BURLINGTON — Moyium Willomon, 26, of Shelburne, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday morning to charges of kidnapping after allegedly trying to take a 2-year-old child on a bus in Burlington last week.
Willomon appeared by video for an arraignment in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington. At the hearing, Judge Alison Arms agreed with Public Defender Molly Reis’ proposal that Willomon receive an in-patient mental health evaluation to determine her competency.
Jennifer Poirier, 40, of Shelburne, is the mother of the child that Willomon allegedly tried to abduct. Poirier said in an interview Tuesday that she rides the Green Mountain Transit bus to Burlington every weekday. She said when she and her child walked onto the bus on Feb. 21, Willomon was already seated. Poirier said Willomon moved to sit closer to her and the child, then reportedly told Poirier that the child belonged to her.
Willomon then picked up the child and tried to exit the bus, according to Poirier. Other passengers helped to stop Willomon, allowing Poirier to take back her child. Poirier asked for the bus driver to pull over and call the police.
“She was totally calm,” Poirier told VTDigger. “There was no violence. There was no swearing. She was just very matter of fact, ‘this is my child.’”
Burlington police responded to the bus, which had stopped on South Union Street. In an affidavit, Officer Michael Moran described Willomon as calm but insistent that the child was hers.
The affidavit notes that Willomon has a history of mental illness. Police transported her to the University of Vermont Medical Center. Once at the hospital, Howard Center First Call, a team of on-call mental health professionals, conducted a mental health evaluation and said Willomon “needed long term involuntary care as she posed a threat to other families,” according to the affidavit.
Willomon was being held at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington.