Texas teen wants his daughter

Father of girl given up for adoption has filed for custody of the child, who now lives in Tampa.

KAREN HAYMON LONG

The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - A Texas teen-ager is determined to fight for custody of Kara, a baby girl living with a Tampa couple in the process of adopting her.

William Jardina, 17, says his one-time fiancee, Stacey Goss, 19, placed their baby for adoption without his knowledge. He has filed for custody and goes to court Wednesday in Texas to attempt to establish paternity.

Donald and Christine Carr have had the infant since the week she was born July 24, according to William's mother, Zana Jardina of San Leon, 40 miles outside Houston.

"We're trying not to fight this in the media," Donald Carr said Thursday evening. "We would like to deal with it in court. It's really sad, because in the middle of this is a little girl."

He said he and his wife had gone through all the proper legal channels in Florida and Texas to adopt Kara.

"We did what we thought was right, and it is an unfortunate situation," he said.

The case parallels that of Baby Jessica, a 2-year-old Michigan girl whose biological parents regained custody of her last month after she had been put up for adoption.