Does Mother Really Know Best?

Staff Editor: Logan Haines

In the middle of a nice Tuesday evening, August 27, one Canton mother took it upon herself to make a drastic change for her son. Alicia Omana had initially only been accused allegedly for handcuffing her son at knife point and attempting to flee the state with him.

Mother and culprit to a mountain of crimes against her own son, Alicia Omana. Photo Credit: Cherokee Tribune.

Omana, as far as we know, is still currently being held in custody at the Cherokee County jail. Her first appearance before a judge was the following Friday at noon, in which they denied her bond as she is a “direct threat to the child,” according to Chief Magistrate Judge James Drane.

The child, her 11-year-old son, was safely recovered and returned to his father after local Cherokee law enforcement tracked down the maternal culprit through a phone’s cell signal, she had brought into the car.

Omana sitting in jail court with the Chief Magistrate and her attorney, Jeff Heller, awaiting sentencing. Photo Credit: Gary Tanner.

Around 5 p.m. that Tuesday night Cherokee County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a house call for domestic disturbance on Jasmine Court. They had just received the report that a mother had forcibly taken her son into handcuffs at knife point and planned on leaving the state with him. Omana apparently has family in Louisiana, and where the father suspected she was going to be taking him.

After receiving the call, the child’s father arrived and told law enforcement he was just on a call with both his wife and kidnapped son and he was unable to convince the mother to turn around and come back home. The father told deputies he was able to track a cell phone in his wife’s vehicle. In coordination with Cherokee County law enforcement agencies in south Atlanta the team was able to successfully search for the vehicle spotting it near the city of LaGrange on Interstate I-85 by Grantville Police.

Omana, 34, has been charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, cruelty to children in the first degree, battery and obstructing a 911 call.

Omana’s van pulled over on I-85 by law enforcement. Photo Courtesy: 11 Alive News.

That Friday morning during her trail hearing Omana was denied bond upon request. On top of being an active threat to the child Omana “is a risk to flee” argued Assistant District Attorney Ashley Snow. Snow also said she is a threat to influence witnesses in the case, having already attempted to call her husband asking him to drop the charges. The courts and people believe this woman to be sick and Parker Tingle, a Woodstock High School Senior, commented “It’s crazy that any mother is capable of doing that kind of thing to her own child. Whether there was a motive, or she’s just plain lost it, it’s terrifying that women like that are out there.”

Omana’s lawyer has said she will be remaining in close proximity around friends for the duration of the trial and hearings. Omana had to agree, as well, to have zero contact with her son if somehow released on bond. He brought to light that Omana has no prior criminal record and is willing to participate in future hearings. At one point she had gone as far to say “There was no custody agreement with my husband. He [their son] was in my custody,” to which Drane quickly snorted back “A mother who would put handcuffs on a child – I have to call you on that one.” Guillermo Perez, a Senior at Woodstock High School, shared similar beliefs with the Chief Magistrate Judge, “I think if the accusations against this woman are undeniably true, then she shouldn’t be able to see her son again ever.”