VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A Manatee County woman knew about her mother's attempt to sell her then 8-week-old son and wanted some of the money to pay for a new car, authorities said.
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Stephanie Bigbee Fleming, 22, of Bradenton was charged Tuesday with being a principal to illegal sale or surrender of a child, according to the Florida Department of Law enforcement. She was being held at the Manatee County Jail on $50,000 bond, where she was booked under the name Stephanie Bigee-Davis, according to authorities. It was not immediately known if she has an attorney and there was no phone number listed for her.
Fleming and her mother, Patty Bigbee, 45, had agreed on a price for the infant, according to authorities. They discussed how to split the proceeds, with Fleming to take $9,000 of the sale to buy a car, authorities said.
Acting on a tip, FLDE agents said they arrested Bigbee last week after she attempted to sell the child to a couple for $75,000. They said the price was negotiated down to $30,000. Bigbee was charged with illegal sale or surrender of a child and communication fraud. A phone number listed for her was not in service.
She was being held at the Volusia County Jail along with her boyfriend, Lawrence Works, 42, who was also charged with the illegal sale or surrender of a child, authorities said. Works was involved in the sale, even transferring the child's belongings to the car he thought belonged to the woman buying the child, said FDLE spokeswoman Susie Murphy.
The informant was Bigbee's biological daughter, whom she had given up for adoption 26 years ago, Murphy said. An affidavit said Bigbee and Danielle Skiver, 27, had found each other on Facebook in July and were communicating. When Skiver told her mother she wanted a baby, Bigbee offered her grandson for sale, according to the documents. Skiver then notified authorities.
The child, who is now 11 weeks old, is in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families.
Investigators said the sale was all about greed.
"They obviously had a lack of humanity. They were going to sell this baby and take the proceeds to buy cars and other goods that they felt they needed to live their life," Wayne Ivey of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.
Stephanie had signed over parental rights to the baby. WFTV learned the baby's father, is Charles Shinka. He has not been charged yet, but reports say he and Stephanie were interested in having more kids so they could sell them.
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