Almost two kilograms of methamphetamines were found in the false bottom of her suitcase, but Donna says she had no idea they were there.
She says it was all a trap, set by a man she was in love with and planned to marry.
Donna met Kelly, a Nigerian man claiming to live in Japan, through a dating site.
The pair had been romantically involved, texting and calling through WhatsApp for almost two years.
Kelly had booked her a flight to Japan, with a three-day stopover in Laos, where she was instructed to pick up a bag from his associate.
It was that bag which contained the drugs.
Japanese prosecutors insist Donna must have known what was in the bag, questioning why she didn’t declare the bag as someone else’s and wrote business as her reason for travel.
They want a ten-year jail sentence and a $30,000 fine.
The verdict is due Wednesday, with Donna’s family anxiously awaiting news of their mother’s fate.
Two of Donna’s daughters, Ashlee Charles and Janelle Morgan, told The Project that they’re “kind of just in survival mode at the moment”.
Janelle recently saw her mum for the first time during the trial in Japan, after almost zero communication for two years, and she described the experience as “really beautiful”.
“It was actually really beautiful. A bit difficult, because trying to fit in two years of everything she has missed out on in 20 minutes, it was a bit hard. The emotion started flowing.”
Donna’s daughters were suspicious of their mum’s online relationship.
“I did raise some alarms with my mum. But I think he was very good at fooling her and making her believe he was genuine. And eventually I got to see how good he is at what he says and what he does.”
“It was just a bit strange to me, he claimed to be a very successful businessman who travelled the world, but yet he wanted my mum to travel all the way to go see him, instead of him coming here… For him to expect that, the red flag was up for that.”
Janelle says that she hasn’t taken the time to consider whether her mum was guilty “at all”.
“I know my mum. I know her morals and values. She would never agree to do anything like this, ever. Her life's work has gone into what the effect of drug abuse can be. The kids that mum supports and creates these opportunities for, some of those kids are affected by drug abuse and things like that.”
