Officials: A man injured a child by putting him in a bathtub of hot water

LUFKIN, TX – A man from East Texas is behind bars after reportedly seriously injuring a child in scalding water.

According to the Angelina County District Attorney’s Office, on Sept. 26 around 1:40 p.m., Lufkin police were called to an area hospital with a juvenile suffering from burns.

When authorities arrived, they were met by the child’s mother and the mother’s boyfriend, Miguel Gonzalez.

The arrest warrant says police asked Gonzalez to come to the station to give a statement about how the child was burned, but he refused. Gonzalez was then found on an unrelated warrant. He was detained and taken to the Lufkin Police Department.

Detectives spoke with the child’s mother, who said she had come to the hospital straight from work and Gonzalez was watching the child.

Police say the mother had two black eyes and what appeared to be stitches on her forehead. When asked about her injuries, she said she fell in the bathtub. Officials say they were skeptical of the answer and again asked the mother how she was hurt. She said she did fall into the bathtub, but only after Gonzalez pushed her.

When police began questioning Gonzalez, he waived his Miranda rights and spoke to officials, according to the warrant.

The affidavit says Gonzalez bathed the child in warm water, and when he finished bathing her, put toys in the water for the child to play with while he talked to his roommate. Gonzalez reportedly told police that two minutes later he went to check on the child and she was unresponsive in the bathtub.

The affidavit said Gonzalez noticed the child had turned on the hot water and when he pulled the child out of the water, her skin came off. He and his roommate then rushed the baby to the hospital.

“Detectives completed a checklist of emergency burn tests and found the maximum water temperature was 143 degrees Fahrenheit,” the affidavit said.

A crime scene technician photographed the child’s injuries and recorded several findings. The lesions had a clear demarcation line at three-quarters of the height of the child’s body, between the navel and the chest area.

“It shows [the child] was in water at a constant excess temperature,” the findings showed. “Second, Jane Doe had conserved water in several key locations on her body.”

The affidavit also said there was evidence of “doughnut ingestion,” a pattern consistent with immersion abuse.

“There were no significant splash burns in the upper part [the child’s] body above the demarcation line,” the affidavit reads.

The child was taken to Galveston Medical Center with significant injuries.

Detectives say there was enough evidence and probable cause to believe Gonzalez “deliberately submerged [the child] in the water and caused grievous bodily harm.”

Gonzalez was booked into the Angelina County Jail on $251,500 bond.