TYLER, Texas — A Tyler man has been jailed after a 4-year-old child suffered third-degree burns from hot bathtub water requiring the boy to be intubated, on a ventilator and in need of multiple surgeries, police documents show.
Joshua Tranair Meekings, 26, of Tyler, was arrested May 30 and remains in the Smith County Jail on a $1 million bond.
According to an arrest affidavit, Child Protective Services notified the Smith County Sheriff's Office about a 4-year-old child who had to be transported to a Dallas hospital from Tyler because of burn injuries.
Meekings, who is the child's stepfather, told a CPS official that the child bumped against a stove where a pot of boiling water was, and caused the contents to spill over the boy's lower body.
Hospital workers told CPS that these burns were consistent with the child being dipped in boiling water, not what Meekings told CPS, the affidavit stated. A CPS official said she was told the child will need multiple rounds of skin grafts for his injuries.
The babysitter had called Meekings to tell him that the child had used the bathroom on himself and he had to go over there to clean the child up. She said that Meekings undressed the boy, placed him in the tub with hot water and went to play video games, according to the document.
She said the child could not bear the heat of the water any longer and Meekings then wrapped the boy in a towel. Meekings told deputies that he heard the child “hollering" and he jumped out the water. He got him out and realized the boy was injured, the affidavit read.
Police also spoke to the babysitter's sister, who said she heard Meekings yelling several times at the boy, who was whining, while both were in the bathroom, the affidavit stated.
A Dallas doctor told investigators that the 4-year-old suffered burns over 33% to 36% of his body, including his buttocks, back of thighs, complete lower legs and feet, as well as a burn to his right arm, according to the affidavit.
She also told law enforcement that most of the boy's burns are third-degree and considered forced immersion. A water thermometer showed the water was 145°F out of the bathtub faucet and once pooled, in the bathtub it was 140°F, the affidavit stated.