(NewsNation) —Alabama nursing student Carlethia “Carlee” Russell, who was convicted of falsely telling police she was abducted last year, will appear in court Thursday for a new plea hearing five months after being sentenced by a municipal judge.

She gained national headlines after fabricating a story last summer about being kidnapped when Russell stopped her car to check on a toddler who was wandering on the side of a highway in Hoover, about 10 miles south of Birmingham. 

Russell, 26, disappeared July 13 and returned home 49 hours later on her own after Hoover police launched massive search efforts. 

Family members said she had called and told them about seeing a toddler before she screamed and the call ended with dead air. 

Two weeks later, Russell admitted she made up the story and prosecutors filed two misdemeanor charges of false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident against her. 

She was convicted by a municipal court judge in October but appealed that ruling.

What’s happened in her case so far? 

Russell went before a municipal court judge Oct. 11 for her misdemeanor charges. 

She pleaded not guilty to charges and was found guilty by Municipal Judge Brad Bishop, based on the recommendation of state prosecutors, reported AL.com. 

Russell’s attorney agreed to a stipulated appeal, acknowledging the evidence against her so the guilty decision could be entered into court to move forward with the appeal, according to the outlet. 

The two charges each carried a maximum penalty of a year in jail, but Bishop recommended that Russell spend a year in jail, pay about $1,700 in fines and around $18,000 in restitution.

In Jefferson County, misdemeanors start at the municipal court level instead of the state court level, Eric Guster, a Birmingham attorney who spent years as a criminal defense attorney, told NewsNation. 

There is no option for a jury trial in municipal court so if someone is found guilty, they have the right to appeal their case to a higher court, which they often do, he said. 

After her conviction, Russell’s attorney Emory Anthony immediately filed an appeal, noting that jail time was too harsh for the charges. 

“We stipulated an appeal of the case and the reasoning behind it was that they were trying to ask for jail time, which we totally disagree with,” Anthony said, adding that he believed the restitution was fair, reported AL.com. 

The main strategy behind the appeal, Guster said, is to take the case out of the hands of a lower-level judge, who may be influenced by politics, and put it into the hands of a judge who routinely handles serious felonies so a misdemeanor may be lower on their totem pole, he said. 

She could face the same or lighter sentence at the higher level, he said. 

Russell was scheduled for trial in state court Monday,  but Jefferson County Circuit Judge David Carpenter removed the trial from the docket.

Instead, the judge set a plea hearing for Thursday. 

What have the police and her lawyer said about the case?

Russell’s lawyers have said that jail time is an unusually harsh penalty for the crime she committed. 

“If you can find where someone was put in jail for that, bring the file to me and I’ll look at it,’’ Anthony said after her municipal court hearing, reported AL.com. “Restitution, we don’t disagree with that, but to lock her up and put her in jail, we disagree.”

Anthony also said Russell acknowledges her mistakes and is remorseful for her actions, but he still hasn’t provided any answers as to why she attempted the massive hoax. 

“We’re dealing with issues with Carlee, and we want the best for Carlee,’’ Anthony said, according to AL.com. “We realize a mistake was made but we don’t want to just pile on right now.”

Meanwhile, Hoover police have maintained that Russell should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“I know many are shocked and appalled that Miss Russell is only being charged with two misdemeanors despite all the panic and disruption her actions caused,” Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said at a news conference last summer. “Let me assure you, I, too, share the same frustration. But existing laws only allow the charges that were filed to be filed.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall shared the sentiment and said at the same news conference that his office would be keeping an eye on the case. 

“We don’t see this as a victimless crime,” he said. “There are significant hours spent, resources expended as a result of this investigation.”

What’s next? 

It is unclear how Russell will plead Thursday but that will determine the next steps in the legal process, Guster said. 

All the media attention surrounding her case hasn’t helped her and will continue to drag this case on, he said.

“If not for the national attention, this would have been handled in municipal court with a probation sentence,” Guster said. “But because of the amount of attention and the resources that were put in place for her, the city of Hoover really wants to punish her and make an example of her.” 

The case is also likely to create new laws in Alabama as lawmakers are moving forward with a bill that proposes harsher penalties for those convicted of making a false report to law enforcement. 

Under the proposed law, a person convicted of this kind of false reporting must pay full restitution to cover law enforcement’s work and any prison sentence must be served day-for-day.

“It drew national and international attention, and it made our community look like it was an unsafe place where you could disappear without a trace, and people were using toddlers as bait,” Republican Alabama Repr. Mike Shaw of Hoover said, according to a report from local news station WBMA. “It’s a crazy story and I think we saw very quickly we needed to address the situation like this. A false report of this magnitude is not a misdemeanor.”