DALLAS (AP) For more than four months, a toddler battled for his life after being held in a pot of boiling water, Dallas police said.
Police told The Dallas Morning News in a story Tuesday that 16-month-old Jabraylon Bables appeared to have been dipped in boiling water. The toddler died Saturday from injuries and infections, 36 days after police say he was deliberately burned.
The boyfriend of the child's mother is a convicted murderer named Carlnelus Delaney Simmons. He remains in the Dallas County Jail on a felony charge of injury to a child.
I wish it was me lying in [Jabraylon's] spot, said Jasmine Thompson, the boy's mother.
Attorney information was not available.
Simmons was babysitting the child when he claimed the toddler was burned accidentally by hot bottled water that fell. But, police said the boy was dipped and held in the boiling water. The Dallas County medical examiner has ruled the death a homicide.
Simmons has a violent past and was convicted of killing a man in a 1994 bar fight. He got a 15-year prison sentence for the crime.
I walked out that day thinking I was going to come home to [Jabraylon] and I didn't, Thompson said.
Leaving the child with Simmons was something she said she will regret forever.
I came home to a burnt baby, she said.
The baby's father, Byron Bables, said he is still trying to understand how someone could hurt his child.
I see a beautiful angel, he said. I see a baby that could never be hurt by anybody. It's hard to believe in my heart that anyone could hurt my child. He was beautiful and nice and just happy.
Police arrested Simmons and plan to charge him in his death.
