The child’s mother is accused of not taking her son for medical care and her boyfriend is accused of pouring scalding hot water on him in the bathtub.
SAN ANTONIO — Two people are facing charges after a police say a toddler suffered third degree burns from having hot water poured on him.
It happened in the 8800 block of Starcrest Drive sometime in late May or early June, according to arrest paperwork.
Tyreesha Deshay Robinson, 32, is accused of not taking her son for medical care and her boyfriend, Devien Marquis Wheeler, 31, is accused of pouring scalding hot water on the 2-year-old boy while he was in the bathtub.
Robinson told police she was cooking spaghetti on the stove for her kids and had a pot of water boiling for the noodles. While the noodles were cooking, she went to give her toddler son a bath, according to the affidavit. She left the toddler in the bath and went to use the restroom and then heard screams.
Robinson told police she saw Wheeler walking away from the other bathroom and saw her son had burns. She picked up her son from the bathtub and said he felt very hot. Robinson told officers she noticed the pot she was boiling for spaghetti noodles was almost empty inside the bathroom sink and it had a silky, watery substance in it. Robinson believes that Wheeler poured the hot water onto her son while he was in the bathtub.
She told police that she was scared to lose her son to Child Protective Services if she took him to the hospital so she used a first aid kit to help him with the burns.
The toddler had burn marks that appeared to originate from the top of the head, extending down the right side of the face, continuing along the neck, and further down both the front and back of the torso, said the arrest paperwork. “This pattern of injury suggests the liquid was poured from an elevated position, allowing to travel downward in a gravity assisted flow,” the document says. “Portions of the skin are still discolored and other areas display raised, red colored scarring and the child’s scalp is missing several parts of hair due to scarring from the burns.”
The toddler was evaluated by doctors at Center for Miracles because of the burns. He was found to have a healing broken right arm that will require surgery for repair at that time. Robinson admitted she knew her son’s arm was injured because of the swelling and bruising, but she didn’t take him to the doctor because she did not want her children to be taken away by CPS.
Robinson, the child’s mother and Wheeler, the mother’s boyfriend, are both being charged with Injury of a Child, which is a felony.