Ex-Tucson woman convicted of kidnapping, intent to abuse child

The jury found Eason, 37, guilty of two counts of kidnapping and one count of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity with a minor, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.

Eason and her husband, Calvin Eason, 46, were arrested in April. Calvin Eason pleaded guilty in November to the same three charges.

They will both be sentenced in March.

One of the minors the couple adopted testified that both Nicole and Calvin Eason sexually abused her, the news release said.

The April indictment said the 7-year-old minor told authorities in February about the abuse and threats of beatings if she cried or resisted.

The evidence at trial showed the couple adopted children from 2006 to 2008 in an informal process known as private “re-homing,” the news release said.

When a legal adoptive family can no longer care for a child, the family transfers the child to another person’s custody.

A five-part series published by Reuters in 2013 focused on the Easons and their role in a nationwide underground market for adopted children. While she was living in Tucson in 2013, Nicole Eason told the Star she had adopted children 11 times.

The Easons corresponded with the parents of one of the minor victims directly and through online discussion boards, the news release said. In order to gain the parents’ trust, the Easons misrepresented their background and claimed they had documents proving they were fit caregivers.

Based on the Easons’ claims, the parents transported the child across state lines in 2007.

Evidence presented at trial showed the couple kidnapped a second minor in a similar manner in 2008.

“The Easons took advantage of adopted children at their most vulnerable state and caused them to suffer irreparable abuse,” Leslie R. Caldwell, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s criminal division, said in the news release.

“Every child in America deserves a safe home, and this conviction should send a clear message that we will go after anyone who seeks to exploit children and risk their safety,” she said.