BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A 34-year-old Starke mother was sentenced to 13 months in prison after pleading to leaving her child with a stranger after a traffic crash.
Kassie Leighana Gilliam pleaded to unlawful desertion of a child.
According to an arrest report, on September 22, 2023, a witness located on State Road 100 between Starke and Keystone Heights told a deputy that he had hired the defendant to do some work for him and that as she was pulling into his driveway, her car was struck by another vehicle.
Gilliam then left the scene, leaving her child with the witness, but she did not return.
Deputies took the child to the sheriff’s office, and the mother later told deputies she fell asleep at her boyfriend’s, and her phone went dead.
Gilliams’ case was initially transferred to the county’s mental health court but was transferred out after the defendant failed to appear.
