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Plea sends Saxonburg man to prison

Edward Myers
Boy, 8, burned on face, chest

Eight-year-old Daniel Podskalny still wears the scars — both on his face and in his heart — left by a vicious attack by a man he trusted.

“All my son wanted was to be accepted and loved by this man and his two sons,” Laure Halliwell said Tuesday of her one-time live-in boyfriend, 37-year-old Edward Myers of Saxonburg. “Instead (Daniel) was beaten, shot and set on fire.”

In what Butler County Judge William Shaffer deemed one of “the most heinous crimes” he’s presided over in 14 years as a judge, Myers pleaded no contest to felony aggravated assault.

In keeping with a plea arrangement between Myers and prosecutors, the judge sentenced Myers to 4 to 12 years in state prison, three years of probation and fined him $5,000.

Myers’ no contest plea implies that he is not acknowledging guilt, but rather he is choosing not to fight the charges at a trial.

Still, in the courtroom, Myers said he was taking responsibility for what happened to Daniel.

“I was the responsible adult in the house that day,” he said.

Myers, an unemployed former mechanic, was supervising Daniel and his own two sons, then ages 15 and 11, in his Carol Drive mobile home while Halliwell was shopping on May 25, 2013, according to court documents.

At some point, the group shot airsoft and pellet guns into Daniel’s forehead, according to court records.

Daniel told investigators that Myers threw something from the stove that hit him and started burning his eyes.

When the boy went to the bathroom to rinse his eyes, Myers allegedly followed and poured nail polish remover onto him.

The boy told officials that his shirt was intentionally lit on fire by either Myers or the 15-year-old.

Police said Myers did not seek medical help for the boy. When the mother returned to Myers’ home three to six hours later, she found her badly burned son on a couch and took him to the hospital.

“A permanent picture is embedded in my mind of walking in and seeing Daniel sitting unattended with second- and third-degree burns on his chest and face,” Halliwell said, reading from a statement that she wrote earlier.

The statement goes on to say that some of Daniel’s scars will require more surgeries and still they will be permanent. Daniel has nightmares. He’s in counseling. And “he forbids any pictures taken of him,” Halliwell says in her statement.

Myers defense attorney Jerry Cassady said the plea arrangement negotiated seemed appropriate and he asserted that no one had accused Myers of igniting the boy. But rather he was trying to “cover up for his sons.”

However, had the case gone to a trial, prosecutors had plans to present 20 minutes of video taken on Myers’ cellular telephone that day.

Assistant District Attorney Christine Studeny said Myers can be seen in the video “shooting the victim with projectiles from an air gun, encouraging and inciting his sons to punch, strike and kick the victim in and about the body numerous times.”

The video does not show Daniel being doused with nail polish remover or who ignited the boy’s shirt, Studeny said.

During previous hearings, officials said Myers’ older son already has been adjudicated delinquent, which is the juvenile court equivalent of a conviction, on misdemeanor charges in this case. Myers’ younger son was not charged.

Studeny said in negotiating the plea arrangement with Myers, prosecutors consulted with Daniel’s father “who found the plea acceptable to mitigate further trauma to his son.”

Had the case gone to trial, Daniel was scheduled to testify by way of video conferencing. Myers entered his plea a day before the nonjury trial was to begin.

Daniel was not in the courtroom during Myers’ sentencing. His father was in the courtroom, but did not speak.

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