Woman arrested in kidnapping of Columbus 5-month-old twins in court on unrelated charge

INDIANAPOLIS — A 24-year-old woman accused of kidnapping 5-month-old twin boys in Columbus last week was in court Tuesday for allegedly spitting in an Indiana jailer’s face during booking.

Nalah Tamiko Jackson appeared virtually in Marion Superior Court for a felony battery by bodily waste charge. A public defender was assigned to her case, and a bail review hearing was scheduled for Jan. 3, according to court records.

Jackson, of Columbus, was identified last week as the suspect who stole a Honda Accord around 9:45 p.m. Dec. 19 when Wilhemina Barnett went inside a Donatos Pizza to pick up a DoorDash order, leaving her twin sons Kason and Kyair Thomas inside the running car. This sparked a statewide AMBER Alert.

A passerby at the Dayton International Airport found Kyair inside a car seat in the economy parking lot around 4:15 a.m. Dec. 20, more than six hours after the alert was issued.

Jackson was arrested Dec. 22 in Indianapolis, but Kason and the stolen car were still missing, until later that day police officers who stopped to eat discovered the Honda near a Papa John’s. Kason was still inside, and wearing the same clothes he was taken in, police said.

Police in Columbus filed two felony counts of kidnapping against Jackson; however, extradition papers have not yet been filed in Indiana, records show.

Jackson has ties to the Dayton area, where police reports show she made several trips to visit her two daughters, who live with their father in Riverside.

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