Columbia woman sentenced to 28 years for abuse of son

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A Columbia woman has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for punishing her 6-year-old son by forcing him to stand under a scalding shower.

Boone County Circuit Judge Gary Oxenhandler sentenced Erma McKinney on Monday 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. McKinney will serve the first three sentences concurrently and the last one consecutively.

McKinney was convicted in May.

The ritual or ceremony charge was brought because McKinney told police she punished her son with a hot shower more than once.

According to testimony at her trial, McKinney punished the boy with the hot shower after he got into trouble at school. McKinney and her husband waited nearly a month to take the boy to the hospital, instead treating him with salves and creams.

The emergency room doctor who saw the boy, Jim Deline, testified that the injuries were so severe he thought they might have been the result of an infection with flesh-eating bacteria.

The boy, who is now in foster care with his sister, spent nearly two months in the hospital receiving skin grafts and recovering from his injuries.

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Information from: Columbia Missourian, http://www.digmo.org