Baby Burned in Microwave

(Galveston, Texas) A 19-year-old father, Joshua Mauldin of Hermitage, Arkansas, was indicted Wednesday for allegedly placing his two-month-old daughter in a microwave oven and inflicting third-degree burns. Mauldin is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily harm, a crime punishable by a possible 99-year prison term upon conviction.

The infant was at Shriners Burns Hospital in Galveston Wednesday, in critical but stable condition. Doctors there took skin from the back of the child's head Wednesday, grafting it onto the left side of her face, which suffered third-degree burns.

Mauldin has previous arrests for battery and violation of a protective order. A high school acquaintance characterized Mauldin as the perennial loner. He was in Galveston staying at a beachfront motel along with his mother, his wife, and his infant daughter.

Mauldin was booked into the Galveston County Jail on $250,000 bond.


[Update 10/24/07]

Mauldin claims insanity.