Prosecutors added a new felony charge yesterday against a man accused of burning a 20-month-old with 140-degree water.
Hours before a preliminary hearing on felony assault charges, prosecutors added a felony child endangerment charge against Andrew Hutchins, 20. Prosecutors allege Hutchins held his girlfriend's daughter under hot water, causing first- and second-degree burns, but did not take her to the hospital for about six hours.
Hutchins' attorney, Bill Biddlestone, said the prosecution can't prove the felony assault charge and filed the child endangerment charge as a backup option.
They can't prove he intentionally held the kid anywhere
Biddlestone said. He suggested that Hutchins left the girl alone in the bathtub, where she was burned by the bath water.
Judge William Grim declined the prosecutor's request for a $10,000 bond on the new charge, a third-degree felony, noting that Hutchins already faces a $250,000 bond in Common Pleas Court for violating his parole and a $75,000 bond in municipal court for the felony assault charge - both related to the girl's burns.
Grim questioned why prosecutors would file the charge at two minutes' notice and rescheduled the hearing. Assistant County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said he asked an officer to file the charges Wednesday night, after the court closed, and that they were filed yesterday morning.
Sheriff's deputies began investigating after Hutchins' girlfriend, Amber Milner, brought the girl to O'Bleness Memorial Hospital on Dec. 14. Citing major burns doctors later transferred the girl to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus. The girl is now in a foster home, said her great-grandmother, who added that she is trying to get custody of the child.
Hutchins, who lives with Milner in an apartment on Hope Drive, has a criminal record stretching back at least two years. Police arrested Hutchins in 2007 for possession of Methadone without a prescription and, in April, he threatened to rob the local Kroger. One month later, Hutchins shot himself in the foot with a .22 caliber pistol while intoxicated.
Grim will preside over Hutchins' preliminary hearing on the felony charges today at 8:30 a.m. in Athens Municipal Court.
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Dave Hendricks
