Mother of Rawlings children charged with kidnapping

Ronneisha Evans faced Vicksburg Municipal Court Judge Penny Lawson on Monday for two charges of kidnapping. Her bond was set at a total of $400,000, $200,000 for each kidnapping charge. Her case will be heard by the next session of the grand jury.

Evans was arrested without incident last week in Slidell, Louisiana. She is accused of kidnapping 3-year-old Tamerikaya Rawlings and 5-year-old Benyaaqob Rawlings of Vicksburg.

Before the hearing, Evans’ attorney, Jerry Campbell, unexpectedly announced he would not be representing Evans.

Evans was brought before the court and presented with her initial paperwork. Instead of signing her legal name she inscribed “trademark” followed by a US code and a sequence of numbers. The judge, unfamiliar with the code, asked Evans to explain. Evans responded by stating that she was the “CEO” of her children, implying they were entities.

Evans then revisited her notion of dismissing her counsel and requested Campbell represent her, to which he agreed.

Campbell stated to the Judge that Evans is the mother of the children and argued that it’s not kidnapping. Campbell said that if anything, it’s ignoring a court order.

The prosecution told the court that the children were under the jurisdiction of the Youth Court.

Evans is believed to have transported the children to another jurisdiction to meet Eric Rawlings, Jr. It was also presented that in early September, Evans was charged with child neglect and received a 30-day jail sentence, but a judge allowed her to wait until after her baby was born to serve that time. While on the run in Slidell, Evans gave birth.

Both Evans and Rawlings mailed a packet of information to the judge, but she declined to accept them stating the information was between the attorneys, prosecution and defense and handed the packets to the attorneys.

Rawlings’ bond was also set at $400,000 last week.

Eric Rawlings Jr.