Columbus woman accused of kidnapping young twins faces new felony charges for car theft
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — New felony charges came down Friday against the woman accused in the high-profile kidnappings of one five-month-old twins days before Christmas.
A Franklin County grand jury indicted Nalah Jackson for the thefts of two more cars in a case that happened weeks prior to the abductions.
On Your Side Problem Solvers started looking into the earlier case to ask why Jackson had been released.
According to Dublin Police, Jackson had stolen two cars and crashed them both within minutes during an evening commute on Dec. 2 near Bridge Park. Instead of charging Jackson with a felony then, police cited her on a series of misdemeanors and let her go.
Problem Solvers obtained more than nine hours of video from the Dublin crash scenes. One stolen car is seen flipped on its side in front of a Dublin City School's bus.
Police say Jackson had climbed out of that car, stole the car of a woman who had been helping her, and crashed that car too. Police say Jackson sped through a red light with the second stolen car and was t-boned by a 16-year-old driver in the intersection who had the green light.
At the time, police at the scene told Jackson that she was being detained and would be going nowhere. However, that changed when Jackson was taken to Riverside Hospital.
Police decided to release Jackson as opposed to assigning guard duty and charge her with a felony.
Police ended up sending their felony case to the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office four days after the Thomas twins had been kidnapped. Police say the babies were in their car seats when Jackson stole their mother's car.
Jackson has now been charged with auto theft and receiving stolen property.
On Monday of next week, Problem Solver Lisa Rantala releases more of what she found in her investigation into the Dublin car crashes and after asking police if they followed their own procedures when it comes to special transport and a felony arrest.
Also Friday, Jackson pleaded not guilty in federal court in the abduction cases.
