Thursday, March 30, 2023

Former Joplin day care operator, may be headed to prison after probation violation on kidnapping charge

 

A former Joplin day care operator who served time on a federal kidnapping charge may be returning to prison.

A preliminary probation revocation was hearing was held today in U. S. District Court in Springfield for LaSonya Poindexter, 35, who is being held in the Greene County Jail without bond after being arrested Monday.

A grand jury indicted Poindexter in 2017, charging her with attempting to kidnap a client's infant daughter.

Poindexter's crimes were spelled out in a 2017 news release from the U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri:

According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s criminal complaint, Poindexter began taking care of a Joplin couple’s two children at her home day care in April 2017. Poindexter allegedly contacted a couple in Lincoln, Ark., and began making arrangements for the couple to adopt one of those children, a five-month-old daughter identified in court documents as Jane Doe 1. 








The infant’s parents had never put Jane Doe 1 up for adoption, nor had they ever told anyone that Jane Doe 1 was available to be adopted.

Poindexter made at least four trips to Lincoln so that the Arkansas couple could spend time with Jane Doe 1, the affidavit says, with each visit lasting two to three hours. Jane Doe 1’s parents had never given Poindexter permission to take their daughter across state lines to Arkansas and were unaware that any of the trips occurred. The Arkansas couple usually met with Poindexter at the home of Poindexter’s aunt, but one visit was at the couple’s own home (where they had prepared a nursery room for Jane Doe 1).








Poindexter falsely told the Arkansas couple that the infant’s mother had left her baby at Poindexter’s house and wanted her to find a good family for Jane Doe 1, the affidavit says, because she was the product of a rape. Poindexter told the Arkansas couple that Jane Doe 1’s mother wanted a closed adoption. Poindexter had sent the Arkansas couple a photo (screen shot), via Facebook Messenger, of a legal document purported to be from an attorney regarding the adoption. The attorney later told investigators he had never represented Poindexter, had any communication with her and was not involved with any adoption proceeding with Jane Doe 1.

According to the affidavit, the Arkansas couple became suspicious that the adoption was not valid, the affidavit says, but Poindexter continued to reassure them.


On July 20, 2017, after being contacted by the Arkansas couple, Jane Doe 1’s parents contacted law enforcement.

Federal court records do not specify the nature of Poindexter's alleged probation violation.

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