DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Patty Bigbee, who was caught on tape negotiating the sale of her infant grandson, blamed the baby’s mother in court Thursday and said she just wanted to find a good home for the boy.
A circuit judge, however, called Bigbee a "prime mover" in the scheme and sentenced her to five years in prison.
"At least there is some justice," said Danielle Skiver, who had been offered Aidan, now 11 months old, in exchange for $75,000.
Skiver, 28, is Bigbee’s daughter who was given up for adoption as an infant. The two had not spoken until Bigbee sought her out last summer, first on the phone at the Tampa auto repair business Skiver’s husband owns and then on Facebook, testimony showed.
Last summer, Skiver called the police and allowed her discussions with Bigbee to be recorded. On Nov. 5, Bigbee and her boyfriend, Lawrence "Larry" Works, 42, brought Aidan to the parking lot of a Daytona Beach Best Buy. In return, Bigbee expected to receive a $30,000 cashier’s check made out to her, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Telly Sands testified.
In court Thursday, Bigbee, 46, cast herself as a victim. She said she had been raped by a relative. Her family was poor and she lived in a foster home as a teenager. Her mother was placed in a mental institution, she testified. She got pregnant with Skiver when she was 17. She also said she was raped by a prison guard in Michigan, where she served eight years for armed robbery.
"I’m suffering, too," Bigbee said.
Bigbee grew loud and combative under questioning by Assistant State Attorney Heatha Trigones, who showed her a ledger spelling out how much money was supposed to go to Bigbee and how much to her other daughter, Stephanie Bigbee-Davis, 22, who is Aidan’s mother.
Officers found the ledger next to Bigbee’s computer, Trigones said.
Bigbee denied that the writing was hers. But Circuit Judge R. Michael Hutcheson said she tried to cheat Bigbee-Davis, who thought the purchase price for Aidan was $10,000. Bigbee-Davis planned to keep $9,000 and thought her mother would take $1,000 to pay her phone bill, prosecutors said.
Trigones asked Bigbee whether she had done searches found on her computer of black-market baby sites, lawyers who do black-market adoptions and sites for foreign families who want to adopt American children. Bigbee denied doing the searches and said many people used her computer.
"Who has access?" Trigones asked.
"It’s none of your concern," Bigbee snapped.
Skiver cried as she read aloud from the witness stand a transcript of some of her Facebook exchanges with Bigbee. Skiver and her husband, Guy, 39, hope to adopt Aidan. The boy is in a foster home in Volusia County, where the Skivers visit him often.
Under cross-examination, Bigbee admitted she has been convicted of four felonies, including armed robbery, pawning stolen jewelry and writing bad checks. She admitted making "mistakes" and "wrong choices," but said she didn’t deserve prison time.
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