Updated Thursday, April 30, 12:33 p.m.
A St. Albans nurse could face life in prison after she allegedly burned a severely developmentally disabled 1-year-old girl in scalding bath water, prosecutors said.
Oluyemisi Adebayo, 54, was arrested Wednesday morning as she was about to board a flight to Africa via London, according to the district attorney’s office. She was arraigned Thursday in Queens Criminal Court on a second-degree murder charge in the death of the 23-month-old girl from Rosedale.
Adebayo, a licensed practical nurse who was hired to take care of the child at her home, said the toddler was burned when she was giving her a bath on April 21, prosecutors said.
According to District Attorney Richard Brown, Adebayo stated that she had tested the water before placing the girl in a baby tub. When she removed the child, she noticed that her skin was falling off her legs.
On Friday, doctors at Nassau University Medical Center performed surgery on the child to treat second- and third-degree immersion scald burns that covered about 50 percent of her body, the district attorney said. The girl died three days later. Preliminary autopsy findings found that her cause of death was consistent with complications from thermal injury.
Medical personnel said that Adebayo’s story of how the child was burned was inconsistent with her injuries.
Tests performed by the NYPD found that the maximum water temperature of the faucet used to fill the tub was 130 degrees, and that it took about 120 seconds for the water to reach that level, prosecutors said. The severity of her injuries was consistent with her having been submerged up to her waist in 130 degree water for about 30 seconds.
Adebayo, who was ordered held without bail, faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
NOTE: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Adebayo as a licensed nurse practitioner.
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