The woman facing kidnapping charges in the abduction of three children in Miami made her first court appearance Tuesday where she was ordered held without bond.
Velan Verdier, 33, has been charged with three counts each of kidnapping, false imprisonment of a child and child neglect, and one count each of grand theft auto and robbery by sudden snatching in the Monday incident.
"I didn't touch nobody's child," Verdier said during Tuesday's hearing, where Judge Dava J. Tunis ordered her held without bond and appointed her a public defender.
No Bond for Parents Charged With Kidnapping Kids, Taking Them to Cuba
Hours earlier, the father and uncle of the three children, 34-year-old Anthony Milhomme, was released after posting bond, jail officials said. Milhomme has been charged with one count each of child neglect and resisting arrest without violence.
At their home Tuesday, Milhomme's parents said he was a good father to his children.
"That's a nice, good father, good father, good, good father," mother Elisna Milhomme said. "He care for the kids, everything."
"Like I'm good father, he's a good father for the kids too," father Tony Milhomme said.
VIDEO: 3 Abducted Kids Found: Miami Police
Miami Police say Milhomme had left the three children inside a car when he stopped at the St. Jacques Market at 125 Northwest 62nd Street Monday. Milhomme told officers he had left the children unattended for two minutes but he actually left them alone for 15 minutes police said.
While Milhomme was away, Verdier stole the grey 2005 Ford 500 with the three kids inside, police said. The three children – siblings Anthony Milhomme, 6, and Kaila Milhomme, 5, and their cousin, Isaiah Paul, 6 – were later located at NW 58th Street and 1st Avenue, police said.
Police said Verdier had even taken $5 by force from one of the children.
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