For Sale? "Baby Jane" FOUSEK - 6 Months - Salinas CA

A Salinas man accused of trying to sell his 6-month-old baby for $25
Tuesday was assaulted while being held in Monterey County Jail,
authorities said.
Patrick Fousek, 38, and Samantha Tomasini, 20, the baby’s mother,
were arrested on Wednesday at their residence on the 700 block of East
Romie Lane, police said.



Police said Fousek had approached
two women and asked to use their cell phone outside Walmart on North
Davis Road. After he finished his phone call, they said, Fousek asked
the women, who had been playing with the baby, if they would like to
purchase his daughter for $25.Police said Fousek
immediately left and went to the car where the mother, 20-year-old
Tomasini, was waiting. As the couple drove away, they said, the two
women were able to get the pair's license plate number.Police said officers found the couple at their home
about 1 a.m. Wednesday.The county District Attorney’s
Office said the couple was charged with child endangerment and
attempting to dissuade a witness, both felonies. The couple also faces
charges of being under the influence of a controlled substance and
possession of drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors.The
couple pleaded not guilty today to charges they tried to sell their
6-month-old baby for $25 Tuesday night outside of Walmart, the District
Attorney’s Office said.The couple is expected to appear in
court on July 7.
County sheriff’s Cmdr. Mike Richards said Fousek was assaulted by
multiple inmates about 10:15 p.m. on Thursday. Richards said the inmates
found out about Fousek’s arrest from watching the news.He
said Fousek received bruises to his face and two broken ribs. He was
transported to Natividad Medical Hospital for treatment. No
arrests have been made in the assault, Richards said, which is still
under investigation.

Two Salinas parents were arraigned Friday under heightened security after
the father was attacked by jail inmates when they heard he was charged
with attempting to sell their 8-month-old daughter.Patrick Alan
Fousek, 38, and Samantha Tomasini, 20, are being held in segregated,
lockdown cells at the Monterey County Jail, after the Thursday night
attack. Sheriff's Cmdr. Mike Richards said inmates in the open
dorm where Fousek had been housed jumped him at 10:15p.m. after the
details of his charges were reported on television news.Richards
said Fousek was transported to Natividad Medical Center, where he was
treated for multiple injuries to his face, and two cracked ribs before
being returned to the jail.Seated apart from other inmates in the
courtroom Friday, Fousek's right eye was bruised and badly swollen. He
had a cut on the bridge of his nose and stitches in his lip.Meanwhile,
deputies ushered an obviously distressed Tomasini into the courtroom
from a closed jury room when the case was called. Richards said
she was housed in a segregated cell when she was booked because the
Women's dorm was already full.The two were arrested Tuesday night
after Fousek allegedly approached two women in the Walmart parking lot
and offered to sell the baby girl he was carrying for $25. Tomasini was
reportedly in a parked car nearby.The women initially believed
Fousek was joking, according to Salinas police, but called 911 after he persisted,
thrusting his daughter into their arms momentarily.
When police arrived, the couple were gone, but the women's description
led officers to an apartment in the 700 block of East Romie Lane,
where they found the baby amid squalor, her parents high on methamphetamine,
police said.Both defendants are charged with felony child endangerment,
which carries a four-year maximum sentence, and misdemeanor charges of
being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of a methamphetamine pipe.
Tomasini also is charged with dissuading a witness, a charge Prosecutor Rolando
Mazariegos declined to discuss. The prosecutor said his office elected
to charge endangerment, rather than abandonment, because it carries a
stiffer penalty upon conviction.He said the baby girl is in
protective custody.Deputy Public Defender Elizabeth Navarro
entered not-guilty pleas for both Fousek and Tomasini.
Visiting Judge Stephen Sillman set a preliminary hearing for July 9 to determine
if there is sufficient evidence to hold them for trial. They are being held
in lieu of $25,000 bail each.Court records show Fousek has
multiple drug-related convictions, including possession and driving
under the influence of drugs or alcohol."He's a noted frequent
flier with our office," Richards said.Fousek also has served jail
terms for domestic violence and violating restraining orders involving
his ex-wife.In 2006, his young son from that relationship was
removed from the Fousek family home on Old Stage Road in Salinas after
probation officers conducting a routine search on Patrick Fousek found a
methamphetamine lab in the bedroom of his twin brother, David Fousek.Tomasini
served a three-month jail term in 2009 for a 2008 arrest for being
under the influence of a controlled substance. She was first offered treatment
in the "deferred entry of judgment" program, then the Proposition 36 program.
She failed both, failing to appear for review hearings and testing positive for marijuana, methamphetamine and
cocaine.Outside of court Friday, a man who described himself as
being close to her family said Tomasini was a "confused" person who'd
become acquainted with Fousek about 18 months ago through a drug deal.He
said Tomasini's mother tried to intervene on behalf of her granddaughter.
He said the mother recently threatened to report Tomasini to Child Protective Services
if Tomasini did not allow her to see the baby by Wednesday. She learned the day of the deadline
that her daughter had been arrested for allegedly trying to sell the child.The
man, who asked not to be identified because he fears retribution,
said Tomasini's mother is considering seeking custody of the baby girl. Tomasini
appeared emotionally and physically distressed at Friday's hearing,
fidgeting, shaking her head repeatedly and trying to peer around a
deputy's shoulder to talk to Fousek.Richards said the courtroom
security measures were designed to prevent such communication.
He said he could not discuss any medical care Tomasini may be receiving in the
jail, but said jail personnel are trained to deal with the physical
symptoms of drug withdrawal.Fousek's beating is the second attack
on a high-profile inmate in a week.
In Fousek's case, Richard's office was not told the details of the charges
when Fousek and Tomasini were booked on child-endangerment and drug charges. "In
this case, the charges listed on the booking sheet were not
anything indicative of the need to house in a protective ... unit," he said.
"We're at a loss, unless the arresting agency tells us, 'Look, this is
exactly what the guy did.'"Richards said the C-pod, where Fousek
was housed, is monitored by a deputy, who called for backup and quickly
intervened in the assault.

Now in
foster care, the Salinas baby whose parents allegedly tried to sell her
to strangers for $25 is being sought by her grandmother. Robert
Taniguchi, branch director for Monterey County Family and Children's
Services in Salinas, said the 8-month-old girl is being well cared for
in a foster home and that his agency is weighing the selection of a
long-term caregiver. The child's grandmother, Vanessa Chobanian,
said she hopes the baby will live with her or her sister. The Salinas
woman said she is working with Child Protective Services in the best
interests of the child. "We just really want the public to know
how much we love her and want her," said Chobanian. She asked
that the child's name not be published,but said she calls her "Peanut." Chobanian
is the mother of Samantha Tomasini, 20, who allegedly sat by as the
baby's father, Patrick Fousek, 38, tried to sell the infant to two women
in the Salinas Walmart parking lot June 22. The women called 911 as the
couple fled. Using the witnesses' descriptions, police found Fousek,
Tomasini and the baby amid squalor in an East Romie Lane apartment. Fousek
and Tomasini pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment, being
under the influence of methamphetamine, and possession of a
methamphetamine pipe. Tomasini is also charged with dissuading a
witness. They are in isolation cells at Monterey County Jail,
where Fousek was severely beaten by inmatesafter details of the case
were reported on television Thursday. Fousek's and Tomasini's bail is
set at $25,000 pending a preliminary hearing July 9. Chobanian
said her daughter has been troubled by mental illness and drug abuse
since she was a teenager. Chobanian sought expert treatment for her, she
said, and for a time, she believes, Tomasini was drug free. She
and her husband, Anthony Chobanian, had major misgivings about
Tomasini's relationship with Fousek because of his age and extensive
criminal record, she said. But she supported her daughter financially
and emotionally when she became pregnant. She hired a doula — a
pregnancy and childbirth assistant — to care for Tomasini and was
present when her granddaughter was born. Under the watchful eye
of her mother and great-grandparents, Tomasini and the baby did well for
six months, Chobanian said. "I saw that baby almost every day.
She was being well taken care of. Samantha was being a good mother," she
said. "That baby was ... chunky and healthy." But something
changed. Tomasini snapped and physically assaulted her mother, Chobanian
said. Tomasini and Fousek began keeping the baby away from her,
Chobanian said. Chobanian backed off, thinking her grandmother was still
being allowed to see the baby. But a week before the arrest,
Chobanian got a call from her grandmother telling her something was not
right. Tomasini's house was filthy. The baby was in a soaking wet
diaper, and Chobanian's grandmother suspected drug use. Chobanian
began receiving Facebook messages from acquaintances of her daughter,
telling her she needed to check on her granddaughter, that the baby
could be in danger. She left messages for her daughter asking to
see the baby. The messages were ignored, she said, or responded to by
Fousek, who told her to stay away. She sought guidance from a friend who
is a social worker and therapist, who urged her to call authorities. Before
she followed his advice, she called her daughter with an ultimatum: Let
Chobanian see the baby at the apartment June 23. She would come after
work, she said, and if Tomasini and the baby weren't there, she was
calling social workers. Chobanian said her daughter and Fousek
responded with vulgar profanities and told her to go ahead and call. About
24 hours before Chobanian's deadline, said police and prosecutors, the
couple tried sell the baby. "It's just disgusting that they
wanted to sell the baby for $25 because they could have just placed the
baby with me and they know that," Chobanian said. Chobanian said
she "desperately, desperately" wants the baby, but understands there are
complicating factors the county must consider. When her daughter
was a teenager suffering from mental illness, she said, Tomasini made
accusations against her mother and great-grandparents. Though the county
concluded the claims were false, and returned Tomasini to her care,
Chobanian said, the accusations remain in the record. Her sister
has asked for custody of the baby girl, but she lives in New York, a
complication for county social workers who must establish a plan for
parental visitation if a judge decides it is appropriate. Taniguchi,
of Family and Children's Services, said he could not discuss the
details of the case, but acknowledged that placing a child with kin when
possible is a priority under state law. He said it is "vitally
important" for those who wanted to help this infant to consider doing so
for the dozens of abused and neglected children who come into the
system each year. Twice-monthly sessions provide training as well as
special expertise in dealing with substance-exposed children. Those
who are unable to provide 24-hour foster care can consider volunteering
as respite workers for those who do. "We need to take this as an
opportunity to look at our community and use their willingness to help
in providing care for other children," he said. "We don't have an
overabundance of caregivers out there. "Out of a tragic situation
we can sometimes have good things happen."

Baby-selling trial begins

Prosecutor suggests mother may lie under oath
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
Posted: 10/18/2011 08:21:09 AM PDT
Updated: 10/18/2011 08:46:53 AM PDT


Opening statements are expected this morning in the trial of a Salinas man accused of trying to sell his baby girl in a Walmart parking lot.

Patrick Fousek, 39, faces up to four years in prison if convicted of felony child endangerment.

In questioning prospective jurors Monday morning, prosecutor Rolando Mazariegos suggested the baby's mother will lie to cover for Fousek when she testifies. Mazariegos asked the panelists if they thought they could "smell a rat," or tell when someone was being untruthful.

In addition to child endangerment, Fousek is charged with misdemeanor counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and being under the influence of methamphetamine.

He and Samantha Tomasini were arrested June 22, 2010, after Fousek allegedly offered to sell their 8-month-old baby for $25 to two women who were admiring her in the parking lot of the Salinas Walmart.

The women, who said they initially thought Fousek was kidding, called 911 after he left with the baby and Tomasini, who had been parked nearby.

The women told police Fousek originally asked them to borrow a cell phone. When they commented on how cute his baby was, they said, he thrust her momentarily into their arms and persistently offered to sell her.

Using their description of Fousek's car, police traced the vehicle to an apartment building in the 700 block of East Romie Lane, where officers found Fousek, Tomasini and the baby, still awake late at night, living in squalor. Police said the parents were high on methamphetamine and they found a meth pipe in the house.
The baby, now 2 years old, has been adopted.

Tomasini was charged with duplicate counts, as well as dissuading a witness for allegedly threatening one of the women in the parking lot. She pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment, was placed on four years probation, ordered into a residential treatment program and prohibited from contacting Fousek.

Mazariegos told prospective jurors Monday morning he expects Tomasini to testify at the hearing, but indicated he does not anticipate she will be a cooperative witness.

At her sentencing, Tomasini's attorney, Steve Liner, said Fousek's comments that day were "at most a very dark joke."

"I don't believe he ever intended (to sell the child), and I don't think anything was done to make it seem like a real intent on their part," he said. "Unfortunately, it was just a bad sense of humor."

Fousek's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Michael Pettit, said he expects jury selection to be completed this morning. The trial before Judge Pamela Butler is expected to take a week to complete.

http://www.montereyherald.com/crime/ci_19138193

Salinas mother says she, not father, neglected child

Father accused of trying to sell baby outside Walmart
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
Posted: 10/19/2011 01:53:53 AM PDT
Updated: 10/19/2011 08:27:04 AM PDT

Patrick Fousek, right, and his attorney Michael Petti appear in court on... (VERN FISHER/The Herald)

Shackled and wearing jail stripes, a young Salinas mother took the blame Tuesday for neglect of a baby girl whose father allegedly tried to sell her for $25 in a Walmart parking lot.

Always in motion and often in tears, Samantha Tomasini said her boyfriend Patrick Fousek, 39, was a caring father and unaware she was breastfeeding "Stormy" while high on methamphetamine. Fousek, she said, had to "pick up my slack" after she resumed her drug habit when the baby was 7 months old.

"Patrick did a lot," the 21-year-old said. "It was like he was taking care of two children."

The two lived together since she was 18 in 2008.

Prosecutor Rolando Mazariegos countered Tomasini's claims with an excruciating video of her interview with police the night she and Fousek were arrested. A portrait of methamphetamine addiction, the footage showed Tomasini's face covered in sores. She scratched incessantly at her arm as she told investigators she and Fousek smoked meth a couple of times a week, staying high at least two or three days after each session.

The two were arrested June 22, 2010, after two women told police Fousek tried to sell them his then-8-month-old baby for $25 at the Salinas Walmart. Police went to their Romie Lane apartment, but left after finding the baby asleep and Fousek assuring them he had been joking.

After neighbors complained of noise about midnight, they returned and found the baby rolling around in a walker amid squalor. Believing both parents were high on methamphetamine, officers called a social worker to remove the baby, who has since been adopted.
Fousek faces a maximum of six years in prison if convicted of felony child endangerment likely to cause great bodily injury or death and misdemeanor counts of using or being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Tomasini pleaded guilty to a child endangerment charge and was sentenced in June to four years probation and 210 days in jail, a term she could have avoided if she went into a drug treatment program. Her attorney, Steve Liner, said Tuesday the Probation Department has been unable to place her in a program because of the psychotropic medications she takes.

Defense attorney Michael Pettit told jurors in his opening statement that Fousek was joking when he offered to let the women take the baby for $25. Security footage of the incident, he said, showed his client was "clowning around."

Pettit said evidence will show the baby was never in any danger and that there is doubt his client was high that night.

While it was the alleged attempt to sell Stormy that attracted headlines and community outrage in 2010, it was the conditions in the apartment and statements Tomasini made to police that prompted the felony allegation.

In his opening statement, Mazariegos said Fousek had a duty to protect the baby. He showed the jury photos of dirty dishes piled high in the kitchen sink, clothes and refuse strewn across the floor and furniture. He said a glass meth pipe was found inside the apartment.

On the video, Tomasini not only admitted she and Fousek regularly used methamphetamine, but that she was breastfeeding at the same time. She said she understood the drug stopped her from eating and drinking, thus making her breast milk "watery," but claimed it had no real effect on the baby.

"All it does is give her a little bit of gas. It doesn't bother her," she said. "The only thing that hurts her is me not being able to pay attention to her the way I should."

Tomasini denied all of it Tuesday before the jury of six women and three men. She said the pipe belonged to her and she didn't remember her taped statements, which were false. She said she recalled talking to police, but "I was really high."

Referencing the video, Mazariegos asked her if she told police that people would "come and smoke us out" two or three times a week.

"If that's me, apparently I did," she answered combatively, nodding at the screen.

"Is that you?" he asked.

"That's me on drugs," said Tomasini, who admitted being addicted to methamphetamine and heroin.

Appearing healthier after four months in jail but physically scarred and jittery, Tomasini said she and Fousek stopped using drugs when she found out she was pregnant, at about seven weeks. But she resumed her meth habit about a month before the incident.

She said she had used bad judgment in breastfeeding her baby while using drugs. However, she said, she did so without the knowledge of Fousek, who bought the baby formula and ordered her to stop breastfeeding when he learned she resumed the methamphetamine use.

She said one of the only jobs she maintained in the house was bathing the baby and putting her to sleep, but that she couldn't settle the infant unless she let her suckle.

"I'm a grown woman. Nobody's going to stop me from doing what I want," she said of her drug use. "It's not his fault."

http://www.montereyherald.com/crime/ci_19145430

'He handed me the baby,' woman testifies in Salinas case

Woman says she was asked to buy child in Walmart parking lot
By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
Posted: 10/20/2011 01:33:37 AM PDT
Updated: 10/20/2011 08:33:33 AM PDT

A woman who told police she was offered a baby for sale in a Salinas Walmart parking lot began her first day of testimony Wednesday in the trial of the baby's father.

"He handed me the baby," Virginia Peña testified after identifying defendant Patrick Fousek, 39, as the man in the parking lot in June 2010.

Asked the next thing she recalled from the encounter, Peña answered, "Him asking did I want to buy the baby for 25 dollars."

Fousek faces a maximum of six years in prison if convicted of felony child endangerment likely to cause great bodily injury or death, as well as misdemeanor counts of using or being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The baby's mother, Samantha Tomasini, pleaded guilty to a child endangerment charge and was sentenced in June to four years probation and 210 days in jail.

She testified Tuesday and Wednesday in Fousek's trial, shouldering the blame for her methamphetamine addiction and defending Fousek as a good father who tried to stop her from breastfeeding the child after Tomasini started using meth again.

Prosecutor Rolando Mazariegos showed jurors part of a Walmart security video showing the parking lot late June 22, 2010.

Two women can be seen approaching the store. The shadowy shape of a man with what appears to be a child in a shopping cart approaches them.

Peña identified the women as herself and a friend named Natasha, and said the man was Fousek.
She said the man borrowed Natasha's cellphone to call for someone to come pick him up.

When Peña and her friend commented about how cute the baby was, she said, Fousek offered to sell them the baby and handed the child to Peña.

In the video, the man can be seen jumping on his shopping cart and speeding off, then circling around in a U-turn and pushing the cart to the side.

He walks past the two women toward the store entrance.

"He took off in his cart and said 'Bye,'" Peña said.

Then a car pulled up and Fousek walked up to it, she said.

The car's driver "said something about a higher price," Peña said, adding that her first thought was, "Are you serious?"

Tomasini earlier testified that Fousek's brother was the driver for the shopping trip.

Peña said she told Fousek she would go to the bank, a tactic she said she used "to see if he was serious about it" before calling police.

Asked if she took the offer seriously, Peña said, "Who walks up to you and says ... 'Do you want to buy my baby for 25 dollars?' It could have been a psycho killer or anything. No one does that."

She and Natasha eventually handed back the baby, she said, but wrote down the car's license number as it pulled away.

The Walmart video was stopped just before that point at Wednesday's trial and is expected to be continued today.

Peña's further testimony is scheduled for this morning in the courtroom of Judge Pamela Butler.

http://www.montereyherald.com/crime/ci_19153842

Baby-selling case goes to jury

Panel resumes deliberating Fousek's fate on Tuesday

Two families will have to wait until Tuesday to learn the fate of a Salinas man accused of exposing his baby to methamphetamine and trying to sell her in a Walmart parking lot.

Patrick Fousek's jury began deliberations Friday afternoon but did not reach verdicts on the three charges by 5 p.m. Because one juror had a previous commitment Monday, the panel will return Tuesday to resume its discussions.

Waiting outside for news were Fousek's mother, twin brother and estranged wife, hoping Fousek would be acquitted of charges that could send him to prison for six years.

Down the hall sat the great-great-grandmother of the baby and Anthony Chiobanian, stepfather of Samantha Tomasini, who blame Fousek for her addiction and for failing to protect baby "Stormy."

Tomasini, the baby's mother, was variously portrayed Friday as either the villain or another victim in the case. Prosecutor Rolando Mazariegos said she was a "tragic person ... ruled by drugs" who lied on the stand to protect Fousek, 39.

But defense attorney Michael Pettit said the 21-year-old woman is a "truly scary individual" who abused Fousek. He remained in the home, he said, to make sure it didn't become even more dangerous for the child, Alexandra Storm Fousek, now 2 and adopted by another family.

Tomasini was arrested with Fousek on June 23, 2010, after police went to their apartment after a report that Fousek tried to sell their 8-month-old baby to two women for $25. They found Stormy rolling around the stinking, squalid apartment in a walker at 12:45 a.m., her parents apparently high on methamphetamine.
Fousek refused to cooperate or be tested for the drug. But Tomasini, who has pleaded guilty, was too high to understand the trouble her and her boyfriend were in, Mazariegos told jurors Friday.

Focused on the fact that social workers had taken their 8-month-old baby into protective custody, she admitted that she and "Pat" smoked methamphetamine in their apartment but claimed it was never in the same room with the baby.

In the videotaped interview, Tomasini also said she breast-fed the baby "in the morning, at night and nap time," but claimed her tainted breastmilk had no negative effect on the infant except to give her "a little gas."

Subpoenaed to testify against her lover in shackles and jail stripes, Tomasini changed her story and said she was using meth, but not Fousek. He had ordered her not to breast-feed the baby when he learned she had resumed the drug use she'd stopped when she was pregnant, she claimed.

Citing testimony of an independent witness, Mazariegos argued Friday that Fousek was aware of the breastfeeding and had exposed Stormy to methamphetamine. He suggested the couple not only smoked, but were manufacturing the drug in their East Romie Lane apartment.

The prosecutor reminded jurors of testimony by Dr. Valerie Barnes, director of pediatrics at Natividad Medical Center, who said exposure to the drug can cause long-lasting physical and mental effects in babies, including seizures, strokes, respiratory problems and learning disabilities.

Mazariegos said Fousek's indifference about Tomasini's breastfeeding was akin to giving his baby a "poison bottle" three times a day. He cautioned jurors to remember the case was about child abuse and not the "tragic person" they saw in Tomasini.

Nearly 20 years older than Tomasini, Fousek was "in charge," with a duty to protect his baby that he can't foist off on the mother, Mazariegos said.

"This is just awful. You got to see a person that's ruled by drug addiction," he said of Tomasini. "She's sort of a victim in this, too."

He asked the jury to convict Fousek of felony child endangerment likely to cause great bodily harm, possession of a meth pipe found in the apartment and using or being under the influence of the drug.

But Pettit, the defense attorney, argued that Fousek was kidding in the Walmart parking lot and Stormy was never in any real danger. Police found no drugs in the apartment, he noted, and Fousek fell asleep in the holding cell, hardly the behavior of someone high on methamphetamine, a stimulant.

As for the baby's exposure to the drug, he reasoned that Fousek did not understand the full potential harm to the "obviously ... bright, healthy baby." And he had no control over Tomasini.

"I'm not trying to vilify her, but she is a truly scary individual," he said. "She said she does what she wants when she wants."

He cited a neighbor's testimony that he had seen her slapping and hitting Fousek to the point Fousek had to flee the apartment.

"Let me turn this around a little bit," Pettit said. "What if Patrick Fousek had not been in that household? If Patrick was not there, it would have been a truly dangerous situation."

http://www.montereyherald.com/crime/ci_19171044

Baby seller case: Not first time a child taken from Fousek because of meth exposure

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
Posted: 10/25/2011 11:18:13 AM PDT
Updated: 10/25/2011 06:47:14 PM PDT


A jury Tuesday convicted a Salinas man of endangering the baby girl he exposed to methamphetamine and offered to sell in a Walmart parking lot last year.

What the jury did not know, and what Judge Pamela Butler will take into consideration when sentencing Patrick Fousek, is that it's not the first time one of his children has been taken from him because of methamphetamine exposure.

In 2006, his young son was removed from the Fousek family home on Old Stage Road in Salinas after probation officers conducting a routine search on Patrick Fousek found a methamphetamine lab in the bedroom of his twin brother, David Fousek.

Prosecutor Rolando Mazariegos said the prior incident is added proof that Fousek was aware of the dangers of exposing 8-month-old Alexandra "Stormy" Fousek to the drug and chose to ignore them. Mazariegos said he will use the 2006 incident to urge Butler to sentence Fousek to the maximum prison term on Nov. 30.

Butler has the discretion of sentencing the 39-year-old Fousek to two, four or six years in prison.

The jury also convicted Fousek of possessing a methamphetamine pipe, a misdemeanor, but deadlocked on a charge of using or being under the influence of methamphetamine.

The jury forewoman said the panel was split 7-5 for acquittal on the misdemeanor charge. Mazariegos said he will likely dismiss it, rather than retry it, because a conviction would have no impact on Fousek's prison sentence.

Fousek and his live-in girlfriend, Samantha Tomasini, 21, were arrested after two women told police Fousek offered to sell them his infant daughter for $25 in the Salinas Walmart parking lot on June 22, 2010.
An officer first admonished the couple at their East Romie Lane apartment that evening, but left because he didn't believe they were under the influence and the baby was sleeping. But at 12:45 a.m., officers responded to a noise complaint and found Alexandra rolling around the squalid, stinking apartment in her walker and her parents apparently high on methamphetamine.

Tomasini, who has since pleaded guilty to child endangerment and is serving a jail sentence, told police both she and Fousek smoked methamphetamine in the apartment — though never in the same room as the baby — and that she was breast-feeding three times a day.

Tomasini, still appearing strung out after more than four months in jail, changed her statement on the stand and said Fousek wasn't using and had ordered her not to breast-feed. The jury rejected that account after viewing a video of her original statement.

The Walmart incident showed Fousek's overall recklessness and neglect, Mazariegos said, but the most important thing was for people to understand the extreme dangers of exposing a child to methamphetamine.

Dr. Valerie Barnes, chief of pediatrics at Natividad Medical Center, testified that babies who ingest breast milk tainted with meth can experience seizure, strokes, learning disabilities, psychosis and even death. Environmental exposure can leave a child with respiratory problems and in danger from being in the care of parents under the influence of the psychosis-inducing drug.

Defense attorney Michael Pettit was not available for comment Tuesday. David Fousek complained that Pettit was appointed to his brother's case just three weeks before trial.

While the verdicts prompted little emotion from Fousek, they left the baby's grandmothers in tears. One, Samantha Tomasini's mother cried tears of joy, the other, Fousek's mother, tears of shame.

"I'm so happy," said Vanessa Chiobanian, who blames Fousek for her daughter's addiction. "It's like his reign of terror is over."

Fousek's mother, who declined to give her name, cried outside the courthouse, remembering how she stayed at home to parent her children, insisting they live off of her husband's military base to shield the children from bad teenage influences she saw there.

"I tried my best for my children. I tried to be the best citizen I can. I don't know what I did wrong," she sobbed. "I'm so ashamed."

She was accompanied throughout the trial and Tuesday by the mother of Fousek's son, who asked not to be named to protect her other child, who is not related to Fousek.

"Sure, I had concerns," about baby Alexandra, she said, saying her ex-husband made poor, unhealthy choices. "I wouldn't leave my son there.

"I believe the actions we take, we have to be accountable at some point. It catches up with you," she added. "It's unfortunate it had to be that way, but it's fortunate for," Alexandra, who has been adopted by another family.

http://www.montereyherald.com/crime/ci_19189873

Patrick Fousek, California Man, Sentenced To 6 Years For Trying To Sell Baby
AP | Dec 1, 2011 5:07 PM EST

SALINAS, Calif. -- A man convicted of trying to sell his baby outside a California Walmart store is heading to prison for six years.
Patrick Fousek and Samantha Tomasini were arrested in June 2010 after witnesses told Salinas police that they were offering their 8-month-old daughter for $25.
Prosecutors said the couple were methamphetamine users and appeared high when they were arrested.
Fousek's lawyer argued that the incident was a misunderstanding and his client was never serious about selling the baby.
The Monterey County man was convicted in October of child endangerment and possessing drug paraphernalia. A judge Wednesday gave him the maximum sentence of six years.
Tomasini previously pleaded no contest to child endangerment. She was sentenced to four years' probation and placement in a drug treatment program.
The child has since been adopted.

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