A 28-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison after he admitted to scalding a 2-year-old boy while giving him a bath back in December 2018.
Robert Wayne Bunton, who has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since October, pleaded guilty to a second-degree felony count of aggravated assault causing bodily injury with a deadly weapon.
Prosecutors used Bunton’s 2016 conviction for an aggravated assault charge in 2014 to enhance his punishment range to five years to life in prison.
Bunton’s charge stems from an investigation that started Dec. 22, 2018, when Lubbock police responded to Covenant Children’s for a report of a 2-year-old boy who suffered second- and third-degree burns after he was placed in scalding hot water. The boy, whose skin was peeling off, was later taken to the University Medical Center burn unit, according to an arrest warrant.
Bunton, who took the boy and his mother to the hospital, left before police arrived and did not return, the warrant states.
The boy suffered extensive burns on his genitals, buttocks and stomach. A pediatrician who specializes in child abuse determined the burns were substantial evidence of mistreatment and physical abuse, according to court documents.
The boy’s mother told police investigators Bunton called her while she was at work telling her, “I messed up” and that she needed to come home because something happened to her son, according to court documents.
She said Bunton told her he was bathing the boy, who began screaming when he placed him in the water. She said Bunton typically checks the water but reportedly told her that he didn’t check it before placing the child in the tub this time, the warrant states.
Bunton didn’t call 911 or contact EMS when he realized the child was injured.
The boy’s mother told police Bunton, who took her and her child to the hospital, apologized to her multiple times.
The boy’s mother described Bunton, who is not the boy’s biological father, as a good father and denied any domestic violence, the warrant states. According to the warrant, the boy’s mother, who has another younger child, refused to believe Bunton intentionally harmed her son, the warrant states.
According to court documents, the boy’s burns have healed and he requires no further medical treatment.
