An Arkansas couple have pleaded responsible to attempting to promote their child boy to a stranger at a campsite for $1,000 and a six-pack of beer.
Darien City, 22, and Shalene Ehlers, 21, struck two separate plea offers on Dec. 22 that may ship the daddy to jail whereas the mom stays free on probation, in keeping with Benton County courtroom data.
Officers from the Benton County Sheriff’s Workplace arrested the couple in September 2024 for the tried baby-sale after being tipped off that the couple had signed a letter granting custody to a man on the campsite, in keeping with Benton County courtroom data.
The written and signed contract, which was proven to investigators by witnesses, learn: “I, Darien City and Shalene Ehlers, are signing our rights over to [Cody Martin] of our child for $1,000 on 9/21/24,” the data present.
Each dad and mom signed, then added a disclaimer.
“After signing this there will likely be no altering y’all two’s minds to by no means contact once more,” courtroom data confirmed.
A witness to the sick deal used the cellphone within the supervisor’s workplace on the Beaver Lake Conceal-A-Approach Campground in Rogers — which lies a number of miles east of the Oklahoma border — to name police, in keeping with a courtroom data.
The couple have been initially charged with endangering the welfare of a minor and trying to just accept consideration for relinquishment of a minor, the courtroom data present.
City pleaded responsible to 1 depend of tried accepting compensation for adoption, however prosecutors dropped one depend of endangering the welfare of a minor.
A choose accepted City’s plea deal, and he was sentenced to a few years within the Arkansas Division of Corrections with an extra three-year sentence suspended.
Ehlers pleaded responsible to each counts — trying to just accept compensation and endangering the kid’s welfare — in opposition to her. However Benton County Circuit Decide Brad Karren suspended the fees in her plea deal and positioned her on state-supervised probation for six years, in keeping with courtroom data.
