ATHENS, Ala.—An Alabama man accused of intentionally scalding two children in a bathtub has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to serve 40 years in prison.
News outlets report that 33-year-old Derrick Defoe pleaded guilty Monday, Marc 25, to two counts of aggravated child abuse just before opening statements in his trial were set to begin. Other charges against him were dropped as part of a plea agreement.
Alabama man gets 40 years for scalding 2 children in bathtub https://t.co/XwHDINtjiG #10TV pic.twitter.com/Y0cIH9TQP1
— 10TV.com (@10TV) March 26, 2019
The children’s mother, Amanda Reyer, was sentenced in November to serve 40 years after she also pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated child abuse. Reyer and Defoe were dating at the time of the 2015 scalding.
#LimestoneCounty, #Alabama ~ 25yr old Amanda Reyer has been #sentenced to 40 years in #prison after she… https://t.co/m0Q3YKOGAd
— AU4Humanity (@AU4Humanity) November 14, 2018
Amanda Reyer said her children had been caught messing up a bed.
Judge Robert Baker in Limestone County, Alabama, gave Reyer the maximum sentence in November 2018. The Athens News Courier reports the judge spoke through tears to the 26-year-old woman.
Reyer pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated child abuse. She told the judge she was trying to appease a boyfriend by dropping her 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter into water so hot that the girl’s skin peeled off. The girl had burns over at least 70 percent of her body. Both children survived the abuse, which happened in 2015.
Amanda Reyer sentenced to 40 years in prison for scalding her kids in hot bathtub. Limestone Co judge cried as he delivered her punishment. “I’m a hard fellow to shock. But you did it,” he told her. She receives credit for time served, 3 years in jail, since the 2015 incident. pic.twitter.com/xXgtzqFkUP
— Lindsey Connell WAFF (@Lindseyreporter) November 13, 2018