OWSLEY COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — The mother of a woman accused of scalding her young son said that she’d tried to have something done long before the incident.
Alexis Powell, 28, was charged this month with first-degree assault, endangering the welfare of a minor, criminal abuse of a child and wanton endangerment, according to the Owsley County Sheriff’s Office. She’s accused of intentionally forcing her three-year-old son to stand in hot or boiling water as punishment “until such time as the skin turned gray and began to peel from the minor child’s feet,” according to court records.
The boy was left with second and third-degree burns, according to court records.
The little boy was hospitalized in for weeks and was brought home on Sunday, said Kristy Powell, Alexis Powell’s mother.
“Pouring hot boiling water on someone to me is not punishment,” Kristy Powell said Monday. “That's torture.”
Kristy Powell told LEX 18 Investigates that she’d asked for help from the courts and from child protective services long before the incident, saying that her daughter has serious mental health problems and had shown signs of problems with her kids in the past.
Kristy Powell said that the little boy told the family that his mom had put him in the hot water as punishment for wetting himself.
“He's never wavered from his story,” Kristy Powell said. “As a mother, you try to understand how this could possibly be an accident - it's your daughter, you don't want to believe.”
Kristy Powell said she felt no one would listen before the incident when she reported that Alexis Powell could have problems with her children.
“I'd call anybody who'd listen to me,” Kristy Powell said.
Before Alexis Powell moved to Owsley County she lived in Scott County, where multiple domestic violence orders were filed against her, according to court records. Some were filed by Kristy Powell.
“In this instance, there were so many signs,” Kristy Powell said. “So many warnings. This did not have to happen.”
