4-Year-Old Suffered Third-Degree Burns After Father Held Boy's Hand On Hot Stove

An Ohio man with a history of domestic abuse placed his four-year-old son’s hand on a wood-burning stove to discipline him, a court heard Tuesday.

Holmes County Sheriff’s Office said Jacob D. Miller, 23, held his son’s hand against a burning wood stove “to intentionally burn it.” He then moved the boy’s hand closer to the stove after deciding it was not hot enough. The incident took place on Feb.15 and the boy was left with third-degree burns.

Miller appeared in Millersburg court Tuesday and was charged with one count of felony domestic violence.

Prosecutor Matt Muzic said, “It’s charged right now as a domestic violence felony level, which means there’s at least one prior conviction for domestic violence.”

He added Miller had prior domestic violence convictions. This included a felony conviction in 2015.

“We’re still collecting information at this point. It’s going to be presented to the grand jury, that’s part of the reason it’s charged just as a [fourth-degree felony] at this point," Muzic said, Akron Beacon Journal reported.

His bond was set at $50,000 and the preliminary hearing was scheduled for Friday. Court also ordered him to not contact his son, CBS-affiliated television station WRDW reported.

In a similar incident in January, a Florida man was arrested for burning his 4-year-old son with a lighter to teach the boy a lesson about the dangers of fire. The incident came to light when the boy showed up at school with a burn injury on his wrist. The boy informed his teacher his father had burned him. During police interrogation, the boy’s mother said she and her husband noticed a burn mark on the boy’s bedroom door and decided to instruct him about the dangers of fire. She then went to another room to attend to her other child when she heard the boy screaming and crying.

According to the police, the boy’s father, Jesse Colaw, wasn’t happy with the way his wife was disciplining the boy and decided to burn him with a “torch-style lighter” to teach him a lesson. He was taken into custody and charged with aggravated battery on a child, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.