United States v. Morgan

47 M.J. 644, 1997 CCA LEXIS 587, 1997 WL 757710
CourtArmy Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedDecember 9, 1997
DocketARMY 9502179
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 47 M.J. 644 (United States v. Morgan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Army Court of Criminal Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Morgan, 47 M.J. 644, 1997 CCA LEXIS 587, 1997 WL 757710 (acca 1997).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

CAIRNS, Judge:

A general court-martial composed of officer and enlisted members convicted appellant, contrary to his pleas, of maiming his son by burning him with scalding hot water on the groin and buttocks, in violation of Article 124, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 924 (1988)[hereinafter UCMJ], The convening authority approved the adjudged sentence to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for one year, and reduction to Private El.

The appellant asserts that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction on two grounds: first, it fails to prove he intended to injure his child; and, second, it does not show that the victim suffered the extent of disfigurement required by the statute. We disagree and affirm.

FACTS

While the appellant’s wife was away from their home one Saturday, the appellant prepared to bathe his seven-month old son by placing the baby in a portable plastic baby wash tub. He placed the baby tub inside the permanently-installed bathtub, and with the drain open, he turned on the hot water so that it ran into the bathtub without touching the infant or filling the baby’s wash container. The appellant left the baby so situated in the bathtub in order to answer the telephone, but the caller hung up before the appellant could pick up the receiver. When he returned to the bathroom, the appellant stuck a plastic Cool Whip container under the running hot water and poured it on his son. After a brief moment in which the baby gasped for breath, the appellant’s son cried out in obvious pain. The appellant removed his son from the water and while drying him off, noticed that the baby’s groin and buttocks areas were red and “some skin was coming off.” He treated the wounds with Desitin ointment and diapered the child.

Although the appellant did not seek medical treatment or advice, he checked the wounds throughout the day. The appellant and his baby attended a gathering of a theater group, during which the baby was noticeably fussy. When a friend offered to change the baby’s diaper, appellant declined the offer and instead changed the baby at considerable distance away from the rest of the group. Later, after the appellant picked up his wife some six hours after the burn was inflicted, he told her what happened but stated that the bum was “not as bad as it looks.” The appellant’s wife examined her son, became hysterical, and immediately took the baby to the emergency room.

The emergency room physician described the bums as “red, beefy, well-demarcated,” of the type indicating scalding by dipping rather than splashing. The burns extended in a diaper-type distribution from below the abdomen in the front to mid-way up the buttocks. The penis and parts of the scrotum were burned, but the anus was not. Photographs taken at the emergency room depict not only red, raw, bleeding burns to the areas as described by the doctor, but they also reveal stark depigmentation and loss of skin on the affected areas of this medium-eomplexioned, African-American baby. During the baby’s nine days of hospitalization, he was attended by the Chief of Pediatrics, Tripler Army Medical Center, who was qualified at trial as an expert in Pediatric Rheumatology, the study of children’s muscular-skeleton conditions, including those affecting the skin. In the pediatrician’s opinion, the child suffered primarily second-degree bums, with two tiny areas of third-degree burns. After examining the child eight months after the injury, the doctor testified that he believed the loss of skin color in the area of the bum was permanent. On cross-examination, he testified that the depigmented area amounted to five percent of the skin area, and that as the child grows into adulthood, the percentage will decline because that part of the body becomes proportionally smaller.

[646]*646During the two days following the incident, the appellant was interviewed twice and rendered two sworn, written statements to Criminal Investigation Command (CID) investigators. In his first statement, the appellant said that he did not realize how hot the water was when he poured it on his son. He “could have sworn” he had turned on the cold water faucet as well as the hot. He attributed this oversight to having “something on [his] mind” and not “really paying attention.” The appellant specifically denied burning his son on purpose. In his second written statement, the appellant admitted knowing the water was too hot because he saw steam rising from the water. Although he admitted to “deliberately” pouring the hot water on his son “without thinking,” he denied any intent to harm his son. He explained why he poured the hot water on his son by stating, “I did it out of frustration and things that were going wrong in my life and marriage.” Finally, he admitted that “I thought it might hurt him, but I had so many other things on my mind____”

The CID agent who conducted the second interview testified that the appellant initially maintained his story that the burns were accidental. During the interview, however, the appellant:

... admitted to deliberately pouring the water on his child. That he knew the water was hot before he poured the water on his child. And that he knew that the water that he was going to pour would cause severe burns. He did this out of frustration, as he told me. He told me that he was angry at his wife and at life in general. And, that’s the reason he did it. He also told me that he knew what he was about to do, or what he was doing, was wrong.1

At trial, the appellant testified that he did not intend to burn or hurt his son. In explaining the scalding as an accident, the appellant attributed his inattentiveness in bathing his son to serious financial problems, arguments with his wife, and other “demands.” The appellant stated that his financial problems stemmed from the added expenses of a newborn child, the additional costs associated with his recently obtaining custody of his daughter from a previous marriage, and his wife having quit her full-time job several months earlier. His mind was on the telephone call and his hopes that it would be from a person who might solve his financial difficulties. The appellant attempted to explain away his admissions in the second statement to CID as mere acquiescence to leading questions, not “really listening to what [the CID agent] was saying,” and not caring about the consequences of his statement but “just wanting to get out of there.” When his trial defense counsel asked the appellant about his admitting to seeing the steam coming off the hot water, he responded, “Well, yeah, that’s something that I told them. But, to tell you the truth, I really don’t remember seeing any steam.”

Several CID agents had previously testified about conducting an experiment in the appellant’s quarters. They ran the hot water in the tub and measured the temperature at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Steam rose from the stream of hot water.

DISCUSSION

The test for legal sufficiency of the evidence is whether, considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a reasonable factfinder could have found all the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 M.J. 644, 1997 CCA LEXIS 587, 1997 WL 757710, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-morgan-acca-1997.