LUFKIN, Texas (East Texas News) – A district judge has sentenced a Lufkin man to life in prison for burning a young girl with hot water.
Judge Todd Kassaw delivered the sentence after testimony on Thursday.
Miguel González was charged with intentionally scalding his girlfriend’s one-year-old daughter with the hot bathwater in 2022.
Kassaw found González guilty in January.
Wednesday’s testimony included the ex-girlfriend’s account as well as that of the child’s mother. Police also testified about their involvement in a prior domestic-violence incident between González and his former girlfriend.
The victim’s mother said a prior altercation between her and González left her with seven stitches and a concussion.
In September 2022, a Lufkin Police Department investigator was called to Woodland Heights Medical Center, where a child had been brought in after sustaining serious burns. Miguel González, the child’s mother’s partner, was arrested on an outstanding warrant after he refused to cooperate with the investigator’s request to testify about the origin of the child’s injuries. According to the arrest affidavit, González waived his Miranda rights before speaking with the investigator about the incident.
The affidavit states that González told investigators he was bathing the child while the mother was at work. He claimed he placed the child in warm water and stepped away “for less than two minutes” to speak with his roommate in the adjacent hallway. However, when he returned to check on the child, he found that the child had managed to turn on the hot water faucet, causing burns so severe that the skin began peeling.
Nevertheless, after reviewing the injuries, investigators concluded that the pattern was consistent with known cases of immersion-related abuse, indicated by the absence of burns on the upper torso and above, as well as the lack of burns one would expect if a child had been splashing around unsupervised. The affidavit also states that investigators concluded that, given the child’s age, it would have been unlikely for the child not to cry out in pain or to attempt to leave the tub on their own.
