A Fayette County couple has been arrested and charged with attempting to sell a 3-month-old child, hoping to make $500 to $1,000, Fayette County law enforcement said.
Ashley Nichole Harmon, 25, and Jonathan Isaac Lucas Flint, 20, both of Layland, brought the infant child to a Layland home on Saturday afternoon, where they attempted to sell it, Fayette County Sheriff Steve Kessler and Prosecuting Attorney Larry Harrah announced in a news release.
When no one at the home agreed to buy the child, the couple left the infant at the house and left, law enforcement said.
At around 7:30 p.m. someone at the home called 911 to report a sick child, law enforcement said.
When an EMS team arrived they found the abandoned child and realized that the caller did not have legal custody of the child.
Child Protective Services took the child to the hospital and the child was then transferred to a foster home, the news release said.
Detectives and CPS workers were able to find the child's biological father and paternal grandmother and learned that Harmon was the child's biological mother, the release said.
Harmon had left her home on Thursday, taking the infant child and leaving behind two other young children under the age of 3, the release said.
After interviewing Harmon and Flint, her fiancee, detectives obtained warrants for both of their arrests, the release said.
Both were charged with selling or attempting to sell a child and gross child neglect creating a risk of bodily injury or death to a child, both felonies.
"Law enforcement officers frequently deal with some pretty strange situations," Kessler said. "A situation like this is really out of the ordinary though."
Harmon and Flint are being held in Southern Regional Jail, each on $100,000 bail.
"It is a sad commentary on the society in which we live that we actually have to codify laws prohibiting the sale or attempted sale of innocent young children," Harrah said. "We intend to vigorously pursue the criminal charges filed in connection with this matter."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.