Christopher Stum (Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office).
An Idaho father says he poured scalding hot water on his 1-month-old son because the boy was cold following a bath — giving him second-degree burns on nearly 25% of his body — after he tried “air-drying” him to keep him warm but it didn’t work, cops report.
Christopher Stum, 34, is charged with felony counts of injury to a child and destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence, according to online court records.
Court documents obtained by East Idaho News accuse Stum of adjusting the water heater in his home from 150 degrees Fahrenheit to 121 degrees Fahrenheit in an attempt to mislead police. He allegedly did this before taking his son to a local hospital, where the baby was treated on Jan. 22.
Stum, who is the only parent in the home, told investigators he noticed his infant son was cold after bathing him, so he filled up a pitcher with hot water from the bathtub’s faucet and dumped it on him, per the court documents. He allegedly tried “air-drying” the boy to warm him up, but it wasn’t working.
Stum told police that after getting the hot water poured on him, the baby began screaming in pain as his skin quickly reddened and began to peel off, according to the court documents. Stum rushed the boy to the emergency room and he was treated for second-degree burns on 24% of his body.
Authorities were notified and interviewed Stum, who allegedly admitted to pouring the water on the victim. He claimed to have put his finger in the pitcher to test the heat, saying he didn’t believe it would burn the boy, before eventually admitting that it was scalding, the East Idaho News reports, citing the court docs.
Police went to Stum’s home and allegedly found that the water heater was at 121 degrees. He later confessed to cops that he had adjusted the water heater, as doctors reported that the burns his son suffered were likely from water that was between 130 and 150 degrees, the court docs state.
Stum allegedly admitted that he knew the water in his home heated up fast and recounted instances where he, himself, was burned by it. He was arrested and booked at the Bonneville County Jail, with a preliminary hearing date set for Feb. 11, according to court records.
