Dad Guilty of Microwaving 2 mos old Daughter
A young father was convicted Tuesday of badly injuring his infant daughter by putting her in a microwave, with jurors rejecting his claim that he was insane at the time.
Jurors deliberated about four hours before finding 20-year-old Joshua Mauldin guilty of felony injury to a child.
After the verdict, jurors began hearing testimony in the punishment phase of the trial. Mauldin faces anything from probation to life in prison.
Mauldin pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying he was having a psychotic episode when he put his then 2-month-old daughter, Ana, in a hotel microwave for 10 to 20 seconds last May while her mother and grandmother were away.
On the one hand, I’d seriously like to put this bastard in a giant mircowave and cook him well done. Adults killing or physically abusing kids and especially their own children are beneath all normal contempt. They are animals, like rabid dogs needing to be euthanized for the good of society.
On the other hand, I have a Special Needs boy I deal with every week at school with serious psychotic behavior episodes; I have seen this usually sweet, loving young boy of about 8 when the medications are wrong or the dosage off just slightly, and he can instantly become extremely violent to everyone, other students, teachers, even his own dearly loved mother. His mother tells me that when he is like that she looks in his eyes and doesn’t recognize him as her own child, he is some kind of animal. Note: His father is in prison for violent crimes and is psychotic as well.
So, my first instinct is to protect the child and if that requires killing the adult, so be it. Yet, seeing how psychotic episodes can so change even a child, I have some sensitivity for the nature of that horrible mental disease.
Wouldn’t it be nice if life was nice and tidy, black and white and easy to judge?
