elgato
Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 17240
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:14 am Post subject: Craigslist baby peddler draws prison sentence |
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JOPLIN, Mo. — A Joplin woman, who offered a baby for sale on craigslist and accepted a payment on the imaginary infant from undercover officers, has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Alice H. Sims, 29, pleaded guilty Monday in Jasper County Circuit Court to felony stealing by deceit in connection with the craigslist scam.
Sims entered an open plea and waived her right to a sentencing-assessment report at a hearing before Circuit Judge Gayle Crane. The judge accepted the plea and assessed the defendant the prison term. The conviction carries up to four years in prison under state law.
Sims was arrested Dec. 8 after accepting $200 from undercover police officers in the parking lot of the McDonald’s restaurant at Seventh Street and Maiden Lane. The money represented a down payment on an unborn baby she had listed for sale a few days earlier on craigslist, an Internet classified advertising site.
The ad concerned a baby Sims supposedly was carrying and was willing to sell for a $200 down payment and $100 per month until the anticipated birth of the child on May 18.
Police learned of the matter from a woman who had been in contact with Sims about the baby via e-mails and text messages and who had set up a meeting with her in the parking lot. The undercover officers kept the appointment in the woman’s place, and arrested the defendant when she accepted the payment and agreed to take just $200 more when the baby was born instead of the $100 per month that she had been seeking.
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