Mother sentenced to 28 years in scalding case

The Columbia mother found guilty of forcing her 6-year-old son to stand under a scalding shower as punishment was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Monday.

In a bench trial that ended May 26, Erma Mc­Kin­ney, 35, was convicted of first-degree assault, child abuse causing serious emotional injury, first-degree child endangerment and child endangerment in a ritual or ceremony.

Assistant Prosecutor Richard Hicks, who had asked Circuit Judge Gary Oxenhandler to sentence Mc­Kin­ney to 35 years on the charges, said he was happy with the sentence.

“When we look back on childhood we think of good things, but when (this child) looks back on his childhood, this is what he’s going to remember,” he said. “That’s what’s sad about these cases.”

The judge sentenced Mc­Kin­ney to 21 years for assault, 10 years for child abuse, eight years for child endangerment and seven years for child endangerment in a ritual or ceremony.

The ritual or ceremony charge is brought when there are allegations of abuse by two or more people on more than one occasion — in this

case, because Erma Mc­Kin­ney told Columbia police Detective Latisha Stroer that she had punished her son using a hot shower more than once.

She told Stroer that the first time, her son was playing with faucets when she realized that the shower could burn him. She used the shower on one other occasion as punishment, according to her statement to Stroer.

The boy testified on a videotape shown to the jury in the trial of his stepfather, Otis Mc­Kin­ney, that he had been placed in a hot shower many times by both his mother and stepfather.

On Monday, Otis Mc­Kin­ney’s sentencing was postponed until Aug. 21.

According to testimony during Erma Mc­Kin­ney’s trial, she placed her son in the shower May 19, 2005, after he had gotten into trouble at school. She turned on the hot water and stood against the door as the boy screamed to be let out. Though it was apparent afterward that the child was in extreme pain, neither Mc­Kin­ney nor her husband sought medical treatment for the boy but attempted to treat him at home with a variety of creams and salves.

When Erma Mc­Kin­ney and her husband finally took the boy to the hospital on June 14, they told doctors that he had developed a rash from chicken pox. Jim Deline, the emergency room doctor who saw the boy, testified that his injuries were so severe that he thought they might be the result of an infection with flesh-eating bacteria.

James Kraatz, another doctor who was responsible for treating the boy, testified that because the burns reached the boy’s muscle, he had a hard time believing they were caused by hot water and not chemicals.

The boy, who is now in foster care along with his 3-year-old sister, spent almost two months in the hospital receiving skin grafts and recovering from his injuries.

The Mc­Kin­neys were charged June 17, a few days after they brought the boy to the hospital.

During Monday’s sentencing, Hicks emphasized the irreversible emotional damage that had been done to the boy.

“The little boy is the one who loses out here,” he said.

Public defender Michael Coles emphasized that he still believed the boy’s testimony was unreliable and reminded the judge that Erma Mc­Kin­ney had no previous criminal record and had been highly involved in her church.

Mc­Kin­ney’s first three sentences are to run concurrently and the last one consecutively for a total sentence of 28 years. Mc­Kin­ney must serve 85 percent of the 21 years and then 85 percent of the consecutive seven-year sentence before she will become eligible for parole.