Woman arrested for burning child with hot water

A court date is scheduled Tuesday morning for a Mountain Home woman charged with scalding a two-year-old child.

Jamie Taylor, 27, was arrested Wednesday, charged with felony injury to a child.

Taylor, 27, stands accused of allowing her fiance's two-year-old child to sustain burns from scalding hot water in a bathtub at the couple's home Oct. 14.

Jamie Taylor

According to the probable cause affidavit filed with the courts on Thursday, the child sustained second and third-degree burns on her lower extremities. The little girl was flown to the University of Utah Burn Center in Salt Lake City to undergo treatment. Her status is unknown at this time.

As of Friday morning, Taylor was in custody at the Elmore County jail with bond set at $35,000 after being arraigned Thursday.

Taylor told a police investigator that she was preparing to have the child and two others take a bath before bed earlier that evening. With the bath water running, she reportedly left the room to chase after one of the other children in the household that had crawled away.

She told officers that she left the bath water running but stated that it was "luke cold."

After an undisclosed amount of time, Taylor said she went back into the bathroom and saw that the child was already sitting in the tub and then stood up and fell down twice. Taylor then grabbed the child out of the water and noticed that it was hot to the touch.

She then took the child to a neighbor, who drove both of them to St. Luke's Elmore hospital.

Officers who were present at the hospital's emergency room at the time on an unrelated incident began asking questions.

The neighbor allegedly relayed to officers that Taylor seemed more concerned with explaining why the child's injuries were not her fault rather than being concerned with the toddler's welfare.

During the course of their investigation, police got Taylor's consent to go to her house and check the water temperature inside the bathtub. The officer at the scene reported that when he ran the water from the tap in the tub the temperature was 143 degrees Fahrenheit.

The investigating officer noted that Taylor seemed emotionally detached from the child, who was screaming in pain in the next room. He also noted that the child's hands showed no signs of redness or swelling, which seemed inconsistent with her account of what happened that evening.

Police added that Taylor didn't know how long the child was left unattended in the bathroom.