Beaufort Co. dad charged after child found with skin ‘falling off’ from bathwater burns, police say
An 18-year-old Seabrook father was charged Tuesday in connection with a January incident that left a small child with bathwater burns so severe the child’s “skin was falling off,” according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Jeril Simmons faces a charge of inflicting great bodily injury to a child, according to Beaufort County court documents.
Great bodily injury is defined by S.C. law as “bodily injury which creates a substantial risk of death or which causes serious or permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.”
Simmons was booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and was still incarcerated as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the jail log. His bond was set at $20,000.
If convicted, Simmons could face up to five years in prison.
‘He never asked about the status of the child’
Just before 1 a.m. Jan. 29, first responders went to a mobile home in Burton after Simmons called 911.
They discovered the child had “sustained burns of such severity the skin was falling off,” a Sheriff’s Office report said.
“At no point during my interaction with Simmons did I see him display any anxiety or general concern,” a deputy wrote in the report. “He seemed rather aloof; during the hours I spent with Simmons he never asked about the status of the child.”
Simmons had put the child to sleep on the living room couch because the toddler does not have a room, crib, or playpen to sleep in, the report said.
After midnight, Simmons, who was sleeping on the other side of the home, was woken up when the child’s mother called him and that’s when he heard the child’s cries, the report said.
According to the report, Simmons found the child standing in the bathtub, which had about 2 inches of water in it.
This incident initiated the investigation that led to Simmons’ arrest.
