Mom pleads not guilty to selling her baby for child porn
By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com March 11, 2013 10:40AM
Natisha Hillard
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Updated: April 13, 2013 6:15AM
A Gary man and woman pleaded not guilty Monday morning to charges claiming the woman sold a then-6-month-old baby to the man so he could make sex tapes with the child.
Natisha Hillard, 24, and Christopher M. Bour, 39, both appeared before U.S. Judge Andrew Rodovich wearing jail-issued outfits and shackles around their arms and legs.
The hearing lasted just a few minutes, with Rodovich setting their trial date for May 13.
Hillard’s attorney, Visvaldis Kupsis, did not contest her competency to stand trial, although Bour’s attorney, Ashwin Cattamanchi, said he did not know yet if his client was competent to move forward.
Bour and Hillard were charged last week in the U.S. District Court in Hammond on charges claiming that Hillard sold a baby to Bour to make child pornography.
FBI agents first started investigating the case when another woman tipped them off about a month ago that Bour had texted her, asking if she wanted to watch and video record him sexually touching a baby.
The woman told the FBI she had been to his house before when he had child pornography playing.
She agreed to allow an agent to pose as her and respond to Bour’s texts. In the conversation that followed, Bour texted that he had access to a baby just 11/2 years old, according to court filings.
When police searched his house, he told them he had downloaded child pornography for about two years but that he never actually touched a child. Law enforcement officials discovered a handful of pictures, however, showing him sexually touching a baby. A woman’s hands could be seen holding the child in all of the pictures, and her face could be seen in one of them.
Court records say that woman’s face matches Hillard, who they discovered from a text message Bour sent her about a baby picture.
Bour finally told them through his attorney that he met Hillard through a dating site and the pictures were taken in Hillard’s residence, although government officials think they might have been taken in one of the homes that Bour has renovated.
