Couple tries to sell baby for $1,000 and a six-pack of beer
An Arkansas couple has pleaded guilty to trying to sell their baby boy to a stranger at a campsite for $1,000 and a six-pack of beer.
Darien Urban, 22, and Shalene Ehlers, 21, reached separate plea agreements on December 22, which will send Urban to prison while Ehlers will remain free under probation, according to Benton County court records.
Benton County Sheriff’s Office officers arrested the couple in September 2024 after receiving a tip that they had signed a letter granting custody of their child to a man at a local campsite. The signed document, presented to investigators by witnesses, stated: “I, Darien Urban and Shalene Ehlers, are signing our rights over to [Cody Martin] of our baby for $1,000 on 9/21/24.” Both parents also added a note: “After signing this there will be no changing y’all two’s minds to never contact again,” the records show.
A witness at the Beaver Lake Hide-A-Way Campground in Rogers, located a few miles east of the Oklahoma border, used the office phone to call police after observing the attempted transaction, according to court records. The couple initially faced charges of endangering the welfare of a minor and attempting to accept compensation for relinquishment of a minor.
Urban pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to accept compensation for adoption, while prosecutors dropped the charge of endangering the welfare of a minor. A judge accepted his plea and sentenced him to three years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections, with an additional three-year sentence suspended.
Ehlers pleaded guilty to both charges but had the court suspend them under her plea agreement. She was placed on six years of state-supervised probation, according to Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren.
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