A 24-year-old Little Rock man on Thursday accepted a 40-year prison sentence for fatally scalding his disabled toddler son almost two years ago.
Joseph Dwayne Johnson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, reduced from first-degree murder, for the June 2013 death of 14-month-old Joseph Johnson Jr., deputy prosecutor Tonia Acker said. Prosecutors recommended the 40-year sentence to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza in exchange for the man's guilty plea.
According to court files, emergency medical personnel called by the boy's mother arrived at the family's Chimney Rock Place home, east of Geyer Springs Road, to find the child's skin sloughing off from second- and third-degree burns that covered more than 50 percent of his body.
The blistering injuries to his lower extremities and right arm were so severe that rescuers took the boy by helicopter, instead of ambulance, to Arkansas Children's Hospital, where he died about two weeks later.
A postmortem X-ray showed the boy also had two healing fractures -- one to his left forearm and another to his left foot -- injuries that doctors estimated had occurred two to six weeks before he died, court filings show.
The baby, called Jojo by his family, had been home with his parents about a month when he was burned, according to court filings.
Unspecified "severe birth defects" had required him to be hospitalized for the first 13 months of his life, and he required a feeding tube, plus regular unspecified daily medical treatments, reports show.
The baby's mother, Krystal Owens, told police she had been at the grocery store when her husband called her crying, saying that he had burned the child, a police report said.
She couldn't understand everything he was saying, Owens told investigators, so she rushed home and called an ambulance immediately once she saw how bad the baby was injured.
The boy's father said he was giving the child his first bath, saying he had tested the water with his hand before putting the baby in the inflatable tub. He then sat the child in the tub, turned around, and shortly thereafter his son started screaming, the report said.
The boy's flesh started falling off when he pulled the child from the tub, the man said, telling officers he called the boy's mother, then his own mother.
Johnson said he didn't call 911 and waited for his wife to get home, and she made the call, according to the report.
Johnson speculated the water heater might have malfunctioned, telling police he'd complained about it to the couple's landlord.
Detectives found the water heater to be in good working order with the temperature set at 135 degrees, the report said. A thermometer reading by police showed the water from the faucet was also 135 degrees.
Johnson, who has two other children, was on probation at the time of the child's death for October 2011 convictions for maintaining a drug premises, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He accepted a 10-year prison sentence, which will run concurrently with his 40-year term, for violating his probation.
According to arrest reports, Johnson and Yulonda Ruthann Simmons, 45, were arrested together in their Little Rock home at 2901 Center St., after police serving a search warrant found a quarter-pound of marijuana, scales and a pistol.
Simmons received five years of probation in the case.
Metro on 01/30/2015