Mother Pleads Guilty To Kidnapping Biological Twins From Adoptive Parents

Friday, September 14th 2007, 4:44 pm

By: News On 6

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ A mother charged with kidnapping her young twin children from their adoptive parents and fleeing to Canada pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of international parental kidnapping.

Allison Quets, 49, of Orlando, Fla., entered the plea Friday morning, according to WRAL-TV and The News & Observer of Raleigh. Held since her arrest in December, when she was found with the twins in Ottawa, she was to be released pending a Dec. 17 sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court.

``I'm glad to be out. I'm going much better,'' Quets said. ``The most important thing in the world is for me to see my children.''

Prosecutors said Quets kidnapped the 17-month-old twins from Kevin and Denise Needham of Apex, a Raleigh suburb. Quets had a court-sanctioned visit with the twins the weekend before Christmas, but she didn't return the toddlers, Tyler Lee and Holly Ann Needham, as ordered by Dec. 24.

The former Lockheed Martin engineer was arrested five days later, and the twins were reunited with their adoptive parents in Canada shortly after they were found.

Quets' sister has said she did not want to give the children up for adoption, but had a rough pregnancy and was worried that she would be too weak to care for them.

The charges carry a maximum of penalty of three years in prison, but Quets has already served the minimum sentence recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.