10 years.

She entered an open plea rather than a negotiated plea deal.

She appeared to cry as prosecutor Jennifer Gabbard read the charges against her. Sleet had to ask Tabata-Pereira twice how she pleaded to the charges; her first answer was so soft it wasn't audible. She finally said, "Guilty."

Pereira lives in Bradenton and is married to Jose Tabata, a minor-league baseball player in the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization.

Authorities said Pereira approached Rosa Sirilo-Francisco, the mother of the girl, at the Plant City Health Department. Pereira told Sirilo-Francisco the Sirilo-Francisco and her husband were going to be deported, and Pereira needed to take their baby into custody.

The parents told News Channel 8 they do not have proper documentation to be in the United States. The mother refused to give up her child without talking to her husband.

Authorities said Pereira and Sirilo-Francisco drove to the farm where the husband was working. The father asked for identification, but Pereira convinced them there wasn't time to produce it.

The couple 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 and gave up the baby the next day.

Pereira gave investigators a detailed story about adopting a baby from a person referred to her by a large Mexican lady she met at Walmart.

Tabata said he had no idea his wife wasn't pregnant and that the baby she presented to him was not hers. He was told by Pereira he had missed the baby's birth months earlier while he was playing winter baseball in his native Venezuela.

He said during his wife's supposed pregnancy she had gained weight and went to physicians' appointments. He said he twice took her to doctors when she was visiting him in Venezuela.

She even sent her husband photographs of the baby's delivery. All the pictures, he said, were taken from below the waist.

The birth certificate Pereira presented to Tabata later was shown to come from a kit St. Joseph's Hospital gave to new parents. The version Pereira had was six months out of date, officials said.