NEW YORK (WPIX)—
A Queens mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday, after she admitted to forcing her 3-year-old son into a tub of scalding hot water as punishment for soiling himself.Regina Cooper, 31, pleaded guilty last month to the heinous assault of her son, Barkim Owens, who suffered third-degree burns over 21 percent of his body as well as permanent scars in the disturbing January attack.
According to prosecutors, the toddler screamed in pain and pleaded with his mother to stop after he plunged him in a tub of hot water. By the time she took him out, his skin started to fall off, prosecutors said.
"Regina Cooper unfortunately is the mother from hell," Queens Judge Richard Buchter said in court Tuesday, as she scolded the Queens mom. "The defendant is sadistic and merciless."
A lawyer for Cooper claimed she had been abused as a child and through her adult life.
