Citations
- 551 S.W.2d 715
Full opinion text
OPINION
ROBERTS, Judge.
This is an appeal from a conviction for injury to a child. The court assessed punishment at three years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections.
The record reflects that on May 3, 1975, the appellant went to the trailer house where he lived with a woman and her three children. As he approached the door, one of the children, Mark, was in the kitchen alone cooking or toasting some bread. Mark was six years old. Appellant knocked on the door and, when he finally entered, the kitchen was full of smoke and Mark had thrown the bread out the back door. In order to punish Mark for cooking in the kitchen alone, appellant picked up the hot skillet that Mark was using and applied it to the child’s stomach, causing a severe burn. Photographs of this injury were admitted into evidence and are in the record.
Appellant’s version of the incident is contained in his voluntary statement which was admitted into evidence:
“On May 3, 1975, I was working in the clubhouse at Horseshoe Bend. About 4 p. m. on that date I went to the trailer house to change clothes. The door was locked. I knocked on the door and Mark let me in. I did call the babysitter, but no response. As I went through the kitchen I picked up the skillet. I threatened Mark with it as if I was going to burn him. Mark backed up to the cabinet and then leaned forward. This is when I burned him. I was attempting to catch him.”
Appellant further testified that, while he threatened Mark with the pan he didn’t have any intention of burning him, and that the injury occurred as the result of an accident when Mark fell forward as appellant was approaching him with the hot skillet.
Mark testified that appellant . sticked the skillet to my stomach with the handle . . . because he don’t want me cooking bread.”
Two lay witnesses testified that the burn was bad and one thought it needed medical attention.
The only expert testimony on the seriousness of Mark’s injury came from Dr. John Merrick, the physician who treated him. He testified, in pertinent part, as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
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He has permanent scarring.