Florida preschooler Miranda Wilkerson has been released into the custody of a registered sex offender First Coast News, an ABC News affiliate, reported last Wednesday.
The decision was a result of a dramatic custody battle that shifted guardianship shifted from Wilkerson’s grandmother to her stepfather, a registered sex offender with a history of domestic violence and aggravated assault.
According to Huffington Post, Miranda’s mother, Trista Crews, died in a car crash in 2007. At that time Crews was still married to her estranged husband, Donald Coleman.
Coleman was 38 when he got 14-year-old Trista Crews pregnant, which resulted in his conviction of sex with an underage woman.
Since Crews’ death Wilkerson has been in the custody of her maternal grandmother Rita Manning. Manning told reporters of ABC News affiliate WJXX-TV that, “she’s been with me since she drew breath.”
Manning discussed with reporters her daughters life after Coleman. After becoming pregnant at 14 the two married, even after Coleman became a convicted sex offender. They had three children together, and Manning says her daughter left him in 2005 but was unable to afford a divorce.
During their separation Crews became pregnant with Miranda Wilkerson from another man. Coleman was only able to gain custody of Wilkerson due to the fact that he was still married to Crews at the time of Wilkerson’s birth.
According to court documents released Friday that were obtained by First Coast News, Wilkerson’s biological father has come forward and hired an attorney in order to get Wilkerson out of Coleman home.
