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Donna Louise Greenwell

Donna Louise Greenwell

Louisiana Woman Pleads Guilty to Selling Children for a Cockatoo and $175

A Louisiana woman has pleaded guilty to selling a 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl for a cockatoo and $175. Her attorney called her case an adoption attempt that went wrong.

Published: 02/23/2010 22:25
Donna Louise Greenwell, 53, of Pitkin, Louisiana, was sentenced Monday to 15 months of hard labor on each of two criminal counts: sale of a minor.

Greenwell had custody of the children, after they were "abandoned to her care." Her lawyers have insisted she was just trying to find a better home for them.
"They were undernourished and not well taken care of," Attorney Steve Sikich said. "It's my understanding that the mother had requested that she take care of the kids."
Neither the children's mother or father could be located, Sikich said.
Investigators said Greenwell called Paul J. Romero, 46, and Brandy Lynn Romero, 27, of Evangeline Parish early last year after seeing a flyer they posted offering a cockatoo for sale, and offered to deliver the children for about $2,000.
When the Romeros said they could not afford that, a deal was stuck for the bird, valued at $1,500, plus cash.
$175 was to cover the cost of an attorney to transfer custody of the children to the Romeros, Sikich claimed. The cockatoo was a gift to Greenwell's granddaughter, he said.
 
Greenwell escaped a jail term of 10 years on each count and another 20 years as a habitual offender. The Evangeline Parish District Attorney agreed not to file charges against Greenwell as a habitual offender as part of the plea bargain, Sikich said.
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