
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 15, 1993                   TAG: 9309150225
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CLINTWOOD                                LENGTH: Short

TEEN MOTHER FACES ADULT TRIAL ON CHILDREN-SELLING CHARGES

A teen-age mother charged with trying to sell her 9-month-old daughter and an unborn child she was carrying can be tried as an adult, a judge has ruled.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Susan Bundy on Monday ordered the case of Stephanie G. Owens to be transferred to Dickenson County Circuit Court.

"This is a criminal offense. This is an adult offense," the judge said. "I don't think we can regard the attempted sale of a baby as anything but adult."

Owens was 17 in January when she was arrested. As an adult, she faces up to 10 years in prison on the felony charge of entering into an agreement to accept money for the placement or adoption of a child. As a juvenile, she would have faced up to 12 months.

Her husband, James I. Owens, 21, also was arrested. He hanged himself by bed sheets in the county jail Feb. 26 and died March 28.

Both of the couple's children are in the custody of the Dickenson County Department of Social Services. - Associated Press

by CNB