The Thomas family receives news that baby Kason Thomas has been found
The Thomas family’s cries of joy rang throughout the Lowes parking lot in Whitehall on December 22, 2023, when they learned that the second of two abducted five-month-old twins, Kason Thomas, was found in the back seat of his mother’s stolen car at an Indianapolis pizzeria.
A federal judge sentenced a woman who pleaded guilty to kidnapping five-month-old twin boys from Columbus in December 2022 to more than 23 years in prison.
Nalah Jackson, 26, who was homeless, stole a car with the engine running from outside a Short North restaurant on Dec. 19, 2022. Twins Kason and Ky’Air Thomas, who were 5 months old at the time, were sitting in the back seat while their mother went into the restaurant to pick up an order she was delivering.
Jackson pleaded guilty to two counts of kidnapping in U.S. District Court in Columbus in February. As part of that plea, federal prosecutors and Jackson’s lawyers recommended a 20-year prison sentence for Jackson.
However, US District Judge Michael Watson rejected this offer, resulting in a new plea agreement with an agreed sentence of between 20 and 25 years. Watson ultimately sentenced Jackson to 23 years and four months in a federal prison.
Related: Nalah Jackson Homeless woman pleads guilty to kidnapping of Columbus twin babies in 2022
Before Jackson announced the verdict, she presented her own version of events.
“I looked in the front, but not in the back seat,” Jackson said of stealing the idling car. “If I had seen those babies in the back seat, I wouldn’t have taken the car.”
Authorities issued an Amber Alert for the twins after the car was stolen. The next morning, a passerby found Ky’Air in a car seat in a parking lot outside Dayton International Airport. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Jackson went into the airport and when she came out, she couldn’t find the stolen car. She even tried to hire a rideshare service to find the car.
On Tuesday, Jackson claimed she tried to take the twins to the airport in a carrier but was frightened when she saw airport police. Jackson also said she put clothes on the twins and strapped them into their car seats after realizing they were in the back seat of the car.
Jackson did not say Tuesday that she would return the stolen vehicle. She said she had taken a “large dose” of methamphetamine, a drug she did not use frequently.
“I was high. I was completely high,” Jackson said. “If I hadn’t been high, I would have stopped and taken her to a safe place.”
Jackson eventually found the car in the airport parking lot, got Ky’Air out and left him in the car seat between two other parked vehicles. Then she sped to Indianapolis, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Once in Indianapolis, Jackson abandoned the car in a restaurant parking lot, with Kason still in the back seat. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Jackson began selling merchandise outside a gas station and encountered a woman who offered her a ride and her cellphone number. The woman later realized Jackson was the woman wanted in the Amber alert and hatched a plan with her cousin to meet up with Jackson and try to find five-month-old Kason.
Two days later, on December 22, 2022, the two women met with Jackson. The women contacted Indianapolis police, who were able to catch up with the three women. Jackson gave police a false name and false identification, court records say.
A few hours later, and more than two and a half days after the initial missing person report, the women found Kason in the back seat of the vehicle in the restaurant’s parking lot and alerted Indianapolis police to another nearby location. Police removed the boy from the cold, parked car just before a snowstorm was set to hit Indianapolis.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Kason was treated for dehydration and some suspected heart defects, but other than sitting in his own excrement the entire time, he was unharmed.
On January 28, 2023, Ky’Air died unexpectedly. His death was ruled a sudden, unexplained infant death by the Franklin County Coroner’s Office and was not related to the kidnapping.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors said Kason suffered from a seizure disorder, but it was unclear whether this was a side effect of the cold.
When Watson asked him about the details of the incident, Jackson described the situation as an “out-of-body experience.”
“Her out-of-body experience resulted in a nightmare for this family,” Watson said.
“I’m not a monster,” Jackson replied. “I know what I did was wrong and I did that to that mother.”
Watson described Jackson’s words and explanations for what happened as “cold comfort” to the boys’ family. He said he took into account Jackson’s complex mental health issues and difficult childhood in reaching his verdict on Tuesday.
As part of her sentence, Jackson must register as a sex offender. After her release from prison, she will be on probation for five years.
