Inset: Miguel Santiago Gonzalez (Angelina County Jail). Background: The hospital where the victim was first taken in Lufkin, Tex. (Google Maps).
A Texas man will spend several decades behind bars after severely burning a toddler girl with scalding water in a bathtub.
In January, after a four-day bench trial, a judge found Miguel Santiago Gonzalez, 28, guilty of intentionally and knowingly causing serious bodily injury to the 20-month-old victim.
On Thursday, 159th District Court Judge Todd Kassaw sentenced the defendant to life in prison – the highest possible punishment for such a conviction in the Lone Star State.
“Gonzalez sentenced an innocent child to a life of ongoing pain filled with surgeries and uncertainty about what the future holds,” Angelina County District Attorney Amy Wren said in a statement provided to The Lufkin Daily News. “The sentence handed down by Judge Kassaw reflects the severity of the actions perpetrated by Gonzalez and acknowledges the suffering of the child and the child”s family.”
The underlying incident occurred in September 2022.
On the day in question, the Lufkin Police Department was called by Woodland Heights Medical Center regarding the injuries.
Gonzalez – who was the child’s mother’s boyfriend at the time – was asked about the burns but refused to cooperate at the hospital, leading law enforcement to arrest him on an outstanding warrant, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Tyler-based ABC and Telemundo affiliate KLTV.
After being arrested, however, the defendant gave a custodial interview about the burning incident from his perspective.
To hear Gonzalez tell it, he had been bathing the child while the child’s mother was away at work. The defendant further claimed the bathwater had been set to lukewarm before he stepped out of the room, leaving the child unattended for what he described as “two minutes” while he spoke with a roommate in a nearby hallway – though he insisted he remained “within earshot of the bathroom,” according to the affidavit.
When he returned, the child had seemingly managed to turn the faucet to hot. By the time the adult intervened, the burns were so severe that the girl’s skin had already begun to peel away.
But a review of the child’s injuries by an expert told a different story.
Investigators concluded the pattern of burns was consistent with what is commonly described as “immersion abuse,” police said.
The burn marks notably spared the child’s upper torso and areas above the torso and there was an absence of the irregular burn patterns that would typically occur if a child had been splashing or struggling in hot water after being left unattended. Given the child’s age, investigators further reasoned there was “little chance” the child would have remained silent in such extreme pain or failed to attempt climbing out of the bathtub on her own, according to the affidavit.
Other evidence painted a stark and awful picture.
“Detectives completed the emergency burn tests checklist, and found the max water temperature to be 143 degrees Fahrenheit,” the affidavit reads.
In the aftermath of the horrific abuse, the little girl suffered burn marks over more than half of her body, has scars that will last her whole life, and has undergone myriad surgeries. As she grows, additional surgeries will be necessary to deal with the burns.
During the sentencing hearing, the defense asked for leniency due to Gonzalez’s lack of criminal history and a series of support letters, according to a courtroom report by Lufkin-based ABC and Telemundo affiliate KTRE. That evidence was disputed.
Prosecutors challenged the letters as unreliable. Then, the mother of the victim addressed the court to allege that Gonzalez had previously beaten her to the point that she needed several stitches.
“It’s been a rough road, but now we can breathe,” the child’s grandmother told KTRE after the hearing. “We are happy with the verdict. Justice has been served.”
Gonzalez will have to serve 30 years before he is eligible for parole.
