Quantcast

Man sentenced in baby scalding

A Queens man pleaded guilty to assault for scalding a baby in hot water.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced that a Jackson Heights man pleaded guilty to first degree assault for severely burning his girlfriend’s 11-month-old daughter, Raylin Castillo, by deliberately placing her in a bathroom shower with scalding hot water. Brown noted the defendant later poured more hot water on the body.

At the time of the incident the mother was at work.

The defendant, identified by Brown as Anthony Parra, 21, of 31-29 73rd Street, Jackson Heights, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree assault.

According to Brown, the case was tried before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter, who sentenced the defendant to 10 years in prison that he will begin serving on April 4, 2011.

“I think if the biological father would have performed his duties in the first place, this would not have happened,” said Paul Franzese, defense attorney. “It’s a tragedy for both sides.”

Brown stated that pursuant to the guilty plea, Parra was babysitting Castillo and her two-year-old sister, Valerie, in his apartment on May 19, 2010, when around 3 p.m. Castillo woke up crying and screaming. The guilty plea also indicated that, after Castillo refused the baby bottle, Parra took the baby into the shower for 20 minutes, left the baby alone and turned up the hot water twice.

“He observed the baby’s skin getting red and began scrubbing her with a sponge, the skin began to peel off,” noted Brown. “Parra then poured a pan of even hotter water from a faucet onto the child’s back while she was on her hands and knees in the shower.”

The guilty plea also mentioned Parra placed cream and alcohol on the baby’s burns prior to taking her to New York Hospital Medical Center in Queens.

The medical personnel at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weil Cornell Medical Center, where Castillo was treated indicated that Castillo suffered 30 percent burns on her body – the back, front of her torso, scalp, forehead, and her upper extremities bilaterally and has suffered permanent scarring.

“The defendant has admitted to severely burning a helpless infant who he was supposed to be caring for,” said Brown. “This case should serve as a warning to parents that they should carefully consider in whose care they leave their children.”