KSBW

Samantha Tomasini told a judge she hopes that prison will help her overcome drug addiction.

A California woman who was once accused along with her ex-boyfriend of trying to sell their 8-month-old daughter in a Wal-Mart parking lot for $25 asked a judge to send her to prison instead of giving her probation, The Monterey County Herald reported. 

Samantha Tomasini, 22, told the judge Wednesday that her emotional issues and drug addiction have made it hard for her to stick with court-ordered treatment programs.

She said she would wind up violating any new probation, NBC station KSBW in Salinas reported. 

The judge agreed and sentenced her to four years in prison. She originally faced up to six years, The Herald reported. 

Tomasini and her ex-boyfriend, Patrick Fousek, made national headlines when they were accused of trying to sell the infant to strangers for $25 in June 2010.   

Defense attorneys said Fousek, 40, was only joking when he made the offer. 

The Herald reported that Tomasini admitted to child endangerment charges after police found the child living in unsanitary conditions at the couple's apartment. 

Fousek is serving a six-year prison sentence after being found guilty of felony child endangerment in the Wal-Mart incident, KSBW reported.

The Herald reported that the judge and Tomasini's lawyer, Steve Liner, agreed that she had been under Fousek's sway at the time of her arrest. 

Tomasini agreed to serve probation in a plea deal, but left a live-in drug treatment program and was re-arrested last year for violation of probation. She admitted to using heroin while on probation after kicking her methamphetamine addiction, the paper reported. 

"She's a hard fit" for many rehab programs, Tomasini's lawyer Steve Liner told the paper. "She decided she'd just rather serve the time." 

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The Herald reported that Tomasini testified in Fousek's trial that she started using drugs again when the baby was 7 months old. Prosecutors said that Fousek put the child at risk when he failed to stop Tomasini from breast feeding after resuming her drug habit.

Blood tests didn't show traces of the drug in the child, The Herald reported. 

Liner said Tomasini could be released in just 16 months with time already served in a county jail and good behavior, the newspaper reported. KSBW reported that Tomasini hopes that prison will help her get clean and "just move on."

KSBW reported that the couple's daughter is being raised by a foster family.

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