Youngster describes his scalding

A 7-year-old Columbia boy said both his stepfather and his mother were to blame for scalding him under a hot shower as punishment for misbehavior.

The boy’s videotaped testimony was played for jurors Thursday at Otis McKinney’s trial in Callaway County. The boy said that Otis McKinney was the one “turning the knob on me” on May 19, 2005, to redirect the flow of hot water as his mother, Erma McKinney, leaned against the shower door to prevent the boy’s escape.

It was “hot, pretty hot,” the boy said. “There were other times, a lot of times.” At least 10.

McKinney has been charged with first-degree assault, felony child abuse and two counts of child endangerment. Last week, Erma McKinney was found guilty of these same four charges in a Boone County bench trial.

Today, the jury will hear closing arguments from defense attorney Richard French and prosecuting attorney Richard Hicks.

The boy, who was 6 at the time, also described the burns he received that night, which eventually developed into deep wounds that required skin grafts. According to Dr. James Kraatz, director of the burn unit at University Hospital, the wounds would not have needed skin grafts if his parents had taken him to the hospital immediately.

“Mommy and Otis, they put medicine on it to make me feel better,” the boy said. “A lot of times. But it didn’t feel better.”

Squirming in front of the camera, the boy reached up to scratch his injured back and right arm several times during the testimony, which was taped on Tuesday.

In his own testimony, Otis McKinney repeatedly denied that he ever abused his son and said he would have turned in his wife, Erma, if he had realized what she was doing.

“I would have never, ever put my child in a hot shower,” Otis McKinney said.

Richard Hicks, the prosecutor, said to McKinney, “You are the only person here today saying it didn’t happen.”

Columbia police Detective Bryan Liebhart testified both Wednesday and Thursday that in an interview before his arrest on June 16, 2005, Otis McKinney said he knew of Erma’s hot-shower punishment and that he had used that method to punish the boy himself on three occasions.

Otis McKinney said he was not aware of the severity of his stepson’s injuries until he and Erma took the child to Rusk Rehabilitation Center on June 14, and then, on the advice of doctors there, to the emergency room at University Hospital.

“After that, I noticed something was very, very wrong,” McKinney said. “He was just in so much pain. It broke me up.”

In his testimony Thursday, Kraatz said that when he was called in to look at the wound, he immediately concluded that deep burns on the boy’s back were probably caused by a chemical instead of hot water.

Otis McKinney explained the depth of his stepson’s injuries in a different way. He testified that the boy lost his skin when the nurses peeled off the bandages on his arm and back at the emergency room.

“It caused him great pain, and it tore his skin straight off,” McKinney said.

McKinney said that he does not know what caused his son’s injuries because he worked two jobs to support his family and his wife was the primary caregiver for her son and their 3-year-old daughter. When he was at home, McKinney said the boy’s documented aggression problems never bothered him.

“I was at work, and plus, I loved him. It wasn’t frustrating to me,” he said.

Connie Brooks, the boy’s counselor for the past 10 months and a witness for the state, said that the boy still suffers from aggression problems, the result of post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his shower experience.

“His behavior seems much more aggressive to others and he attributes that to being burned in the shower,” Brooks said.

The defense said that the boy’s previous diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder makes him an unreliable witness.

McKinney’s trial was moved to Callaway County from Boone County because the defense said that media coverage of Erma’s trial tainted the jury pool.