Kimberly Tyler, inset, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for lighting her 8-year-old son on fire after he made a mess while eating cereal in their Maryland apartment in May 2020. (The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office via WTTG)
A Maryland mother became so angry with her 8-year-old son for making a mess while he was eating his cereal that she decided to pour some rubbing alcohol on his hand and light it on fire.
The flames not only engulfed the boy’s hand in their Germantown apartment in May 2020, but it spread from his torso to head, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. Kimberly Tyler, 31, and her wife Chareese Snorgrass-Tyler then threw the victim in the shower. When a family member criticized Tyler’s actions, she played the victim card and wondered aloud why people were worried about the boy and not her, saying “nobody gives a f— about me.”
For her actions, a jury convicted her in December of first-degree child abuse and conspiracy to commit neglect of a minor. On Friday a judge sentenced her to 25 years in prison followed by five years probation.
“This was among the worst we have seen when it comes to child abuse cases. The level of harm caused by someone in the ultimate position of trust, the child’s mother, is unfathomable. Our hearts are with the young victim and those now entrusted with his care,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in a statement.
The boy suffered third-degree burns on his arm, chest and neck along with first- and second-degree burns to his face and upper body. In all 25% of his body had burns, prosecutors said.
Instead of calling 911 or going to the hospital, Tyler called her parents, Kimball Tyler and Lisa Jones, to come over. Kimberly Tyler and her father went to the store to pick up bandages, gauze and burn cream. The defendants then decided that the boy would stay at Kimball Tyler’s home. For the next two weeks, Kimberly Tyler ignored her father’s pleas that the boy receive medical attention.
During that time, she lived her life as if nothing was wrong, prosecutors said.
“She would have people over at her house and would be smoking and drinking,” prosecutors wrote in a statement of facts. “The defendant wanted the victim out of sight and out of mind. When people would inquire of the defendant where the victim was, she would simply tell them that he was visiting his grandparents. During the two weeks the victim was at Kimball and Lisa’s apartment, the Defendant went to visit him one time.”
Eventually, Kimball Tyler took his grandson to the Children’s National Medical Center. By then the boy was screaming in pain and his wounds had been infected and “puss was dripping off them.”
“His wounds smelled so foul, that an infectious disease team was brought in to assess them,” prosecutors wrote. “He had multiple contractures on his next and upper extremities where the scars were so thick and shrunken up that it limited his joint mobility.”
Hospital staff suspected abuse and alerted Montgomery County Police. He was in the hospital for several months and had to undergo several surgeries. According to prosecutors, his recovery would have been much easier had the defendants taken him to the hospital immediately.
Kimball Tyler testified against his daughter and trial and pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment. He received probation. Snorgrass-Tyler pleaded guilty to neglect of a minor and was sentenced to five years in prison, with all but six months suspended, as well as five years of probation upon prison release.
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