Woman pleads to aggravated assault
A Butler woman, accused of using a stove top to burn the hands of her boyfriend's 6-year-old daughter, pleaded no contest in Butler County Court on Wednesday.
Tonya L. Schmidt, 36, pleaded no contest to felony aggravated assault before Judge Timothy McCune.
The plea agreement calls for a sentence of three to six years in a state correctional facility, restitution and fines.
Schmidt was initially charged with three counts each of felony aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children and misdemeanor recklessly endangering another person after an incident on Jan. 4, 2014.
Butler police said that on the morning of Jan. 4, Schmidt held the 6-year-old girl's hands, one at a time, over an open flame on the gas stove at the family's home on East Pearl Street.
This caused injuries, including second-degree burns. She then did not immediately get medical help for the child, police said.
Only after the girl showed up for school that morning did authorities learn what happened and send her to the hospital.
The girl told authorities that while being burned, Schmidt called her a derogatory name and stated, “I'm tired of your bull crap,” according to court documents.
The girl recounted seeing the “blue and yellow flames” coming from the lit burner and screaming in pain.
After school authorities reported the incident to police, the girl received treatment from a pediatrician in the emergency room at Butler Memorial Hospital. The hospital examination also noted an injury to one of the girl's ears, which appeared to have been struck by an object.
That object, the girl related, was a cooking spoon that Schmidt would use to “smack” her, police said.
During a Jan. 15 interview with a child abuse investigator in Pittsburgh, the girl detailed other forms of abuse that the defendant allegedly committed at their home, including forcing her to stand in the corner while holding gallon jugs of water or bags of ice and grabbing the back of her head and forcing her head under water in the bathtub for 10 seconds.
Authorities on Jan. 4 removed the girl from the home where she lived with her father and Schmidt.
Schmidt was held in the Butler County Prison on $50,000 cash bail.
A second assault case was dismissed by the prosecution as a result of this plea.
She also pleaded no contest to a charge of misdemeanor welfare fraud. That plea agreement calls for a sentence of 24 months' probation consecutive to her release from prison, $6,226 in restitution and fines.
Schmidt was charged alongside John N. Ingram, 33, with obtaining more than $6,000 in child care assistance benefits, dating back to 2014.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5.
Investigators said Ingram and Schmidt, while receiving benefits between Nov. 15, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2015, failed to report their living arrangements with his young child.
