STORM2K

Mother pleads guilty after burning infant daughter in oven
By The Associated Press
(8/22/03 - WETUMPKA, AL) — A woman who put her infant daughter in a hot oven set on broil pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The child survived after her father heard her screams and rushed into the kitchen, but she suffered third-degree burns over 70 percent of her body and still faces years of reconstructive surgery, said District Attorney Randall Houston.

Her mother, Melissa Wright, at first told investigators the 18-month-old girl fell from her arms as she was cooking, and that the child hit the oven door, rolled in and the oven door closed behind her.

Prosecutors had planned to argue at trial that Wright acted intentionally because she was jealous of the attention the child's father was paying to the infant. She didn't suffer from any mental illness, Houston said, "She is just mean."

Wright, 27, of Coosada, pleaded guilty Thursday in Elmore County Circuit Court. Her daughter remains in the care of relatives.

FLASHBACK...29 years ago, my partner and I responded to a call...inside the residence, we found a drunken father, a drug-influenced mother, and a 2-month-old baby in a frying pan on a stove, placed there "because he wouldn't shut up".

My tough-as-nails partner carried the dead child out, while I did the "Miranda" bit and cuffed the pair...it was the only time I ever saw him cry.

They both received life sentences, which was WAY too lenient IMHO.

Wow...that's just unbelievable...what stupid, no-minded people...

I know two young women that were tortured by their mother when they were toddlers....we used to attend the same church.

Judy is the oldest, a couple years younger than me. Her mom attempted to starve her to death as a baby; then tried to smother her to death with her own blanket when she was 3. Judy cannot stand being in the dark, and panics if there's less than a weeks supply of food in her home...afraid she'll starve

Her little sister Peggy is 37...she's a ver beautiful, petite lady. Peggy has never been able to wear shorts or a bikini in public. Why? Because she carries the horrible looking scar of an iron seared into her thigh when she was only a few months old. :o

Their mom died a few years ago from HIV...but her two daughters still bear the scars of her brutal abuse over three decades later, and will until the day they die.

Duck, Bill and Perry - those stories are so horrible! I cannot fathom that any parent would do those types of things to their children - especially young children/infants. No punishment is severe enough!

One day, that *so called* mother WILL burn forever......then and only then, will there be justice served.

I CANNOT believe people, WTH is the matter with them!!

Dennis

As a father I can't understand how any parent could do those kinds of things!!! These people should be "shot while escaping" IMO. It would save the world a lot of grief!

Oh, make no mistake...I WAS tempted!

But, they presented no "clear and present danger" (read = unarmed, offered no resistance due to their condition at the time of arrest), and I wasn't the kind of unscrupulous cop to have a "drop gun" handy (cheap snubnose "belly" gun, kept in a plastic bag, usually "known to have been stolen", cleaned of even latent prints) to "give me an excuse".

That sort of thing "ain't law enforcement".

Wow, what sick idiots! Glad they were hauled away! So sorry to hear about your friends, Perry.

Marshall, I agree. As a mother I can't believe other parents would do such horrendous things to their children. How you can torture innocent lives like that is just beyond me. And little, trusting and loving children.....these people are such sick individuals IMO. No not parents, no I won't classify them in that category. It's a priviledge to raise children. An honor you don't take lightly but with great responsibility. Sure it's hard work, the hardest I've ever worked! But so rewarding too. What you get back is worth every exhausted day you've ever had with your kids.

Sorry also about your friends Perry.

Bill, I'm sure you saw terrible things while a policeman. The incident you described is almost too much to bear.

It all just makes me want to hug my kids!

Miss Mary,

I have seen a lot worse...experienced even more heinous things than that, yet "I'm still standing", so to speak.

I cannot help but reflect that God made use of those things to prepare me for something much bigger...perhaps, my championing of abuse issues, and counseling adult survivors thereof are but two, but it is not mine to second-guess His Will for me.

On the surface is the "warrior"...underneath, a poet, a musician, an actor, a gourmand, a teacher...the nicer, softer, more loving and caring side of what I should have been. I know this; but the emotional armor, rusty and stained as it is, still exists.

I just want to cry reading these stories of abuse. I wonder what is wrong with the world. Why do things like this happen? I'm shocked the mother even made it to trial. If I were that husband I would have ended that sorry bit*#'s life. I just cannot get over that things like this really go on everyday. Children are God's most precious gift.

Oh, that had to suck being stuck in an oven. I'm shivering thinking about it now. Yuck.