A West Virginia woman convicted of kidnapping a girl from a Chicago bus station last December has been sentenced to 12.5 years in federal prison.
Sheila Matthews was sentenced today in federal court in Chicago where U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly called her a "cold and calculating person."
Matthews pleaded guilty in May to kidnapping 16-month-old Jasmine Anderson last Christmas Eve and taking her back to her home in Williamson, West Virginia. She was captured after a nationwide search and the infant was returned unharmed to her family in
Milwaukee.
Authorities say Matthews snatched the child to convince her boyfriend's parents that she had had his child while he was in prison.
Kennelly says he gave her the maximum sentence to keep her off the streets.
