SC mother, 19, arrested; admits she abandoned son in NY toy store

Jet, August 19, 1996

The mother of a 4-year-old boy found abandoned in a New York toy store (JET, Aug. 12) was charged with abandonment and endangering the welfare of a child.

Tamekka Adams, 19, was arraigned on the charges in Brooklyn, NY, Criminal Court. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Judge Joseph McKay set bail at $25,000 cash or a $50,000 bond, and Adams was jailed. She was not required to enter a plea during the court proceedings.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes announced that Adams had also been indicted by a grand jury on the abandonment charges, which means the case will be transferred to state Supreme Court in Brooklyn. A hearing was scheduled at JET press time.

Detectives brought Adams to New York from her home near Aiken, SC, where she had been taken into custody by local sheriffs.

She told police she left her son, Jonathan Adams, who is now 5, at the Toys R Us store in Brooklyn because she couldn't take care of him and was convinced he would have a better life in a foster home.

"You don't forget nothing about your child," Ms. Adams told the Associated Press news service. "He was a good child. More than anything else, I want him back."

She added, "Times had gotten tough. Money was getting thin," and explained that she had worked at a fast-food restaurant but recently lost the job.

No help came from her family in New York or from the man she says is Jonathan's biological father who lives in Columbia, SC.

Jonathan, whose legal name is Vincent Philip Nelson, was found on March 21 at Toys R Us in Brooklyn and had since been in New York foster care.

The boy's maternal grandmother, Dora Abebe, of Newark, NJ, said she plans to fight for custody.

The boy's father, identified as Joseph Green, and a woman claiming to be the child's grandmother, are also seeking custody of the child, according to news reports.