GALVESTON, Texas — A jury sentenced a young father Wednesday to 25 years in prison for severely burning his infant daughter by putting her in a microwave and turning it on for up to 20 seconds.
Joshua Mauldin, 20, was teary-eyed after hearing the sentence. His mother sobbed loudly in the courtroom.
The jury had convicted Mauldin on Tuesday of felony injury to a child, rejecting his claims that he was insane when he put his daughter Ana in the microwave last year.
Prosecutors had wanted the maximum of life in prison. Galveston County prosecutor Xochitl Vandiver said she was satisfied with the sentence.
“It’s extremely important for people to know that just because this case was sensational, it doesn’t mean that (child abuse) goes away,” she said. “Child abuse is an important issue. It should be focused on.”
Sam Cammack III, Mauldin’s attorney, had asked jurors to consider his client’s long history of mental illness and sentence him to probation so he could be treated at a hospital.
“He still doesn’t get the treatment for mental illness that he needs,” Cammack said. “He’s not going to get that in prison.”
Jurors deliberated for 6 1/2 hours over two days before sentencing Mauldin. They also fined him $10,000.
Prosecutors said Mauldin hurt his daughter because he was angry that he was in a loveless marriage. They said Mauldin had a history of violence and of lying about being mentally ill to get out of trouble.
Mauldin claimed he started hallucinating when he was left alone in a Galveston hotel room with his daughter, feeling like mud was running up his body and consuming him.
Just before putting her in the room’s microwave, he punched the then-2-month-old child and placed her in the room’s safe and refrigerator.
Mauldin at first told police his daughter had been severely sunburned, later changing his story and saying he had accidentally spilled hot water on her while making coffee.
Ana suffered second- and third-degree burns to her left ear, cheek, hand and shoulder and required two skin grafts.
The girl’s foster mother, Heather Croxton, told jurors that Ana, now 1, screams during the daily process of cleaning the wounds and endures physical therapy five days a week.
