Mom who burned kids in scalding water arraigned - charges upgraded to attempted murder
By Crystal Bonvillian | cbonvillian@al.com
Limestone County, AL
A Limestone County woman accused of seriously burning her children with scalding water in June pleaded not guilty Monday morning to charges that have been upgraded to include attempted murder.
Amanda Marie Reyer, 23, of Elkmont is charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of first-degree domestic violence and two counts of aggravated child abuse. Her boyfriend, 30-year-old Derrick Lynn Defoe, faces the same charges.
Reyer's trial was set for Aug. 22, 2016. Limestone County Circuit Judge Robert Baker denied Reyer's motion to reduce her $100,000 bond.
The victims in the case are Reyer's 2-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. The little girl, who was in critical condition, was ultimately flown to the Shriner's Hospital for Children in Cincinnati, Ohio, for treatment of second- and third-degree burns over 80 percent of her body.
The older child was treated in Birmingham for similar burns to his legs and buttocks. Second-degree burns affect the outermost and second layers of a person's skin and can cause blisters, severe pain and, in deep second-degree burns, scarring.
Third-degree burns, sometimes called full-thickness burns, go down to the fat layer beneath a person's skin. They can destroy nerves and usually require skin grafts to close the patient's wounds.
Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones told AL.com that the children have improved greatly in the six months since they were injured.
"Both children are home and have been placed in safe places through Limestone DHR," Jones said.
Reyer and Defoe were initially charged with aggravated child abuse after Reyer brought her daughter to Huntsville Hospital, claiming that the girl had fallen into a bathtub filled with scalding water. Hospital workers were suspicious and called deputies, who went to the couple's home in the 21000 block of Tillman Mill Road to investigate her claims.
There, they found Defoe with an infant and Reyer's son, who they saw was also burned. The adults were arrested and the three children taken into state custody.
Reyer refused to accompany her children to the hospital, saying she didn't have enough gas to drive to Birmingham. Authorities said she also refused to get on the helicopter taking her daughter there, but Reyer later told reporters that she did not get on the aircraft because she exceeded the weight limit.
The domestic violence charges were tacked on in the days after the children were hospitalized. Both those charges and the attempted murder charges are Class A felonies, for which both Reyer and Defoe face life in prison.
The couple was indicted on the attempted murder charges last month.