Butler woman sentenced for child assault
A Butler woman, accused of using a stove to burn the hands of her boyfriend's 6-year-old daughter, was sentenced to state prison in Butler County Court on Thursday.
Tonya L. Schmidt, 36, was sentenced to three to six years in a state correctional facility by county Judge Timothy McCune.
Schmidt previously pleaded no contest to felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor welfare fraud on Sept. 6, after being charged in incidents on Jan. 4, 2014, and Nov. 15, 2014.
Butler City police said Schmidt held the 6-year-old girl's hands, one at a time, over an open flame on the gas stove at the family's home on East Pearl Street, causing injuries including second-degree burns.
The injuries were noticed when the girl went to school that morning, and authorities were contacted, and she was taken to the emergency room at Butler Memorial Hospital.
During a Jan. 15 interview with a child abuse investigator in Pittsburgh, the girl detailed other forms of abuse that the defendant allegedly committed at their home, including forcing her to stand in the corner while holding gallon jugs of water or bags of ice and grabbing the back of her head and forcing her head under water in the bathtub for 10 seconds.
A full report will appear in the Butler Eagle.
