Joliet woman sentenced to 10 years for scalding stepson in bathtub filled with extremely hot water

in

June 20

JOLIET – Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow announced Wednesday (June 20, 2007) that a 30-year-old woman who scalded her 3-year-old stepson in a bathtub filled with extremely hot water has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Nancy E. Delbosque, of the 900 block of North Prairie, Joliet, was convicted in April of aggravated battery to a child, a Class X felony that carries a minimum penalty of six years in prison with no option for probation.  Circuit Judge Richard Schoenstedt found Delbosque guilty following a three-day bench trial.

Delbosque was accused of holding her stepson in scalding water on Feb. 11, 2006 and causing third-degree burns that peeled the boy’s skin below the waist. Police measured the temperature of water running from the faucet at 150 degrees on the day the child was injured.

To cause those burns, Delbosque would have had to have held the child in 150-degree water for roughly 10 seconds, according to Dr. Richard Louis Gamelli, a renowned medical expert in the field of burn injuries who testified on behalf of the prosecution. Dr. Gamelli is the chief of pediatrics at the highly acclaimed Loyola University Medical Center.

“Instead of protecting her stepson from harm at all costs, Nancy Delbosque deliberately injured this innocent and trusting little boy, causing him horrific and painful wounds,” Glasgow said. “Her actions were the antithesis of the unconditional love expected from a parent. As a result of her monstrous behavior, she is going to spend 10 years in prison.”

Delbosque initially told police her stepson climbed into the bathtub on his own. She later stated in a taped interview with Joliet investigators that she placed the child in the water and that the screaming boy tried to get out of the bathtub by crawling up her arm.

She told police she had been experiencing a stressful day and that her stepson had refused to get in the tub for a bath.

Glasgow credited Assistant State’s Attorneys Steve Platek and Jennifer Chang, who prosecuted Delbosque, and Joliet Detective Linda Odom, who led the police investigation, for building a case that left no doubt that this woman deliberately harmed her stepson.